C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Aphra Behn (1640–1689)
Behn, Aphra (bān or ben). An English novelist and dramatist; born in Wye, Kent, in July 1640; died in London, April 16, 1689. Many of her own statements about her adventurous life are now known to be fictitious. She was the first woman in England to live by her pen. Her plays and poems are superior to her novels; but they are all stamped with indelicacy, and do not deserve the praise bestowed on them by Dryden, Otway, and others. Her dramas long held the stage. They include: ‘Abdelazar, or the Moor’s Revenge’; ‘The Forced Marriage’; and many others. Among her novels, ‘Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave’ (founded on the adventures of a West-Indian native prince of that name) alone has any merit.