Oroonoko, the Rover and Other Works

by Behn, Aphra (Author); Todd, Janet (Editor/introduction)

• ISBN13: 9780140433388
• ISBN10: 0140433384
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1993-01-01
• Publisher: Penguin Classics

Summary

Aphra Behn's short novel Oroonokotells the story of a noble African prince who is betrayed and sold into slavery. Using the author's own experiences in Surinam, it depicts the tragedy of a man born to command brought to a position of abject powerlessness. Behn's bawdy Restoration drama The Rovercentres on the dissolute Cavalier Willmore, a follower of the exiled Charles II, and the attempts of two spirited women - Angellica Bianca, a courtesan, and Hellena, the cross-dressing virgin - to woo him. The other works collected here include poems, letter, prose and the play the The Widow Ranter,the first drama to be set in the American colonies. Together they demonstrate the versatility and sophistication of one of the most innovative and wide-ranging authors of the seventeenth century. In her introduction, Janet Todd explores the social changes that have influenced Aphra Behn's reputation over the centuries. This edition also contains notes on all the texts.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vii
Introduction	1	(22)
Selected Bibliography of Secondary Works	23	(2)
Note on the Text	25	(2)
PROSE
The Fair Jilt	27	(46)
Oroonoko	73	(70)
Love-Letters to a Gentleman	143	(12)
PLAYS
The Rover	155	(94)
The Widow Ranter	249	(80)
POEMS
Love Armed	329	(1)
Epilogue to Sir Patient Fancy	329	(2)
The Disappointment	331	(4)
To Mr Creech (under the Name of Daphnis) on his Excellent Translation of Lucretius	335	(4)
A Letter to Mr Creech at Oxford, Written in the last great Frost	339	(3)
Song: On her Loving Two Equally	342	(1)
To the fair Clarinda, who made Love to me, Imagined more than Woman	343	(1)
On Desire: a Pindaric	344	(3)
A Pindaric Poem to the Reverend Doctor Burnet	347	(4)
Notes	351