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Available
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Publication
Publisher Unknown (1969)
Description
Classic Literature. Fiction. HTML: Aphra Behn was one of the first professional English female writers and Oroonoko was one of her earliest works. It is the love story between Oroonoko, the grandson of an African king, and the daughter of that king's general. The king takes the girl into his harem, and when she plans to escape with his grandson, sells her as a slave. When Oroonoko tries to follow her he is caught by an English slave trader and taken to the same West Indian island as his love..
User reviews
LibraryThing member MeditationesMartini
Aphra Behn's enchanting story of movements, encounters and the uneasy existence of parallel worlds may not be "the first novel in English", but it is haunting and magisterial. The mythic world, the dreamy nobility and nightmarish cruelty of Oroonoko's own, almost entirely fictitious, Africa; the
Things get out of control when those worlds start bleeding into each other--Oroonoko and Imoinda too noble for plantation slavery, the Indians too naive to resist it, the Europeans too venal to do honour to their religious ideals, the remnants of their ancient, noble, savage selves. And the stigmata thereof appear everywhere--on the self-mutilation of the native generals, on the piece of flesh that Oroonoko cuts from his throat and flings at the slavers, but also on the beautiful scarification that his people inflict on one another, that stark and redblooded art. In the deadly vengeance the Europeans take, certainly, but also in the ambiguous fecundity of Imoinda's body, the pregnancy that turns slavery into war and self-destruction, the nobility of cutting off your nose to spite your face. The promise of the future and birth and growth that all these men fight over, the fear of losing possession of it and in it losing oneself. The eternal last word of negative capability, of self-hurt, and the sad nobility therein. We destroy ourselves to show the world who we are.
Certainly not an anti-slavery story as such, then, but an anti-degradation story, anti-besmirching of that delicate inner rightness we call human dignity. Economic systems and political systems have a logic, and it will win out over truth and beauty. But Prince Oroonoko doesn't need to die to prove it any more than Charles I did. It's a story that exalts the aristocrat, but it exalts him as amore fully developed human. And as such, of course, it's unavoidably an anti-slavery story too, whatever Behn would have said.
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grim politics of put-money-in-thy-purse Europe, ruining everything it touches, and the ignoble Europeans, creatures of vicious cunning; the clear-lit paradise of Suriname, full of doomed children, the natives, and novel little creatures of all sorts that make as good eating for real as the people and their land will in metaphor (meatphor).Things get out of control when those worlds start bleeding into each other--Oroonoko and Imoinda too noble for plantation slavery, the Indians too naive to resist it, the Europeans too venal to do honour to their religious ideals, the remnants of their ancient, noble, savage selves. And the stigmata thereof appear everywhere--on the self-mutilation of the native generals, on the piece of flesh that Oroonoko cuts from his throat and flings at the slavers, but also on the beautiful scarification that his people inflict on one another, that stark and redblooded art. In the deadly vengeance the Europeans take, certainly, but also in the ambiguous fecundity of Imoinda's body, the pregnancy that turns slavery into war and self-destruction, the nobility of cutting off your nose to spite your face. The promise of the future and birth and growth that all these men fight over, the fear of losing possession of it and in it losing oneself. The eternal last word of negative capability, of self-hurt, and the sad nobility therein. We destroy ourselves to show the world who we are.
Certainly not an anti-slavery story as such, then, but an anti-degradation story, anti-besmirching of that delicate inner rightness we call human dignity. Economic systems and political systems have a logic, and it will win out over truth and beauty. But Prince Oroonoko doesn't need to die to prove it any more than Charles I did. It's a story that exalts the aristocrat, but it exalts him as amore fully developed human. And as such, of course, it's unavoidably an anti-slavery story too, whatever Behn would have said.
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LibraryThing member dczapka
The immediate reaction to a book that's over 300 years old is typically to dismiss it as being antiquated, hard to read, and almost certainly uninteresting. Fortunately, Aphra Behn's masterpiece Oroonoko is none of those things. Rather, it is a short yet surprisingly enthralling read, with
The short novel (which has no chapters and, at least in my edition, was a mere 78 pages) tells the life of the great Prince Oroonoko, a black man born into great honor and esteem in his African homeland. When his love for the beautiful Imoinda forces the jealous King to exile him, he is deceived by slave-owners and sold into servitude, where his demeanor and honor gain him the respect of his fellow slaves and even of the white men. But despite this, his story is at heart a tragic one, and ends in a manner unbecoming and disgraceful to a man so eloquently described.
