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4.0 out of 5 stars
Aphra Behn's Oroonoko, January 13, 2012
This review is from: Oroonoko, and Other Writings (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)
(This review is about the novel "Oroonoko" as I have not yet had a chance to read the other short works included in the text) This is the second time I've had to read this for a class--this time it is included in my 17th and 18th century literature class, otherwise it is unlikely that I would have ever picked it up. Aphra Behn is clearly a talented writer. Better known for her plays, she also wrote poetry, short stories, and novels. "Oroonoko" is one of her novels, though it was later turned into a play by Thomas Southern. I actually recommend reading them together ( Oroonoko. A tragedy. By Thomas Southern.,) though one should certainly read Behn first as Southern took enormous liberties with the original story which included adding comedy and changing the race of major characters. But it is by reading Southern and seeing the changes he made, that one can really appreciate Behn. "Oroonoko" is about an African prince from Suriname who falls in love with a woman named Imoinda. He marries her but unfortunately the king falls in love with her beauty and claims her for himself. The lovers continue to meet in secret but are eventually discovered, and sold into slavery. Behn goes out of her way to describe Oroonoko as an honorable, intelligent, and handsome man who believes the best in vitually everybody he meets. He is a heroic warrior, who was only tricked into slavery because he is betrayed. The lovers eventually remeet in America (both as slaves), where Oroonoko continues to leave his mark on everyone he meets. It seems nobody can believe how kind and honest he is. Meanwhile everyone continues to fall in love with Imoinda because of her incredible beauty. Oroonoko eventually forms a rebellion in order for his family to escape their slavery. I will not spoil the ending except to say that it does not end happily for either of the lovers. There aren't any words to describe it except perhaps-- gruesome. In all, one can hardly read it without thinking of Dryden or Shakespeare, but it is still an impressive work that needs to be more widely read than it is now.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
FRACTURED FAIRY TALES, September 22, 2011
This review is from: Oroonoko, and Other Writings (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)
Aphra Behn's stories are akin to fairy tales, but rather than each story ending with nuptials, the usual end is death for the fair maiden, the gallant youth, or both of them. The characters generally fit the fairy tale mold of beautiful ladies, brave young swains, over-protective parents, and a few deceivers with ulterior motives. There are the usual beautiful eyes, soft hair, blushing cheeks, and swooning on the female side, matched by the handsome, wealthy, and courtly on the male side. There are stock roles of maidservants, and settings of castles and convents. The device of coincidence is used to move the plot, but there is nothing contrived in the very realistic dialogue, and in the descriptions of human emotions, and notably the fickleness of emotion. The basic weakness and selfishness of the characters is shown, and yet we do not despise them for these traits; rather we recognize our own natures. Unlike fairy tales, the characters in these stories (with the exception of Oroonoko) do not always live up to an ideal of selflessness in love; instead, as in life, the characters are swayed by practicalities such as money, time, propinquity, and prestige--not to mention the waxing and waning of passion for one's (temporarily?) beloved. Human frailty and even human evil is not ignored, nor channeled into a two-dimensional allegorical character, but is depicted as it appears in real life--mixed with goodness, and prompted by desire.
The premises of the stories set up our expectations for happy endings--but we are disappointed each time. The construct we wish to place on these stories is similar to the stories we tell ourselves about our own lives. Aphra Behn shows us that the chaos of our circumstances and the ungovernability of our emotions will not fit within the confines of pretty stories.
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5 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Juicy Eurocentrism, April 26, 2000
By A Customer
Ideal for the author - is - dead scholarship. Whatever the ideological positon of the Royalist Restoration woman writer, one can critique the Eurocentrism of the narrator or applaud the subversive terrain of the novel as it depicts the slave rebellion. One may react with contempt at the narration of a sordid tale of slave contained or praise the novelist for having the foresight to hint at the importance of the colonial enterprise to the the mother country at a time when few other cannonized writers were doing that.
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