Download or read book The Secret Life of Aphra Behn written by Janet Todd and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-09-19 with total page 830 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn; for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds,' said Virginia Woolf. Yet that tomb, in Westminster Abbey, records one of the few uncontested facts about this Restoration playwright, poet, novelist and spy: the date of her death, 16 April 1689. For the rest secrecy and duplicity are almost the key to her life. She loved codes, making and breaking them; writing her life becomes a decoding of a passionate but playful woman. Janet Todd draws on documents she has rediscovered in the Dutch archives, and on Behn's own writings, to tell a story of court, diplomatic and sexual intrigue, and of the rise from humble origins of the first woman to earn her living as a professional writer. Aphra Behn's first notable employment was as a Royal spy in Holland; she had probably also spied in Surinam. It was not until she was in her thirties that she published the first of the 19 plays and other works which established her fame (though not riches) among her 'good, sweet, honey-candied readers'. Many of her works were openly erotic, indeed as frank as anything by her friends Wycherley and Rochester. Some also offered an inside view of court and political intrigues, and Todd reveals the historical scandals and legal cases behind some of Behn's most famous 'fictions'.
Download or read book The Secret Life of Aphra Behn written by Janet Todd and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 612 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Behn is a mass of contradictions: a high Tory who disliked traditional power structures; a powerful, autonomous woman who depended on men's approval; a woman who desired men and women and who became involved in intense political activity, yet craved case. This readable, fast-paced book uncovers Behn's assertive, duplicitous, sensual character and illustrates the openly erotic nature of her writings, her explorations of desire, sexual excitement and disappointment, which later made her a byword for lewdness. It reveals historical sources and court cases behind some of her most famous 'fictions'.".
Download or read book The Rover written by Aphra Behn and published by Joe Books Ltd. This book was released on 2015-06-02 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The magic of Naples during Carnival inspires love between a disparate group of local citizens and visiting Englishmen.
Download or read book Aphra Behn written by Janet Todd and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The life, work and history of Aphra Behn: 17th-century dramatist, poet, novelist, political propagandist, bisexual and spy.
Download or read book From Aphra Behn to Fun Home written by Carey Purcell and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-12-04 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theatre has long been considered a feminine interest for which women consistently purchase the majority of tickets, while the shows they are seeing typically are written and brought to the stage by men. Furthermore, the stories these productions tell are often about men, and the complex leading roles in these shows are written for and performed by male actors. Despite this imbalance, the feminist voice presses to be heard and has done so with more success than ever before. In From Aphra Behn to Fun Home: A Cultural History of Feminist Theatre, Carey Purcell traces the evolution of these important artists and productions over several centuries. After examining the roots of feminist theatre in early Greek plays and looking at occasional works produced before the twentieth century, Purcell then identifies the key players and productions that have emerged over the last several decades. This book covers the heyday of the second wave feminist movement—which saw the growth of female-centric theatre groups—and highlights the work of playwrights such as Caryl Churchill, Pam Gems, and Wendy Wasserstein. Other prominent artists discussed here include playwrights Paula Vogel Lynn and Tony-award winning directors Garry Hynes and Julie Taymor. The volume also examines diversity in contemporary feminist theatre—with discussions of such playwrights as Young Jean Lee and Lynn Nottage—and a look toward the future. Purcell explores the very nature of feminist theater—does it qualify if a play is written by a woman or does it just need to feature strong female characters?—as well as how notable activist work for feminism has played a pivotal role in theatre. An engaging survey of female artists on stage and behind the scenes, From Aphra Behn to Fun Home will be of interest to theatregoers and anyone interested in the invaluable contributions of women in the performing arts.
Download or read book Love letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister written by Aphra Behn and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 1736 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Invisible Agents written by Nadine Akkerman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-10 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It would be easy for the modern reader to conclude that women had no place in the world of early modern espionage, with a few seventeenth-century women spies identified and then relegated to the footnotes of history. If even the espionage carried out by Susan Hyde, sister of Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, during the turbulent decades of civil strife in Britain can escape the historiographer's gaze, then how many more like her lurk in the archives? Nadine Akkerman's search for an answer to this question has led to the writing of Invisible Agents, the very first study to analyse the role of early modern women spies, demonstrating that the allegedly-male world of the spy was more than merely infiltrated by women. This compelling and ground-breaking contribution to the history of espionage details a series of case studies in which women — from playwright to postmistress, from lady-in-waiting to laundry woman — acted as spies, sourcing and passing on confidential information on account of political and religious convictions or to obtain money or power. The struggle of the She-Intelligencers to construct credibility in their own time is mirrored in their invisibility in modern historiography. Akkerman has immersed herself in archives, libraries, and private collections, transcribing hundreds of letters, breaking cipher codes and their keys, studying invisible inks, and interpreting riddles, acting as a modern-day Spymistress to unearth plots and conspiracies that have long remained hidden by history.