Behn's sympathies for the slave-prince are what truly drive the narrative. From the start, she eschews many of the stereotypical depictions of African slaves, choosing instead to emphasize his character. In fact, the pureness and boldness of Oroonoko's color is understood by Behn to be a positive trait, one that is not an anomaly in the text. Perhaps driven by the substandard treatment of women in the time, Behn is compassionate towards her black characters, depicting them all as proud in stark contrast to many of the white characters, most of whom are filled with vice. This is a radical technique for the time, and one that has assuredly contributed to the book's long-lasting appeal.
So too is the adventurous and swiftly-moving nature of the plot. While the trajectory of the story is that of a typical tragedy, Behn intersperses her fairly straightforward narrative with moments of extreme excitement and fancy. Particularly in the scenes of shocking violence, Oroonoko is portrayed as legendary and almost superhuman, able to withstand many blows and self-inflicted wounds throughout. The fanciful nature of these acts meshes well with the realism Behn seeks to imbue the novel with, and makes it a fascinating genre study as well as a rip-roaring tale.
Even if you find the older-style language too much to appreciate fully, the brevity and power of this story make it hard to want to ignore. Ahead of its time in so many ways, it's easy to see why Oroonoko is as relevant in the twenty-first century as it was in the seventeenth.
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universal themes and a commentary on slavery that was ahead of its time and still prescient to this day.The short novel (which has no chapters and, at least in my edition, was a mere 78 pages) tells the life of the great Prince Oroonoko, a black man born into great honor and esteem in his African homeland. When his love for the beautiful Imoinda forces the jealous King to exile him, he is deceived by slave-owners and sold into servitude, where his demeanor and honor gain him the respect of his fellow slaves and even of the white men. But despite this, his story is at heart a tragic one, and ends in a manner unbecoming and disgraceful to a man so eloquently described.
Behn's sympathies for the slave-prince are what truly drive the narrative. From the start, she eschews many of the stereotypical depictions of African slaves, choosing instead to emphasize his character. In fact, the pureness and boldness of Oroonoko's color is understood by Behn to be a positive trait, one that is not an anomaly in the text. Perhaps driven by the substandard treatment of women in the time, Behn is compassionate towards her black characters, depicting them all as proud in stark contrast to many of the white characters, most of whom are filled with vice. This is a radical technique for the time, and one that has assuredly contributed to the book's long-lasting appeal.
So too is the adventurous and swiftly-moving nature of the plot. While the trajectory of the story is that of a typical tragedy, Behn intersperses her fairly straightforward narrative with moments of extreme excitement and fancy. Particularly in the scenes of shocking violence, Oroonoko is portrayed as legendary and almost superhuman, able to withstand many blows and self-inflicted wounds throughout. The fanciful nature of these acts meshes well with the realism Behn seeks to imbue the novel with, and makes it a fascinating genre study as well as a rip-roaring tale.
Even if you find the older-style language too much to appreciate fully, the brevity and power of this story make it hard to want to ignore. Ahead of its time in so many ways, it's easy to see why Oroonoko is as relevant in the twenty-first century as it was in the seventeenth.
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LibraryThing member starbox
"Shall we render Obedience to such a degenerate Race...Will you, I say, suffer the Lash from such Hands?",, February 11, 2015
This review is from: Oroonoko (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
As one of the earliest novels in English, it's interesting to see what fiction was like in the 1680s.
This is the
Then the two lovers are separately sold into slavery and here one must suspend disbelief, as our hero's new owner in Surinam, aware of his slave's qualities, "began to conceive so vast an Esteem for him, that he ever after lov'd him as his dearest Brother" and "he was received more like a Governor than a Slave." However, that doesn't mean life is going to be easy, as Orinooko comes to the belief that "there was no Faith in the White men or the Gods they ador'd...a Man ought to be eternally on his Guard and never to eat or drink with Christians, without his Weapon."
How Orinooko's observations cause him to act forms the concluding part of the tale.
Despite being 330 years old, this is perfectly readable, though I have to say it didn't exactly 'grab' me as a read .
