Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave is a relatively short novel set in a narrative frame. The novel's success was jump-started by a popular 1695 theatrical adaptation by Thomas Southerne which ran regularly on the British stage throughout the first half of the 18th century, and in America later in the century.
Interest in Oroonoko has increased since the 1970s, with critics arguing that Behn is the foremother of British female writers, and that Oroonoko is a crucial text in the history of the novel. Published less than a year before she died, Oroonoko is sometimes described as one of the first novels in English. She began writing prose fiction in the 1680s, probably in response to the consolidation of theatres that led to a reduced need for new plays. īehn, often cited as the first known professional female writer, was a successful playwright, poet, translator and essayist. Behn's text is a first-person account of Oroonoko's life, love, rebellion, and execution. The eponymous hero is an African prince from Coramantien who is tricked into slavery and sold to European colonists in Surinam where he meets the narrator. Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave is a work of prose fiction by Aphra Behn (1640–1689), published in 1688 by William Canning and reissued with two other fictions later that year.
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