Book description
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. Aphra Behn (c. 1640 1689), born in Kent, England, claimed
to have visited the British colony of Surinam, where Oroonoko is set.
She wrote poetry, short stories, stage plays, and political propaganda
for the Tory party, as well as her great amorous and political novel,
Love Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister.
