Oroonoko: A Norton Critical Edition: 0 [Paperback] Behn, Aphra and Lipking, Joanna

A 17th-century prince is betrayed, enslaved, and shipped to Suriname — and the woman who wrote his story was there to witness it. Aphra Behn's 1688 novella is one of English literature's first abolitionist texts, a searing account of colonial brutality wrapped in the trappings of romance. Oroonoko is noble, eloquent, and doomed, caught between cultures that claim to admire him while destroying him. Behn, the first Englishwoman to earn her living by writing, doesn't flinch from the violence or the contradictions. This Norton Critical Edition includes historical context, critical essays, and contemporary responses — everything you need to see why this short novel has been debated, adapted, and taught for over three centuries. For readers interested in early modern literature, colonialism, or how stories about race and power have always been political.