Oroonoko

Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave. A True History.
First edition cover of Oroonoko
First edition cover
AuthorAphra Behn
LanguageEarly Modern English
GenreProse fiction
PublisherWill. Canning
Publication date
1688
Publication placeEngland
Media typePrint
OCLC53261683
823.44
LC ClassPR3317 .O7
TextOroonoko: or, the Royal Slave. A True History. at Wikisource

Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave is a work of prose fiction by Aphra Behn (1640–1689), published in 1688 by William Canning and reissued with two other fictions later that year. It was also adapted into a play. The eponymous hero is an African prince from Coramantien who is tricked into slavery and sold to European colonists in Surinam where he meets the narrator. Behn's text is a first-person account of Oroonoko's life, love, rebellion, and execution.[1]

Behn, often cited as the first known professional female writer,[2] was a successful playwright, poet, translator and essayist. She began writing prose fiction in the 1680s, probably in response to the consolidation of theatres that led to a reduced need for new plays.[3] Published less than a year before she died, Oroonoko is sometimes described as one of the first novels in English. Interest in Oroonoko has increased since the 1970s, with critics arguing that Behn is the foremother of British female writers, and that Oroonoko is a crucial text in the history of the novel.[4]

The novel's success was jump-started by a popular 1695 theatrical adaptation by Thomas Southerne, which ran regularly on the British stage throughout the 17th and 18th centuries.[5]

  1. ^ Benítez-Rojo, Antonio (2018). "The Caribbean: From a Sea Basin to an Atlantic Network". The Southern Quarterly. 55: 196–206.
  2. ^ Woolf, Virginia (1929). A Room of One's Own. Harcourt.
  3. ^ Janet Todd, 'Behn, Aphra (1640?–1689)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 31 March 2016
  4. ^ Hutner 1993, p. 1.
  5. ^ Maher, Diana (Spring 2008). "The Paradoxes of Slavery in Thomas Southerne's Oroonoko". Comparative Drama. 43 (1). Kalamazoo, Michigan: University of Western Michigan: 66. The play enjoyed great popularity, was performed at least 315 times during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and frequently was adapted.