Bøger af Aphra Behn

An influential seventeenth-century fable, by a pathbreaking woman writer, about the fall of a black prince.

The NHB Drama Classics series presents the world's greatest plays in affordable, highly readable editions for students, actors and theatregoers. The hallmarks of the series are accessible introductions (focussing on the play's theatrical and historical background, together with an author biography, key dates and suggestions for further reading) and the complete text, uncluttered with footnotes. The translations, by leading experts in the field, are accurate and above all actable. The editions of English-language plays include a glossary of unusual words and phrases to aid understanding. The Rover is a classic Restoration comedy by the first English woman playwright. Arriving in Naples at carnival time, a group of exiled cavaliers determine to enjoy themselves. They are repeatedly tempted and tricked by various prostitutes and their pimps, until their leader, the Rover, is finally forced to give up his wild behaviour when he falls in love with a single-minded, wealthy virgin. Edited and introduced by Simon Trussler.

When Prince Oroonoko s passion for the virtuous Imoinda arouses the jealousy of his grandfather, the lovers are cast into slavery and transported from Africa to the colony of Surinam. Oroonoko s noble bearing soon wins the respect of his English captors, but his struggle for freedom brings about his destruction. Inspired by Aphra Behn s visit to Surinam, Oroonoko (1688) reflects the author s romantic view of Native Americans as simple, superior peoples in the first state of innocence, before men knew how to sin . The novel also reveals Behn s ambiguous attitude to African slavery while she favoured it as a means to strengthen England s power, her powerful and moving work conveys its injustice and brutality.