Name: Oroonoko
ISBN: 9780393970142

Aphra Behn

This long-awaited Norton Critical Edition of Aphra Behn's best-known and most influential work makes available the original 1688 text, the only text published in her lifetime.

An Authoritative Text, Historical Backgrounds, Criticism

Oroonoko

Aphra Behn, the poet, playwright, novelist and political satirist was the first truly professional woman writer in English. This selection, edited and introduced by Professor Janet Todd, demonstrates the full sophistication and vitality of Aphra Behn's genius. It contains the plays The Rover and The Widow, Ranter (the first English play to be set in the American colonies) together with Love Letters to a Gentleman, a choice of poems and two short novels - The Fair Jilt and Oroonoko - which are among the most innovative prose writings of the seventeenth century.

Trever

(2.5) What a strange text. I can't say Oroonoko is bad, and with some analysis the text can be quite interesting, but as a read on its own it's actually somewhat unpleasant. Frankly, the prose is quite clunky, although Behn does flourish when describing. Unfortunately, this means that much of the book's events are buried beneath the very violent ending. As I approached the last few pages I was physically uncomfortable, which—good job, I guess? I suspect this book would be way more interesting to someone interested in the history of colonialism, but for me it didn't do much except make me viscerally uncomfortable.

Saskia P

Sophia De La Garza

Would I have ever read this outside a classroom setting? Probably not. 
Is it the worst book I've read for college? Nope. 

I liked the class discussions for this book more than the actual book itself. But also a white woman writing about slavery isn't great, so. 

2.5 out of 5 stars, solely because it was a quick read.

Oroonoko An Authoritative Text, Historical Backgrounds, Criticism

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