However from an historical point of view, it's of interest both to see the development of the novel, and to observe how the Black race was portrayed as against Victorian opponents to slavery like Harriet Beecher Stowe. While the latter gains her readers' sympathies by focussing on Uncle Tom's Christianity and long-suffering, and creates a rather child-like character, Aphra Behn shows a man who repudiates all Christianity stands for and who is 'all man' in his fearlessness - "a Prince, whose Valour and Magnanimity deserved the Empire of the World" and "Who struck an Awe and Reverence."
This review is from: Oroonoko (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
As one of the earliest novels in English, it's interesting to see what fiction was like in the 1680s.
This is the
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tale of Prince Orinooko, only surviving grandson of the rather despotic 100-year old king of 'Coramantien' in Africa. He falls in love with local beauty, Imoinda, but she has caught the eye of his grandfather too, who makes her part of his harem. The first part of the novel, the description of the royal court and related adventures was quite interesting (a rather 'English' imagining of the place, I think, with its French tutor and European courtly ideals: "refined Notions of true Honour, that absolute Generosity, and that Softness, that was capable of the highest Passions of Love and Gallantry.")Then the two lovers are separately sold into slavery and here one must suspend disbelief, as our hero's new owner in Surinam, aware of his slave's qualities, "began to conceive so vast an Esteem for him, that he ever after lov'd him as his dearest Brother" and "he was received more like a Governor than a Slave." However, that doesn't mean life is going to be easy, as Orinooko comes to the belief that "there was no Faith in the White men or the Gods they ador'd...a Man ought to be eternally on his Guard and never to eat or drink with Christians, without his Weapon."
How Orinooko's observations cause him to act forms the concluding part of the tale.
Despite being 330 years old, this is perfectly readable, though I have to say it didn't exactly 'grab' me as a read .
However from an historical point of view, it's of interest both to see the development of the novel, and to observe how the Black race was portrayed as against Victorian opponents to slavery like Harriet Beecher Stowe. While the latter gains her readers' sympathies by focussing on Uncle Tom's Christianity and long-suffering, and creates a rather child-like character, Aphra Behn shows a man who repudiates all Christianity stands for and who is 'all man' in his fearlessness - "a Prince, whose Valour and Magnanimity deserved the Empire of the World" and "Who struck an Awe and Reverence."
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LibraryThing member heinous-eli
A telling portrayal of European fetishization and exoticization of Africa and the East, the melodrama definitely dates this work. Still, it's interesting the context of Behn's life and times, and is a worthy read for the sake of historicity.
LibraryThing member PinkPandaParade
Aphra Behn's Oroonoko is theorized in style and format to possibly be one of the first novels in English, connecting the worlds of Europe, Africa, and America in a tale that is common in plot but uncommon in character. Written by the so-called "bad girl" of her time, Behn's novel explores firs the
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foreign world of Coramantien and its royalty. The title character of the Royal Prince then finds himself with soldiers and war captains with the natives of Surinam, and then with its colonists. Separated in different social classes, the main character, who is black, is deemed royalty in one world, and slave in another. This is just one the main dualities presented in this text. Race, social class, gender, age, life and death all play a part in this manuscript. The interesting story makes definite commentary on the role of women and of religion as shown by the contrast in cultures. Oroonoko, while not an immediately likable character in his stoicism, is given the effect of reader appeal through the other characters in the text. His love interest, Imoinda, shines. Dismissed during its publishing as vulgar and sensational because of the author's "warm" attitude toward sexuality and violence, Oroonoko is now placed among the treasures of British literature. Its value as a story, a novel, and a commentary of social life and slavery is highly valuable.Oroonoko is one of the only known novels written by this author, who has yet to be fully discovered and publicized. For a long while, Behn was negatively criticized for both her work and her social life outside of her writing. She was also notorious for her torrid relationships with other well-known people of her time, and for working a provocative job as a spy. She changed the definition of feminine in presenting works where women are objects subjugated to male carnal desire, and punished for going outside this subjugated sphere. She champions the female as a deliberately sexual being who is punished for being so. Other works of hers include a large work of poetry that is slowly finding its way into mainstream literature anthologies. Her contributions to both prose and poetry have contributed greatly to feminism and to literature. Show Less
LibraryThing member Kaydence
“Oroonoko” by Aphra Behn, is an interesting case mixing two oppressed types of people. The narrative is told by a woman with some social standing; however, women of this time are not included in any decision making or influential places of power. They are considered property of their husbands
