Details about Aphra Behn's life are sketchy, but, among many other things, she lived in South America for a time and was a spy for King Charles II. Her interesting life gave her much to write about as well as opinions considered scandalous in her lifetime—many of which are considered controversial to this day. Most notably, Behn became England's first female to earn a living through her pen (Britannica Home).

Behn was born around 1640 in Wye, Kent, England (Townsend), but grew-up in Suriname, South America, where she made the acquaintance of the enslaved Negro prince Oroonoko—who would later become the subject of one of her novels. Her maiden name was most likely Amis, but after returning to London in 1658 (Britannica Home) or 1663 (Townsend) or 1664 (Nestvold), she married a London merchant named Behn (Britannica Home). After her husband died circa 1666, Behn was hired by King Charles II as a spy in Antwerp, "sending back political and naval information" (Townsend).Because the king wouldn't pay for her return expenses, Behn was thrown in debtor's prison upon her return to England, but probably quickly released (Townsend).

Around 1670, Behn began to write plays, the first being the Forc'd Marriage. She wrote numerous others, about seventeen in all (Brewer). A possible chronology of her life and plays is available here. Several of her plays are available online, including Oroonoko; or, The Royal Slave and The City Heiress.

While best known for her plays, Behn also wrote poetry and novels. Much of her work was unrecognized for a considerable time because of her "'unwomanly' subject matter and intellectual immodesty" (Todd).

Several sources mention Behn's problems, largely due to the time in which she lived, but confounded by her being a woman. Apparently Behn's "opinions were unconventional, and because she openly expressed her viewpoints in her lifestyle and through her writing, she was seen as scandalous. Her poetry remarks on romantic relationships with both men and women, discusses rape and impotence, puts forth a woman's right to sexual pleasure, and includes scenes of eroticism between men" ("Poetry of Aphra Behn").

Behn not only influenced female writers of later times, but influenced the entire literary world. In A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf says, "All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn, which is, most scandalously but rather appropriately, in Westminster Abbey, for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds. It is she—shady and amorous as she was—who makes it not quite fantastic for me to say to you tonight: Earn five hundred a year by your wits" (Nestvold).

Of her place in the contemporary literary world, "Her poems, unequal in merit, have perhaps been underestimated, but in life she attained great popularity and was the centre of much scandal. Though she wrote mostly plays, her fiction is now considered more interesting" (Britannica Home).

Some of Behn's poetry can be found online at Isle of Lesbos: Lesbian Poetry.

Behn died on April 16, 1869 and was buried, as Woolf points out, in Westminster Abbey.

Behn, Aphra. Oroonoko; or, The Royal Slave. 1688. <http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/ReadingRoom/Fiction/Behn/oroonoko> (27 January 1998).

Behn, Aphra. The City Heiress. 1682. <http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new?id=BehCity&tag=public&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&part=0> (27 January 1998).

Brewer, Cobham E. The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1894. <http://www.bibliomania.com/cgi-bin/mfs/usr/httpd/Bibliomania?file=/usr/httpd/Bibliomania/Reference/PhraseAndFable/data/71.html&line=85#mfs> (27 January 1998).

Britannica Home. "Behn, Aphra." <http://www.eb.com:180/> (27 January 1998).

Nestvold, Ruth. "Aphra Behn." 4 May 1997. <http://chris.simplenet.com/aphrabehn.html> (27 January 1998).

"Poetry of Aphra Behn." Isle of Lesbos: Lesbian Poetry. 2 January 1996. <http://www.sappho.com/poetry/a_behn.htm> (27 January 1998).

Todd, Janet. "Todd, Janet: Aphra Behn Studies." 23 October 1995. <http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/r_nestvold/docs.htm> (27 January 1998).

Townsend, Chris. "Behn, Aphra." Biography.com. 6 July 1996. <http://www.biography.com/> (27 January 1998).

Meyers, Carole. "Aphra Behn Society Homepage." August 1997. <http://prometheus.cc.emory.edu/behn/index.html> (27 January 1998).

This site was created by Steve Coxon in January of 1998.