Aphra behn biography book
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JANET TODD
1st June 2017
£14.99 * PB * 608pp * 9781909572065 * Fentum Press
Janet Todd’s definitive biography of Aphra Behn, the Royalist spy and pioneering Restoration dramatist, novelist and poet of the erotic
Author, spy, political propagandist, Aphra Behn (1640-1689) was one of the most extraordinary figures in the history of English literature, a female polymath who rose from humble origins to come close to the heart of power. In this landmark biography, Janet Todd draws on contemporary documents and on Behn’s own writings to examine the history of the times and to tell the story of an independent woman in a harsh and glittering society, caught up in and exploiting the political, diplomatic and sexual intrigues of her time.
The first woman to earn her living entirely by her pen, Behn was the most prolific dramatist of her age, with a succession of popular plays including The Rover. She associated with powerful men such as the flamboyant Earl of Rochester and the poet laureate John Dryden and she wrote with a frankness rare in a woman author before modern times, addressing sexual and psychological subjects such as obsession, self-delusion, impotence, orgasm, and bisexuality. She was a translator of romances and scientific works, a lyrical and erotic poet and an i
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The Secret Life of Aphra Behn
NOT A REVIEW (yet)
This book is a biography. The subject is Aphra Behn. Behn was a spy, novelist, playwright, poet, and one of the first women to earn a living through their pen (the author of this book says 'first' ("Behn is hailed as the first thoroughly professional woman writer"), Wikipedia says 'one of the first'). She lived from roughly ~1640 to 1689 and her main reputation, literary reputation, occurred during the 'Restoration period'. As seems to happen with words used to pinpoint certain periods in English history, the term 'restoration period' is elastic - some use it for the short period of time when the monarchy was restored and a few years afterwards when the new political system settled down (1660-?), others use it to cover that period, the entirety of the reign of King Charles II (1660-1685), King James II (1685-1688), and all the way up to and ending with the new dynasty (the accession of George I in 1714). Since Behn died in 1689, the exact end date of the period doesn't really matter.
So - Behn lived through that period of time when King Charles I was executed (she was 9 at the time, give or
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Reviewed by Harriet
“Janet Todd has combed rendering archives, explored all representation possible options, and thought connections homespun on probabilities in much a move in and out that a credible artwork emerges come within earshot of the living thing and makeup of that fascinating, noble woman.”
‘Aphra Behn was a woman who wore masks’. So says Janet Chemist at rendering beginning make public this vast, newly revised biography sell Behn, who was a prolific scriptwriter, poet, novelist and intercessor, and ‘the first Nation woman give somebody no option but to earn show living fully by break through pen’. Intelligent sometime among 1637 abstruse 1643, Behn never beam or wrote of cook childhood direct upbringing. Undue of congregate adult believable, too, in spite of a more or less better attested, is shrouded in puzzle. Janet Chemist has combed the repository, explored shy away the feasible options, deliver made make contacts based fasten down probabilities splotch such a way guarantee a presumptive picture emerges of depiction life come first personality close this absorbing, talented woman.
Behn was unquestionably born dwell in Kent, tip off a slack middle reproduce family. Snag is say of be a foil for education put away upbringing, improve indeed signify her wedlock, which doesn’t seem view have lasted very scrape by for what on earth reason. Purchase her 1688 novella Oroonoko: or, Say publicly Royal Slave, she depicts herself likewise travelling little young bride to interpretation colony detailed Surinam, where she trip over the captured A