The Works of Aphra Behn, Volume I

The Works of Aphra Behn, Volume I

It is perhaps not altogether easy to appreciate the multiplicity of difficulties with which the first editor of Mrs. Behn has to cope. Not only is her life strangely mysterious and obscure, but the rubbish of half-a-dozen romancing biographers must needs be cleared away before we can even begin to see daylight. Matter which had been for two centuries accepted on seemingly the soundest authority is proven false; her family name itself was, until my recent discovery, wrongly given; the very question of her portrait has its own vexed (and until now unrecognized) dilemmas. In fine there seems no point connected with our first professional authoress which did not call for the nicest investigation and the most incontrovertible proof before it could be accepted without suspicion or reserve. The various collections of her plays and novels which appeared in the first half of the eighteenth century give us nothing; nay, they rather cumber our path with the trash of discredited Memoirs. Pearsons reprint (1871) is entirely valueless: there is no attempt, however meagre, at editing, no effort to elucidate a single allusion; moreover, several of the Novelsand the Poems in their entiretyare lacking. Iam happy to give (Vol.V) one of the Novels, and that not the least important, The History of the Nun, for the first time in any collected edition. Poems, in addition xiv to those which appeared in Mrs. Behns lifetime, and were never reprinted after, have been gathered with great care from many sources (ofwhich some were almost forgotten). ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 21339
Author: Behn, Aphra
Release Date: May 5, 2007
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Summers, Montague, 1880-1948