Fyfield Books
3 total works
This book presents a collection of the poetry of the 17th-century writer Aphra Behn. It examines the relationships between the sexes, seen from the woman's point of view. The book also includes some of Behn's translations, occasional pieces, satires, and songs.
Aphra Behn (1640-1689) is best known for her novel "Oroonoko". Her plays have been revived, in print and on the stage, in modern times, but much of her best work, as she herself knew, is to be found in her poetry. The versatile form and content of her translation, satires and songs, and above all her radical exploration of relationships between the sexes, set her apart from her contemporaries. Behn wittily negotiates the complexities and ironies of women's role in a society in which honour is a commodity. Candid and subtle, her poetry speaks with a distinctive, vigorous intelligence and satirical edge. This selection includes an introduction that sets her work in context, notes on the text and suggestions for further reading.
Sensual pleasure, gentle, violent or comic, is the theme of this anthology of 17th-century erotic writing. "Restoration Bawdy" brings vividly to life a "masquerading age". The book draws on high and low culture, and includes courtly poems and works by Rochester, Sedley and Etheridge, as well as broadside ballads, doggerel from almanacs and songs from plays. A number of the pieces have only previously been available in research libraries. The result is a lively social panorama of Restoration England and a cheerfully amoral celebration of the pleasures of the flesh.