OROONOKO: THE ROYAL SLAVE

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This book is a short novel by Aphra Behn, published in 1688, concerning the love of its hero, an enslaved African in Surinam in the 1660s, and the author's own experiences in the new South American colony. It is one of the earliest English novels. Interest in it has increased since the 1970s, critics arguing that Behn is the foremother of British women writers, and that Oroonoko is a crucial text in the history of the novel.

Aphra Behn (1640–1689) was a prolific dramatist of the English Restoration, the first English professional female literary writer. Her writing contributed to the amatory fiction genre of British literature. Along with Delarivier Manley and Eliza Haywood, she is sometimes referred to as part of "The fair triumvirate of wit." Behn's work Oroonoko (1688) is critically acknowledged as important to the development of the English novel. She was also a key writer in seventeenth century theatre. She is perhaps best known to modern audiences for her short novel.