Aphra Behn
c. 1640–1689 · English playwright, poet and novelist; among the first English women to earn a living by writing; author of The Rover and Oroonoko.
Aphra Behn was born about 1640, probably in Kent. Tradition and her own fiction associate her youth with Surinam in South America; modern scholars debate how much of that stay is fact. In the 1660s she served the restored Stuart court as a spy in the Low Countries under the code name Astrea. From the 1670s she wrote professional plays for the London stage, including the hit comedy The Rover (1677). Her prose narratives of 1688, especially Oroonoko; or, The Royal Slave, helped shape early English fiction. She wrote frankly about desire and politics in the Restoration manner and was buried in Westminster Abbey in 1689. Classical Christian readers meet both brilliant craft and themes—slavery, sexual comedy—that need honest preview.
Aphra Behn is also an author in the library: author page and works.
Faith: Raised in the Church of England; wrote in Restoration England with political loyalty to the Stuarts. Personal piety is not as fully documented as her public career. Source: Wikipedia
Key dates
- c. 1640 Born (date uncertain)
- 1660s Intelligence work in the Low Countries
- 1677 The Rover first performed
- 1688 Oroonoko and other histories published
- 1689 Dies; buried in Westminster Abbey
Read about them
Grades 9–12
- Oroonoko · In the library
- The Rover · In the library
- The Fair Jilt · In the library
More lives
Nicolò Barbaro · William Bradford · Thieleman J. van Braght · John Bunyan · Robert Burton · Benvenuto Cellini