By the age of 17 Oroonoko is a heroic warrior and goes to war under the guardianship of the people’s greatest general, and blossoms into: Oroonoko is the grandson of the king of Coromantian, who has an impressive harem of wives.

Oroonoko is a prince of Coramantian, the 17th century name for what later became known as the Gold Coast, and later still became modern-day Ghana. It was a bestseller in her lifetime, was quickly turned into a successful stage play and went on to have at least three other stage adaptations and revivals.īasically, it’s a tragic love story. Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave is the longest and most successful of Behn’s prose pieces. This seismic event in British history and all its political and legal consequences, for a long time referred to as The Glorious Revolution, had barely bedded in when Behn died, aged (if her birth date is correct) just 49. The combination of these events triggered a rebellion by England’s richest Protestant landowners, who a) expelled James b) invited Prince William of Orange (a state in the Low Countries) – who had a sort of legitimacy because he was married to James’s (solidly Protestant) daughter, Mary – to come and rule Britain in his place. coincided with James’s foolish decision to prosecute seven Anglican bishops for seditious libel.James’s Catholic wife, Mary of Modena, giving birth to a son, who everyone knew was set to be raised a Catholic, with the threat that Britain would become a Catholic country.Monmouth’s rebellion was successfully defeated, but three years later: ‘Behn was a lifelong and militant royalist, and her fictions are quite consistent in portraying virtuous royalists and put-upon nobles who are opposed by petty and evil republicans/Parliamentarians.’ (Wikipedia)Ĭharles II died in 1685 (in Oroonoko he is referred to as ‘his late Majesty, of sacred Memory’) and was succeeded by his brother James II, triggering an uprising by Charles’s illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, in the Protestant cause. Back in London she was part of the set of rakish poets and playwrights which included John Wilmot Earl of Rochester, to whom she dedicated a poem. They all agree that she welcomed the return of the Stuart dynasty, was popular with Charles II, and even did some spying for him abroad (on a journey to Antwerp). There are at least four biographies of Behn, plus numerous introductions to her work. She lived through troubled times – growing up during the civil wars (1637 – 53) she was 9 or so when King Charles was executed in January 1649, lived through the Commonwealth of Oliver Cromwell and was 20 or so when Charles II was restored.

She was a widely published poet, translator, essayist and writer of prose fictions.

She was a very successful playwright, producing at least 15 plays, mostly Restoration comedies. Aphra Behn (1640 – 1689) is generally considered the first known professional female writer in England.

Oroonoko online