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APHRA BEHN PIONEERING AUTHOR AND ONE OF THE FIRST PROFESSIONAL FEMALE WRITERS

FULL NAME: Aphra Behn

BORN: C. 1640, U.K.

DIED: APRIL 16, 1689, LONDON, U.K.

NATIONALITY: ENGLISH

Original 1688 first edition cover of Aphra Benn’s novel, Oroonoko

UNLADYLIKE?

Aphra Behn was many things: novelist, playwright, poet, translator, and spy. She lived in the mid-1600s, at a time when women were very firmly under the control of their fathers and husbands. Nevertheless, Aphra became a celebrity. She was a paid author, financially independent, and this made her very unusual. She also fought for the equality of the sexes. For all of this, she was accused of being “unladylike”—but she did not let this stand in her way.

CELEBRITY, SPY, WRITER

Little is known of Aphra’s early years, other than that she spent some time in South America. In 1666, Aphra is known to have acted as an English spy in Antwerp, Holland on behalf of the royal family. She collected intelligence about military threats during the Second Dutch War. Not long after, she began writing plays, followed by novels and poetry, as a means of earning an income and paying off her debts. Being a professional (paid) writer was almost unheard of for a woman at the time. Her most successful play was called “The Rover” and was written in 1681. She wrote several plays and was considered one of the most prolific playwrights of her time. Her speciality was comedy, but through her plays she was able to question the contemporary treatment of women. Her 1688 novel, Oroonoko, is today recognized as iconic in the development of the novel in the English language. The novel told the story of an enslaved prince and the harsh treatment of the local people by the colonists.

Aphra was also unusual in that she never used a male pen name or pretended to be a man when she wrote or competed against male playwrights. She was radical in her belief that women should be educated. Aphra Behn’s work was overlooked for roughly 300 years, until the 20th century. Now, she is recognized as an important writer, novelist, and feminist icon.