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2.84 AVERAGE
2.84 AVERAGE
adventurous
informative
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Aphra Behn is great. I love her character and personality and the things she accomplished. Oroonoko is ok and is a good story for its time.
Not, perhaps, the most exciting and engaging of narratives for a modern reader, but an extraordinary and fascinating one none-the-less, not least of all because of its early date, its female author and the way in which she chooses to depict race and the institution of slavery in the late 17th Century.
Some reviewers here have accused the novel of racism and derided it for this, but to me they seem to utterly miss the point. Given when Behn was writing her approach to race seems remarkably enlightened. She never employs racist terminology herself ('negro' being a word for black peoples which reflected respect rather than disdain right up to the 1960s) and depicts Oroonoko and many of his countrymen/women as highly intelligent, dignified, courageous and sophisticated. It is really the whites here who are the unalloyed villains of the piece and the brutality of the institution of slavery is laid bare. To Behn the enslaved are 'men' and 'human beings', not things or animals. Of course this centuries old story suffers from stereotyping which would be highly problematic in a modern text, but even this follows a Rousseau-esque characterisation of Oroonoko as a 'noble savage' and is born of a desire to present him positively, however naive that may seem to a modern reader.
All in all this very short book (which can be read in a couple of hours) is well worth the investment simply because of what it tells us about the development of literature and how it showcases an exceptional female literary voice.
Some reviewers here have accused the novel of racism and derided it for this, but to me they seem to utterly miss the point. Given when Behn was writing her approach to race seems remarkably enlightened. She never employs racist terminology herself ('negro' being a word for black peoples which reflected respect rather than disdain right up to the 1960s) and depicts Oroonoko and many of his countrymen/women as highly intelligent, dignified, courageous and sophisticated. It is really the whites here who are the unalloyed villains of the piece and the brutality of the institution of slavery is laid bare. To Behn the enslaved are 'men' and 'human beings', not things or animals. Of course this centuries old story suffers from stereotyping which would be highly problematic in a modern text, but even this follows a Rousseau-esque characterisation of Oroonoko as a 'noble savage' and is born of a desire to present him positively, however naive that may seem to a modern reader.
All in all this very short book (which can be read in a couple of hours) is well worth the investment simply because of what it tells us about the development of literature and how it showcases an exceptional female literary voice.
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Violence, Murder
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
sorry but wtf was this
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Colonisation
Moderate: Sexual violence, Murder
adventurous
dark
informative
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A harrowing story but the first piece of literature I remember reading and writing on for my first year of my English degree. A masterful tour de force of a dark and painful story that will stay with me forever.
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes