Person

Aphra Behn

1640–1689 · 17th century

Aphra Behn (1640–1689) was an English playwright, poet and novelist, one of the first Englishwomen to earn a living by writing. She worked as a spy for Charles II in Antwerp during the Second Anglo-Dutch War and later wrote many successful plays, such as The Rover. Her short novel Oroonoko (1688), about an enslaved African prince in Suriname, draws on her claimed stay in the English colony there in the 1660s.

Aphra Behn
Image: Peter Lely · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 1 state history

Willoughbyland

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Aphra Behn. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/aphra-behn
MLA
“Aphra Behn.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/aphra-behn. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Aphra Behn.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/aphra-behn.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Aphra Behn’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/aphra-behn (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