This is the first study of the posthumous life of Aphra Behn, the extraordinary vicissitudes of h... more This is the first study of the posthumous life of Aphra Behn, the extraordinary vicissitudes of her critical reception, and the personal vilifications of her reputation through three centuries. Beginning with the reception of Behn's work during her lifetime, which she herself helped to orchestrate by performing herself as a seductive woman, a beleaguered lady writer, and a serious intellectual, among other roles, the work ends with the late 20th-century reception of Behn, when the interest in gender, race, and class has made of her almost a postmodern writer. In the 17th century she was seen as a playwright of sexy and propagandist comedies, and attacked by those who disapproved her supposedly unfeminine stance and her royalist politics. Later, as the Restoration period itself fell into disrepute, Behn's plays were denigrated along with those of her fellow men, but greater opprobrium fell on her as a woman, because in the 19th century it was felt that a female writer should have higher morals than a man. During this period, Behn's reputation was exceedingly low, while her short story Oroonoko gained acclaim, freed from any association with its author or her supposedly squalid times. In the 18th and 19th centuries Oroonoko moved from being viewed as political commentary and heroic romance to a sentimental tale of doomed love and then an abolitionist text. In the early twentieth century it was hailed as one of the earliest realist texts, part of the great English ascent into the novel.JANET TODD is professor of English at the University of East Anglia.
What is the most intense pleasure you can feel? In a book devoted to eighteenth-century concepts ... more What is the most intense pleasure you can feel? In a book devoted to eighteenth-century concepts of pleasure, it seems sensible to consider what contemporary writers had to say on this matter. Ideas of what constituted a good time were many and various; most of them — particularly the more disreputable — are covered by other chapters in this book. But twentieth-century scholars tend to ignore one very important source of pleasure, despite the fact that, throughout the eighteenth century, it was recommended more frequently than any other: being good. Sermons, essays, conduct books, novels, plays, poems and philosophical treatises all drummed this lesson home. Even richer rewards could be reaped by those who had the resources not only to be good, but to do good to others, by exercising benevolence. The most exquisite raptures known to mankind were supposed to flow from the ability to feel for the suffering of others, and to relieve it by acts of unselfish courage and generosity. This belief was linked to the growing fashion for sensibility, which gave rise to the theory that, even if you could offer no practical assistance, the mere ability to feel for another’s pain was a valuable characteristic, that somehow set you above the common, unfeeling herd — and was, in itself, a source of intense delight.
... 3-4)', in Discourses of Authority in Medieval and Renaissance Literature, ed... more ... 3-4)', in Discourses of Authority in Medieval and Renaissance Literature, ed. by Kevin Brownlee and ... or types of that Reign of Themis (the Wand of Justice) or Astrea (the May-pole) so much ... Religion of the Grove, and its great column the May, (by pleonasm the Maypole) for they ...
... Diana George, Sue Huseman, Pat Johnson, Mary Pinard, Brenda Powell, Pat Sharpe, Janice Sokolo... more ... Diana George, Sue Huseman, Pat Johnson, Mary Pinard, Brenda Powell, Pat Sharpe, Janice Sokoloff, Sharon Udall, and Carol Wenzel-Rideout ... Among my debts to Kathy Graney, I number her partisanship, commiseration, and encouragement during multiple stages of revision. ...
This is the first study of the posthumous life of Aphra Behn, the extraordinary vicissitudes of h... more This is the first study of the posthumous life of Aphra Behn, the extraordinary vicissitudes of her critical reception, and the personal vilifications of her reputation through three centuries. Beginning with the reception of Behn's work during her lifetime, which she herself helped to orchestrate by performing herself as a seductive woman, a beleaguered lady writer, and a serious intellectual, among other roles, the work ends with the late 20th-century reception of Behn, when the interest in gender, race, and class has made of her almost a postmodern writer. In the 17th century she was seen as a playwright of sexy and propagandist comedies, and attacked by those who disapproved her supposedly unfeminine stance and her royalist politics. Later, as the Restoration period itself fell into disrepute, Behn's plays were denigrated along with those of her fellow men, but greater opprobrium fell on her as a woman, because in the 19th century it was felt that a female writer should have higher morals than a man. During this period, Behn's reputation was exceedingly low, while her short story Oroonoko gained acclaim, freed from any association with its author or her supposedly squalid times. In the 18th and 19th centuries Oroonoko moved from being viewed as political commentary and heroic romance to a sentimental tale of doomed love and then an abolitionist text. In the early twentieth century it was hailed as one of the earliest realist texts, part of the great English ascent into the novel.JANET TODD is professor of English at the University of East Anglia.
What is the most intense pleasure you can feel? In a book devoted to eighteenth-century concepts ... more What is the most intense pleasure you can feel? In a book devoted to eighteenth-century concepts of pleasure, it seems sensible to consider what contemporary writers had to say on this matter. Ideas of what constituted a good time were many and various; most of them — particularly the more disreputable — are covered by other chapters in this book. But twentieth-century scholars tend to ignore one very important source of pleasure, despite the fact that, throughout the eighteenth century, it was recommended more frequently than any other: being good. Sermons, essays, conduct books, novels, plays, poems and philosophical treatises all drummed this lesson home. Even richer rewards could be reaped by those who had the resources not only to be good, but to do good to others, by exercising benevolence. The most exquisite raptures known to mankind were supposed to flow from the ability to feel for the suffering of others, and to relieve it by acts of unselfish courage and generosity. This belief was linked to the growing fashion for sensibility, which gave rise to the theory that, even if you could offer no practical assistance, the mere ability to feel for another’s pain was a valuable characteristic, that somehow set you above the common, unfeeling herd — and was, in itself, a source of intense delight.
... 3-4)', in Discourses of Authority in Medieval and Renaissance Literature, ed... more ... 3-4)', in Discourses of Authority in Medieval and Renaissance Literature, ed. by Kevin Brownlee and ... or types of that Reign of Themis (the Wand of Justice) or Astrea (the May-pole) so much ... Religion of the Grove, and its great column the May, (by pleonasm the Maypole) for they ...
... Diana George, Sue Huseman, Pat Johnson, Mary Pinard, Brenda Powell, Pat Sharpe, Janice Sokolo... more ... Diana George, Sue Huseman, Pat Johnson, Mary Pinard, Brenda Powell, Pat Sharpe, Janice Sokoloff, Sharon Udall, and Carol Wenzel-Rideout ... Among my debts to Kathy Graney, I number her partisanship, commiseration, and encouragement during multiple stages of revision. ...
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