Download or read book A Man of Genius written by Janet Todd and published by Bitter Lemon Press. This book was released on 2016-03-10 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Strange and haunting, a gothic novel with a modern consciousness." —Philippa Gregory "A haunting, sophisticated story about a woman discovering the truth about herself and the elusive, possibly illusive, nature of genius." —Sunday Times "Mesmerizing, haunting, imbued with a complete sense of historical verisimilitude" —Times Literary Supplement "A psychologically haunting and disturbing tale as full of mystery, exotic foreign places, and questions of parentage as any penned by her protagonist." —Library Journal "Thrilling and heartbreaking, a gothic novel with emotional heart and depth." —Foreword Reviews "A darkly mischievous novel about love, obsession and the burden of charisma, played out against the backdrop of Venice's watery, decadent glory." —Sarah Dunant "A mesmerizing story of love and obsession in nineteenth-century Venice: dark and utterly compelling." —Natasha Solomons Set in bustling Regency England and decaying Venice, A Man of Genius portrays a psychological journey from safety into secrecy and obsession. After a troubled childhood, Ann achieves independence earning her living as an author of Gothic novels. Within a group of male writers, she meets and is enthralled by the supposed poetic genius, Robert James. They become uneasy lovers. Ann and Robert travel from London through a Europe exhausted by the Napoleonic Wars. They arrive in a Venice of spies and intrigue, where their relationship becomes tortuous and Robert descends into near madness. Forced to flee with a stranger, Ann delves into her past to be jolted by a series of revelations about her lover, her parentage, the stranger, and herself.
Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to Aphra Behn written by Derek Hughes and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-11-25 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traditionally known as the first professional woman writer in English, Aphra Behn has now emerged as one of the major figures of the Restoration. She provided more plays for the stage than any other author and greatly influenced the development of the novel with her ground-breaking fiction, especially Love-Letters between a Nobleman and his Sister and Oroonoko, the first English novel set in America. Behn's work straddles the genres: beside drama and fiction, she also excelled in poetry and she made several important translations from French libertine and scientific works. This Companion discusses and introduces her writings in all these fields and provides the critical tools with which to judge their aesthetic and historical importance. It also includes a full bibliography, a detailed chronology and a description of the known facts of her life. The Companion will be an essential tool for the study of this increasingly important writer and thinker.
Download or read book The Secret Life of Things written by Mark Blackwell and published by Bucknell University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection enriches and complicates the history of prose fiction between Richardson and Fielding at mid-century and Austen at the turn of the century by focusing on it-narratives, a once popular form largely forgotten by readers and critics alike. The volume also advances important work on eighteenth-century consumer culture and the theory of things. The essays that comprise The Secret Life of Things thus bring new texts, and new ways of thinking about familiar ones, to our notice. Those essays range from the role of it-narratives in period debates about copyright to their complex relationship with object-riddled sentimental fictions, from anti-semitism in Chrysal to jingoistic imperialism in The Adventures of a Rupee, from the it-narrative as a variety of whore's biography to a consideration of its contributions to an emergent middle-class ideology.
Download or read book Invitation To A Funeral written by Molly Brown and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2013-12-10 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: APHRA BEHN is an unusual woman by any standard, especially those of 1676 London. A popular playwright and former spy, she does not bow to convention, does not always have the fortitude to turn a charming, but alcoholic attorney from her bed, and currently, does not have the funds to pay the rent on her London home. But a long-shot bet--that the Earl of Rochester's doltish young mistress can improve her painfully poor acting enough to play the lead in Aphra's latest play--could have her in the clear again. Until she's indebted to pay for the funerals of two brothers whose kindness helped her years ago. And the debt goes further than that--both deaths smack of murder, and Aphra is determined to find a killer and uncover a deadly secret...one that could engage all of England in a bloody civil war. From the squalid streets of London to the grand chambers of Whitehall Palace, author Molly Brown vividly recreates Restoration England at its most uproarious, while crafting a brilliant novel of history, humor, and heart-pounding intrigue.
