When they arrive in the Caribbean, Oroonoko becomes a paradoxical 'royal slave': The other slaves bow down before him as their king (even though he may have traded some of them into their current slavery) the English, who also recognize his nobility, keep him in an elegant plantation house, guarded and entertained by the novel's narrator. Prince Oroonoko had befriended the captain when selling slaves to him the prince thought he was a guest on the ship, but the captain saw him as a potential commodity. Set in Coramantien on the coast of Africa and in an English colony in Surinam, Oroonoko tells the story of an African prince captured into slavery by an unscrupulous English slave-ship captain.

While not for every taste, Oroonoko is a notable piece, and Wille does a fine job of presenting it at its best.Oroonoko and its critical reception: Recent criticism of Aphra Behn's Oroonoko has attempted to untangle its complex web of political and ideological investments, an approach encouraged by the novel's representation of the seventeenth-century English colonial project that in many significant ways has shaped the modern world. She doesn’t overdo it, a choice that helps the text to seem merely ornate and high-flown rather than purple and overwrought. There is some staginess in her reading, but it fits the audiobook’s melodramatic tone in particular, her cultured-sounding English accent fits the book’s high rhetorical style. Wille’s pace can be a touch quick, but she aids understanding through her clarity of enunciation and her astute interpretations of emotion, expression, and emphasis. It features the star-crossed love of a noble (and highly emotional) African king who is tricked into slavery. Titles by Aphra Behn Titles by Aphra Behn Oroonoko (unabridged) ReviewsĬlare Wille’s performance may help listeners appreciate Behn’s tragic romance despite the story’s 17th-century prose. Its condemnation of slavery and Europeans, and striking portrayal of sexuality and violence, shrouded Behn’s name in controversy for years after it was published.ĭownload PDF booklet More product details ISBN: But his high spirit and admirable character will not be suppressed… The book was groundbreaking at the time and is considered to be one of the first novels written in English (by one of the first English women to earn her living by writing).

The eponymous hero, Oroonoko, deemed royalty in one world and slave in another, is torn from his noble status and betrayed into slavery in Surinam, where he is reduced to chains, fetters and shackles. A vivid love story and adventure tale, Oroonoko is a heroic slave narrative about a royal prince and his fight for freedom.

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