Biographical Overview & Key Facts

Subject:

Aphra Behn

Role / Field:

Pioneering English writer, poet, and spy of the Restoration era.

Born:

1640-07-10

Died:

1689-04-16

Century / Era:

1640s Historical Era

Database Source:

2Day Chrono-Wiki & Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0

Origins & Early Life

Aphra Behn (; bapt. 14 December 1640 – 16 April 1689) was an English playwright, poet, prose writer and translator from the Restoration era. As one of the first English women to earn her living by her writing, she broke cultural barriers and served as a literary role model for later generations of women authors. Rising from obscurity, she came to the notice of Charles II, who employed her as a spy in Antwerp.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

Upon her return to London and a probable brief stay in debtors' prison, she began writing for the stage. She belonged to a coterie of poets and famous libertines such as John Wilmot, Lord Rochester. Behn wrote under the pastoral pseudonym Astrea. During the turbulent political times of the Exclusion Crisis, she wrote an epilogue and prologue that brought her legal trouble; she thereafter devoted most of her writing to prose genres and translations. A staunch supporter of the Stuart line, Behn declined an invitation from Bishop Burnet to write a welcoming poem to the new king William III.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

She died shortly after. She is remembered in Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own: "All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn which is, most scandalously but rather...

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Frequently Asked Questions about Aphra Behn