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or caretakers, even if the family is well off and the female may be allowed to travel with companions. The narrator often states that she tries to help the main character and sympathizes with his plight, but has no chance of saving him from the punishments placed down upon him. She also is sent away whenever there may be trouble. Oroonoko is also oppressed. He is a black male, which regardless of his royal status, is still considered a lesser being during this time period. The story may indulge in his heroic activities, his beauty, his strength as a leader and a fighter, but it also does not seem to state that he being enslaved is an offence against nature. In fact, even from the words of Oroonoko, he seems to be content with his situation until he finds out that Imoinda is pregnant. He is never happy being a slave, but he does not set up an opposition against it outright until the thought of his children in slavery changes him. Polk points out that at first he was not in favor of relating to Oroonoko because of the narrators description of him being a black male that had many white features. Polk found that to be distasteful because it encourages the distinguishing of a lighter black man being more attractive and having a higher status in life than a darker black man. However, after reading an article, Polk begins to look at Oroonoko differently. He begins to see Oroonoko through stages of identity development. The first stage shows that Oroonoko is influenced by the wit of white men. He sees them as being more intelligent and more powerful than a black man. He perpetuates the oppression of black men by fancying the intellect of a white man more than a black man. This is shown by his friendships with the man that captures him into slavery and the Frenchman that he defeats in battle. The next step in the development of his identity is brought about by a huge change in his life. This change is the promise of a child. When Oroonoko thinks that his child will be born into slavery, a change in his thoughts occurs and he no longer thinks as kindly towards his oppressors. The next stage comes when Oroonoko embraces being a black man. He shows this by his speeches to first encourage the other slaves to rise in rebellion and then in his fighting for freedom. Even through his speech when the other slaves abandon him and he calls them names, he is still accepting himself as a black individual. He dies before moving into the next step of his development. However, Polk finds that the smoking of a pipe even as he is being cut into pieces symbolizes a rise above those that torment him. He supplies that smoking the pipe is hiding a smile or smirk. Show Less
LibraryThing member PilgrimJess
Aphra Behn is herself as interesting as the story. A professional writer, is this is reputed to be the first ever novel, having turned writer after release from a debtors prison but also a spy, anti-slavery and suspected of taken a black lover, which as a white woman would have been strictly taboo
It is interesting that Oroonoko is described as a person ,with handsome features, rather than a pure commodity as at the time when this book was written 'Blacks' would have been seen as lesser lifeforms but then there seems little distinction between the imported slaves and the local Indians tribes. The book can certainly be seen as anti-slavery because it is the Oroonoko who is the one having all the noble characteristics, loving, honest, brave, lenient etc. He is tricked into slavery rather than captured in battle and even his home country is depicted as having a structural society rather than just a group of Blacks running around with spears killing each other where even battles are pre-arranged.In contrast the few Whites come out with any credit. They are painted as duplicitous, cruel and cowards. However it is also a dig at socity as a whole because very few people of authority, black or white, come out totally unscathed, even the King back in Orookono's home is also seen as a liar and impotent.
But it also it can be read as a love story, Oroonoko loses his position in his homeland as a direct consequance of his love for Imoinda, also described in very flattering terms, and it is this love that eventually leads to his death.
On the whole the story is showing its age but is still worth a read
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back then. Behn's literary background is as a playwright and you can certainly feel this in her writing as there is a certain rhythm throughout although the strange use of punctuation, in particular apostrophes, initially feels rather odd. It is interesting that Oroonoko is described as a person ,with handsome features, rather than a pure commodity as at the time when this book was written 'Blacks' would have been seen as lesser lifeforms but then there seems little distinction between the imported slaves and the local Indians tribes. The book can certainly be seen as anti-slavery because it is the Oroonoko who is the one having all the noble characteristics, loving, honest, brave, lenient etc. He is tricked into slavery rather than captured in battle and even his home country is depicted as having a structural society rather than just a group of Blacks running around with spears killing each other where even battles are pre-arranged.In contrast the few Whites come out with any credit. They are painted as duplicitous, cruel and cowards. However it is also a dig at socity as a whole because very few people of authority, black or white, come out totally unscathed, even the King back in Orookono's home is also seen as a liar and impotent.
