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Aphra Behn was Britain’s first professional female writer, known for advancing the cause of female authors. She worked as a spy, traveled, and wrote poetry, plays, and novels. Her works were briefly suppressed but have become popular again. Behn’s life is shrouded in mystery, but she is believed to have been married and may have been bisexual. Her work is considered an early form of the British novel, but has been criticized for being racist. Her grave can be visited in Westminster Cathedral.
Aphra Behn (1640-1689) is a noted British novelist, poet and playwright who is believed to have been Britain’s first professional female writer. She has been credited with greatly advancing the cause of female authors in the British literary tradition, with one noted author Virginia Woolf suggesting that female authors should give Behn due respect because she “earned them the right to say what what they think”. Although Aphra Behn’s works were briefly suppressed in the 19th century for their licentious content, they have once again become popular and are read and performed around the world.
Very little is actually known about Aphra Behn’s life. You lived and worked during the Restoration, which saw a flowering of British arts and letters, but records of people who lived and worked during this period are scant. Behn was born Aphra Johnson in 1640 and she is believed to have married a Dutch merchant named Johann Behn in 1664 and was widowed by him in 1665. Some records suggest that Johann Behn was invented to provide protection for Aphra Behn; single women would have been at an immense disadvantage in the Restoration era, while a married woman or widow would have had more leeway.
During her lifetime, Aphra Behan worked as a spy for King Charles II, traveled to Suriname, spent some time in debt prison, and eventually began a career as a poet, playwright, and novelist. Some of her most famous works include Oroonoko, Abdelazar, The Rover and Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister. She was particularly outspoken about her views of her, which made her unpopular in some social circles, and some evidence seems to suggest that she was a lesbian or bisexual.
Aphra Behn was one of the figures who most wrote the so-called “amateur fiction“, the forerunner of the modern romance novel. Amateur fiction is sometimes considered an early form of the British novel, marking a marked departure from the earlier form of British fiction, and Behn’s work contained a number of elements that were considered daring for the time, such as depictions of love affairs. Behn’s work has also been criticized as being quite racist, but likely reflected the commonly accepted customs and beliefs of the time rather than any personal shortcomings on Behn’s part.
Upon her death in 1689, Aphra Behn was buried in Westminster Cathedral. Her grave can be visited today by those who are curious. Her works are read and studied in some literature courses, particularly those that focus on British literature and the evolution of the British novel. Many great women writers such as the Bronte sisters, Elizabeth Gaskell and Elizabeth Barrett Browning may not have existed or become popular without the pioneering Aphra Behn.
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