Aphra Behn (1640-1689) is historically recognized as the first woman to make a living through writing; her plays, novels, poems and pamphlets have met with fresh notoriety since the 20th Century. Her work was particularly significant to a group of contemporary writers known as The Female Wits, as well as to later feminist writers like Virginia Woolf. Stories of comedy and intrigue, complete with and masks, mistaken identities, visual deceptions, and complicated love triangles reflect Behn's remarkable life experiences: her conservative upbringing, her political support of the Tories, her recruitment as a political spy for Charles II, and later speculation of her bisexuality. Behn once wrote that she had led a "life dedicated to pleasure and poetry." This fifth volume of Behn's collected works includes "The Adventure of the Black Lady," "The Court of the King of Bantam," "The Unfortunate Happy Lady," "The Fair Jilt," "Oroonoko," "Agnes de Castro," "The History of the Nun," "The Lucky Mistake," "The Unfortunate Bride," "The Dumb Virgin," "The Wandering Beauty," "The Unhappy Mistake," and critical and explanatory notes for the reader.