But it also it can be read as a love story, Oroonoko loses his position in his homeland as a direct consequance of his love for Imoinda, also described in very flattering terms, and it is this love that eventually leads to his death.
On the whole the story is showing its age but is still worth a read
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LibraryThing member raizel
Nobility and intelligence are no match for the white man's perfidy.
LibraryThing member Kristelh
A story of slavery. written in 1688, this 17th century literature is remarkable in its telling of a tale of Oroonoko and Imoinda, their love, the grandfather king who put his own lust above his grandson and heir to his own detriment, the tribe and to Oroonoko and Imoinda. Oroonoko comes to distrust
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the God of Christians because the Christian is never honest but he continues to try and be patient. He finally can stand things no longer and chooses freedom to his own destruction at the hands of his Christian captives. Show Less
LibraryThing member Kitscot
This book is, by all accounts, Aphra Behn’s most famous work. She wrote erotic poetry and plays but this ‘novel’ is why her name lives on in the 21st century. I placed the word novel in inverted commas as academics and scholars still argue to this day as to whether it can be described as a
Many of the afore-mentioned scholars and academics will argue that Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719) was the first novel and the English writer is often referred to as the ‘father of the novel’. However, it could, and has been, argued that Oroonoko was written in a novelistic form but personally I believe it comes under the heading of ‘novella’. The sound of hairs being split can be heard all around the country.
The story is fundamentally about the African prince Oroonoko (a mis-spelling of the river Orinoco) and his wife Imoinda. Both are captured separately by the British and brought to Surinam as slaves. Oroonoko could be cruelly interpreted as a simple romance story with its theme of boy meets girl, love at first sight, boy loses girl and then boy finds girl. However, for today’s audience the story has become secondary to the themes of colonialism, racism and the innovative writing style of Aphra Behn.
Aphra Behn is credited not only with developing the pioneering female narrative but for addressing the inequality between men and women in the seventeenth century. Black people are not the only slaves in the book, women are also shackled by the mores of the day. Oroonoko is seen as one the literature’s first abolitionist expositions. It’s portrayal of racism and slavery is credited with aiding the cause for the abolitionists.
The racism and depiction of slavery make Oroonoko an uncomfortable read. However, coupled with the horrific descriptions of the deaths of Imoinda and Oroonoko the book becomes not only an uncomfortable read but disturbing one. However, when you re-read Oroonoko you realise how theatrical, fantastic and unrealistic many of the scenes in the book are: his killing of the tigers, his encounter with the electric eel and in particular Oroonoko’s death which has him being slowly hacked to death while he passively continues to smoke only, “at the cutting off the other arm, his head sunk, and his pipe dropped, and he gave up the ghost.”
Aphra Behn’s theatrical past is writ large throughout the book and ironically it is mostly due to Thomas Southerne’s stage adaption of Oroonoko after Behn’s death that the story became celebrated and has continued to be re-read, reinterpreted and used as a rallying point by anti colonialists, abolitionists and feminists throughout the last 400 years.
But, of course, one must put the book into context. It was written by a woman at a time when women were subjugated to man’s laws and rules. The seventeenth century was a time when women were seen as no better than the servants who worked in their household. What is more remarkable about Aphra Behn was that she was able to make a living from her writing. However, it should be remembered that many women in Britain had writings published during the seventeenth century but those names are now only remembered by academics and those studying English Literature (as I am); Lady Mary Chudleigh, Lady Jane Cavendish and Katherine Philips to name but a few.
Is this book read by anyone outside of the academic world? No, is the short answer. Sadly, its relevance is only to those who are using it for study purposes be that at school, university or as part of a thesis or book. I believe if it stopped being used a study tool at seats of learning then the book would cease to be published. Hopefully, that day never comes.
Let me leave you with words from the greatest woman writer that ever lived, Virginia Woolf,
“All women together, ought to let flowers fall upon the grave of Aphra Behn... for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds... Behn proved that money could be made by writing at the sacrifice, perhaps, of certain agreeable qualities; and so by degrees writing became not merely a sign of folly and a distracted mind but was of practical importance.”
