Aphra Behn

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.

Oroonoko

* read for class
genuinely think the fact that this has been called anti-slavery is weird when aphra behn was a white woman romanticizing one (1) Black man and was only anti-slavery when it came to Oroonoko who was a prince (makes sense since she was a monarchist). the fact that this is part of literary canon baffles me.

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

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