The Ordeal of Female Genius: Aphra Behn Across Centuries

This book aims to bring out the image of Aphra Behn and her ordeal within centuries, who is accepted as the first professional English woman writer in English Literature. Aphra Behn, who deservedly gained the place of the literary foremother for English women writers, is an important figure with her mystic presence and controversial lifestyle along with her unusual works challenging the male literary world. As the first professional woman writer in the history of English Literature, the image of Behn has been questioned, revised and reassessed by many biographers, critics and scholars throughout centuries. Questions and debates about Behn as a literary figure have been ongoing up until today, including her origin, background, literary merits and spy role. The development and transformation of the image of Behn is analysed within her mysterious and interesting life, the positive and negative views of her contemporaries, and the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth century critics, biographers and scholars, gradually helping in gaining her already-deserved fame.