Aphra Behn

Aphra Behn, nee Aphra Johnston (c. 1640 – April 16 1689) was a prolific dramatist of the Restoration, and considered to be one of the first English professional woman writers. Her writing participated in the amatory fiction genre of British literature.

Related Topics:
1640 - April 16 - 1689 - Restoration - Amatory fiction

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Few hard facts can be pinned down regarding Behn's life. She may have been born in Wye near Canterbury, on July 10 1640, daughter of a barber named Johnston. In the 1660's she may have travelled to an English sugar colony on the Surinam River, on the coast east of Venezuela, a region later known as Dutch Guiana, a trip that is often said to have inspired her most famous novel Oroonoko. However it is far from certain whether she indeed visited Surinam.

Related Topics:
July 10 - 1640 - Surinam - Venezuela - Dutch Guiana - Oroonoko

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In 1658 she married a Mr. Behn, a Dutch merchant, but was a widow in 1666 at the age of 26. She then became attached to the Court, and it has been suggested she was dispatched as a political spy to Antwerp by Charles II. Her code name for her exploits is said to have been Astrea, a name under which she subsequently published much of her writings. The Second Anglo-Dutch War had broken out between England and the Netherlands in 1665. Her exploits were not profitable, however, as Charles was slow paying for her services, leading her to return to London She cultivated the friendship of various playwrights, and starting 1670 she produced many plays and novels, also poems and pamphlets. She died on April 16, 1689, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Related Topics:
1666 - Antwerp - Charles II - Second Anglo-Dutch War - The Netherlands - 1665 - 1670 - April 16 - 1689 - Westminster Abbey

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Her other major work was The Rover; or The Banish'd Cavaliers.

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Some of Aphra Behn's less-known works are available from the Women Writers Project.

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