Oroonoko

Oroonoko

Aphra Behn β€” 2003
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.
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Reviews

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jul@solarpqwer
1 star
Aug 14, 2022

* 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.

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Trever@kewlpinguino
2 stars
Jul 2, 2022

(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, whichβ€”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.

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Saskia P@stahrwars
3 stars
Jan 19, 2022

/uni read

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Sophia De La Garza@sophiaalexisbooks
2 stars
Jan 1, 2022

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.

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Meghan M@megsbookthoughts
4 stars
Aug 12, 2022
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Maureen@bluereen
3 stars
Jul 27, 2024
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Lee@llee
3 stars
Jan 7, 2024
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Alejandra @mamarracha
4 stars
Dec 18, 2023
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Juliana@soundly
2 stars
Jun 14, 2023
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kaitlan@kaitlanbui
3 stars
May 16, 2023
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Charles McNeilll@charlesmcneill
4 stars
Nov 28, 2022
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Megan Paterson@beirabooks
2 stars
Aug 23, 2022
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Kelly Gutzmer@kellygutzmer
4 stars
Jun 20, 2022
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Fiebi@fiebi
3 stars
Apr 20, 2022
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tilly ✨@chantilly
2 stars
Mar 28, 2022
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hannah@literatureish
3 stars
Feb 4, 2022
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Shelby Goodwin@literaryfaery
4 stars
Jan 23, 2022
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K. Qua@stepfordknives
3 stars
Jan 22, 2022
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Ilke@starrattler
2 stars
Jan 3, 2022
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Mariana Mendes@marianaftm
3 stars
Dec 13, 2021
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Nicole Lucy O'Loughlin@narrpip
2 stars
Nov 18, 2021
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pam a lamb@alambnamedpam
3 stars
Oct 28, 2021
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π“‹π’Ύπ’Έπ“‰π‘œπ“‡π’Ύπ’Ά@ghoulscout
3 stars
Oct 6, 2021
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Joshua Line@fictionjunky
4 stars
Sep 30, 2021