Download or read book The Passionate Shepherdess written by Maureen Duffy and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This book was released on 2000-07-20 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The barest facts of Aphra Behn's life are astonishing in themselves. Born in 1640 she had by her mid-twenties, travelled to South America, returned to England, been married and widowed. She was sent by Charles II to Antwerp as a spy, then on her return was imprisoned for debt. Once out of prison she chose to stay independent; and moved on to become one of the most successful dramatists of the Restoration theatre, author of one of the most popular novels of the period, Oroonoko, and a poet of such reputation that men at the time were moved to consider seriously the possibility of a 'female laureate'.Yet Aphra Behn's personal and literary achievements have suffered an eclipse unparalleled in literary history. Her lively wit and sexual candour provided an east target for the prudish scorn and criticism of late 17th-century England. She had asserted her position - second perhaps to Dryden - among 'the giants of wit and sense' in her age, as Defoe was to say later; but subsequent critics were to pass off her work as 'a reproach to her womanhood and a disgrace even to the licentious age in which she lived.'With scrupulous care Maureen Duffy has lifted the tarnished image of Aphra Behn from the muddle of sensational legend that has for too long obscured her true achievement - as an artist and as the pioneer who opened up the whole field of literature to women.
Download or read book A Companion to Literature from Milton to Blake written by David Womersley and published by Wiley-Blackwell. This book was released on 2001-04-25 with total page 632 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This definitive Companion provides a critical overview of literary culture in the period from John Milton to William Blake. Its broad chronological range responds to recent reshapings of the canon and identifies new directions of study. The Companion is composed of over fifty contributions from leading scholars in the field, its essays offer students a comprehensive and accessible survey of the field from a wide range of perspectives. It also, however, gives researchers and faculty the opportunity to update their acquaintance with new critical and scholarly work. The volume meets the needs of an intellectual world increasingly given over to inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary study by covering philosophical, political, cultural and historical writing, as well as literary writing. Unlike other similar volumes, the main body of the Companion consists of readings of individual texts, both those commonly and less commonly studied.
Download or read book The widdow Ranter or The history of Bacon in Virginia a tragi comedy ed by G J written by Aphra Behn and published by . This book was released on 1690 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Oroonoko the Rover and Other Works written by Aphra Behn and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2003-08-28 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Prince Oroonoko’s passion for the virtuous Imoinda arouses the jealousy of his grandfather, the lovers are cast into slavery and transported from Africa to the colony of Surinam. Oroonoko’s noble bearing soon wins the respect of his English captors, but his struggle for freedom brings about his destruction. Inspired by Aphra Behn’s visit to Surinam, Oroonoko (1688) reflects the author’s romantic view of Native Americans as simple, superior peoples ‘in the first state of innocence, before men knew how to sin’. The novel also reveals Behn’s ambiguous attitude to African slavery – while she favoured it as a means to strengthen England’s power, her powerful and moving work conveys its injustice and brutality.
Download or read book Aphra Behn Studies written by Janet Todd and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1996-03-28 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aphra Behn was England's first professional woman writer, but her status as a major author has only recently become clear. Between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, Behn was denigrated for her 'unwomanly' subject matter and intellectual immodesty. In the twentieth century she has been increasingly viewed as an important dramatist and poet of the Restoration and a founder of the English novel. This book sets Behn firmly in an historical context of political factions, theatre developments and colonial encounters, and includes chapters on each of the genres in which she wrote: drama, fiction, poetry and translation, and on other aspects of her life, from her publishing struggles to her involvement in American slavery. It is an important resource for those studying seventeenth-century English literature and drama, and to those interested in the development of women's writing.
Download or read book UN MASKED written by Donna Kaz and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An unknown actress on movie star’s arm was how she began. An anonymous activist in a rubber gorilla mask is where she wound up. UN/MASKED: Memoirs of a Guerrilla Girl On Tour follows the surprising twenty-five-year journey of a young artist, Donna Kaz, who is swept off her feet by Willliam Hurt, a rising star, and carried to a beach house in Malibu. The actor William Hurt introduces her to Hollywood’s elite by day and knocks her head in by night. When OJ Simpson kills his former wife in Brentwood, a bell goes off and awakens her angry, activist spirit. Always an outsider, she takes one step further into invisibility and becomes a Guerrilla Girl, a feminist activist who never appears in public without wearing a rubber gorilla mask and who uses the name of a dead woman artist instead of her own. As a Guerrilla Girl, Aphra Behn creates comedic art and theatre that blasts the blatant sexism of the theatre world while proving feminists are funny at the same time. These two narratives—that of a young victim of domestic violence at the hands of a successful actor and that of an artist so fed up with sexism in the theatre world that she puts on a gorilla mask and takes the name of a dead woman artist to provoke change—have been lived by one woman. Donna Kaz offers her compelling first-hand account—illuminated by twenty behind-the-scenes photographs—of her transition from a silent observer to an unapologetic activist. This is the memoir of a woman-turned-survivor-turned-radical-feminist who takes off her mask and, by merging her identities, reveals all.
