Oronoko

The English playwright and author Aphra Behn (1640–1689) is often seen as the first professional female writer and her novel Oroonoko is labeled as one of the first English novels (1688). The narrator of the story is an English woman in the English colony of Surinam who describes the story of the African prince Oroonoko and his love interest Imoinda. They are both enslaved and taken to Surinam, where they organise a revolt in order to regain their freedom. both losing their life. The novel became successful after Behn's death when it was transformed into a tragedy in 1695 by Thomas Southerne, who made significant changes to the story, including making Imoinda white. The JCB holds several editions of the play and a French language adaptation of the novel (1745), based on the play rather than the novel.