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novel. More importantly was it the first novel in English? Many of the afore-mentioned scholars and academics will argue that Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719) was the first novel and the English writer is often referred to as the ‘father of the novel’. However, it could, and has been, argued that Oroonoko was written in a novelistic form but personally I believe it comes under the heading of ‘novella’. The sound of hairs being split can be heard all around the country.
The story is fundamentally about the African prince Oroonoko (a mis-spelling of the river Orinoco) and his wife Imoinda. Both are captured separately by the British and brought to Surinam as slaves. Oroonoko could be cruelly interpreted as a simple romance story with its theme of boy meets girl, love at first sight, boy loses girl and then boy finds girl. However, for today’s audience the story has become secondary to the themes of colonialism, racism and the innovative writing style of Aphra Behn.
Aphra Behn is credited not only with developing the pioneering female narrative but for addressing the inequality between men and women in the seventeenth century. Black people are not the only slaves in the book, women are also shackled by the mores of the day. Oroonoko is seen as one the literature’s first abolitionist expositions. It’s portrayal of racism and slavery is credited with aiding the cause for the abolitionists.
The racism and depiction of slavery make Oroonoko an uncomfortable read. However, coupled with the horrific descriptions of the deaths of Imoinda and Oroonoko the book becomes not only an uncomfortable read but disturbing one. However, when you re-read Oroonoko you realise how theatrical, fantastic and unrealistic many of the scenes in the book are: his killing of the tigers, his encounter with the electric eel and in particular Oroonoko’s death which has him being slowly hacked to death while he passively continues to smoke only, “at the cutting off the other arm, his head sunk, and his pipe dropped, and he gave up the ghost.”
Aphra Behn’s theatrical past is writ large throughout the book and ironically it is mostly due to Thomas Southerne’s stage adaption of Oroonoko after Behn’s death that the story became celebrated and has continued to be re-read, reinterpreted and used as a rallying point by anti colonialists, abolitionists and feminists throughout the last 400 years.
But, of course, one must put the book into context. It was written by a woman at a time when women were subjugated to man’s laws and rules. The seventeenth century was a time when women were seen as no better than the servants who worked in their household. What is more remarkable about Aphra Behn was that she was able to make a living from her writing. However, it should be remembered that many women in Britain had writings published during the seventeenth century but those names are now only remembered by academics and those studying English Literature (as I am); Lady Mary Chudleigh, Lady Jane Cavendish and Katherine Philips to name but a few.
Is this book read by anyone outside of the academic world? No, is the short answer. Sadly, its relevance is only to those who are using it for study purposes be that at school, university or as part of a thesis or book. I believe if it stopped being used a study tool at seats of learning then the book would cease to be published. Hopefully, that day never comes.
Let me leave you with words from the greatest woman writer that ever lived, Virginia Woolf,
“All women together, ought to let flowers fall upon the grave of Aphra Behn... for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds... Behn proved that money could be made by writing at the sacrifice, perhaps, of certain agreeable qualities; and so by degrees writing became not merely a sign of folly and a distracted mind but was of practical importance.”
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LibraryThing member BobCulley
Oroonoko by Aphra Behn is the 17th century story of an African Prince and his beloved, both sold into slavery separately, then reunited on a slave plantation in Surinam. The story is a narration by a Englishwoman colonist, and asserted to be true. The story of love, conflict with tribal traditions,
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enslavement, reunion, and rebellion is a compelling narrative, despite the 17th century prose style. Show Less
LibraryThing member MartinBodek
This book was an extremely difficult read; prose in its most jawbreaking style. Thanks goodness it was short, because what should have been a single afternoon's read was instead stretched out over eight uch-I-can't-stand-this-let-me-read-something-else days. Had it been a regular-size novel, I'd
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still be reading it until kingdom come. I found the ending repugnant, horrific, and morally disgusting, and I'm glad I could move on quickly to the post-1700 books on the "1,001 books to read" list. Show Less
LibraryThing member Birdo82
Troubling and gory, Oroonoko's tragic fate will haunt the modern reader in this hallmark of early writing from a female author.
LibraryThing member pgchuis
Read in preparation for an Open University course. This was fairly short and the language was easier to understand than I had anticipated. Europeans don't come out of this very well.
Subjects
Original publication date
1688
Other editions
Oroonoko (Penguin Classics) by Aphra Behn (Paperback)