The Works of Aphra Behn, Volume V

Aphra Behn wrote like a woman who had nothing to lose and everything to say. In 1688, when female authorship was barely thinkable, she made it profitable. This volume gathers three of her most electrifying works: the devastating anti-slavery novel "Oroonoko," the romantic tragedy "Agnes de Castro," and "The Black Lady," a tale of a woman's descent through London's brutal streets when society offers her no protection. "Oroonoko" remains startling: an African prince sold into slavery, his dignity intact, his rebellion heroic, his love for the beautiful Imoinda burning against the lie of civilization. Behn wrote it from experience in colonial Suriname, and her anger still scorches. The other tales probe different cruelties: the violence done to women trapped by law and custom, the lies men tell, the prices women pay for desire. This is Restoration literature at its rawest: sex, race, power, and the bodies that get crushed by all three. Behn dedicated her life to proving that a woman's mind was worth paying for. These stories are the proof.