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1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die - hosted by cdhotwing
Oroonoko – Aphra Behn
“He had nothing of barbarity in his nature . . .” The order of the original title indicates the direction of the narrative: from fictional romantic beginnings in the west African country of Coramantien, to the hero’s enslavement, to the subsequent events in Surinam that Behn herself may very well have witnessed during the 1660s. The movement chronicled by the title chronicles also suggests the importance of Behn’s text to the history of the novel, as well as its interest for modern readers. Oroonoko is a noble warrior-prince, the grandson of the king, with whom he clashes over the beautiful Imoinda, Oroonoko’s lover and the object of the king’s jealous and impotent affections. In revenge for the lovers’ persistence, the king sells Imoinda as a slave, while Oroonoko is betrayed into slavery. The two lovers meet again in Surinam, where they are renamed Clemene and Caesar. Anxious to be free, Caesar persuades the slaves to revolt against their tormentors; the slaves are caught and Caesar is whipped almost to death. Clemene is now pregnant and, fearing that their child will also become a slave, they make a murder-suicide pact that concludes in tragedy, though not quite as Caesar had envisaged. Behn’s extended short story gives a uniquely participatory role to the narrator, who is not only an “eyewitness” to many of the events she recounts as “true history,” but refers to herself as an actor in the story. As a female, however, she is unable to save Oroonoko from the “obscure world” he has fallen into. The result is an oddly skewed general uncertainty that is still profoundly affecting: exotic romance mixes with an acute account of the slave trade and, in Surinam, the relations between the local Carib Indians, the English plantation owners, the slaves, and the Dutch. Historical, readerly, and authorial consciousness are here joined. JP
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289 pages • first pub 1696 (editions)
ISBN/UID: 9780199538768
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date: 01 May 2009
289 pages • first pub 1696 (editions)
ISBN/UID: 9780199538768
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date: 01 May 2009
3 hours, 44 minutes • first pub 1688 (editions) user-added
ISBN/UID: None
Format: Audio
Language: English
Publisher: Not specified
Publication date: Not specified
3 hours, 44 minutes • first pub 1688 (editions) user-added
ISBN/UID: None
Format: Audio
Language: English
Publisher: Not specified
Publication date: Not specified