Much of her work decries the unequal treatment of women in her era, and she suffered the consequences of these claims by enduring harsh criticism and even arrest. She wrote many plays for the London stage, penned poetry, and wrote what some consider the first English novel (though others consider it a novella or a somewhat long short story). She died in April, 1689, and is buried in Westminster Abbey.In a time when very few authors-let alone female authors-could support themselves through their craft, Aphra Behn was a well known and highly regarded writer in London. She was a literary icon during her lifetime, and since her death she has been celebrated for her independence and concern for equal rights. Tonson, 1684) and Lycidus or, The Lover in Fashion (Joseph Knight and F. Canning, 1688), which dealt with themes of race and gender and influenced the development of the modern novel.Īlong with her plays and novels, Behn wrote poetry, published in Poems upon Several Occasions, with The Voyage to the Island of Love (R. She is also remembered for her fiction, especially the short novel Oroonoko (W. Her first play, The Forc’d Marriage (London), was produced in 1670, followed by several other tragicomedies, including The Amorous Prince (London, 1671) and The Rover (London, 1677).
Despite her lack of higher education, she is now remembered as the first Englishwoman to support herself entirely through writing.
During her time in England, she went into debt and spent a brief period in debtor’s prison after this, she turned to writing to earn a living. Though little is known about her early life, she is thought to have spent part of her childhood in Suriname and to have married a merchant by the name of Behn in 1664.įollowing a separation from her husband, she traveled to the Netherlands as a spy for King Charles II. Aphra Behn was born in approximately 1640 in Kent, England.
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