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Aphra Behn: L’incomparabile Astrea
Aphra Behn è la prima scrittrice professionista della storia! La cui tomba nell’Abbazia di Westminster "tutte le donne insieme dovrebbero cospargere di fiori, poiché fu lei a conquistar loro il diritto a dire quello che pensavano" scriverà Virginia Woolf in Una stanza tutta per sé, consacrando la Behn capostipite delle scrittrici della storia della letteratura mondiale.
Aphra Ben ebbe una vita costellata di avventure, successi e lo spionaggio internazionale, la prigione per debiti, la fama come commediografa, l’amicizia dei maggiori intellettuali e libertini del tempo. Amò uomini e donne, restando sempre una donna libera, dedita al piacere e alla poesia. Si descrisse come una donna costretta a scrivere per guadagnarsi il pane e che non si vergogna di ammetterlo. Con il nom de plume di “Astrea”, si conquistò gli epiteti di geniale e incomparabile, ma anche quelli di punk (sgualdrina) e bawdy Poetess (poetessa oscena).
La sua vita turbolenta è narrata in questa avvincente biografia con toni leggeri e giocosi, scritta nel 1927 da Vita Sackville-West, che per prima riscattò Aphra Behn dall’oblio.
Aphra Ben ebbe una vita costellata di avventure, successi e lo spionaggio internazionale, la prigione per debiti, la fama come commediografa, l’amicizia dei maggiori intellettuali e libertini del tempo. Amò uomini e donne, restando sempre una donna libera, dedita al piacere e alla poesia. Si descrisse come una donna costretta a scrivere per guadagnarsi il pane e che non si vergogna di ammetterlo. Con il nom de plume di “Astrea”, si conquistò gli epiteti di geniale e incomparabile, ma anche quelli di punk (sgualdrina) e bawdy Poetess (poetessa oscena).
La sua vita turbolenta è narrata in questa avvincente biografia con toni leggeri e giocosi, scritta nel 1927 da Vita Sackville-West, che per prima riscattò Aphra Behn dall’oblio.
251 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1927
About the author
Vita Sackville-West
165 books497 followersNovels of British writer Victoria Mary Sackville-West, known as Vita, include
The Edwardians
(1930) and
All Passion Spent
(1931).
This prolific English author, poet, and memoirist in the early 20th century lived not so privately.
While married to the diplomat Harold Nicolson, she conducted a series of scandalous amorous liaisons with many women, including the brilliant Virginia Woolf. They had an open marriage. Both Sackville-West and her husband had same-sex relationships. Her exuberant aristocratic life was one of inordinate privilege and way ahead of her time. She frequently traveled to Europe in the company of one or the other of her lovers and often dressed as a man to be able to gain access to places where only the couples could go. Gardening, like writing, was a passion Vita cherished with the certainty of a vocation: she wrote books on the topic and constructed the gardens of the castle of Sissinghurst, one of England's most beautiful gardens at her home.
She published her first book Poems of East and West in 1917. She followed this with a novel, Heritage, in 1919. A second novel, The Heir (1922), dealt with her feelings about her family. Her next book, Knole and the Sackvilles (1922), covered her family history. The Edwardians (1930) and All Passion Spent (1931) are perhaps her best known novels today. In the latter, the elderly Lady Slane courageously embraces a long suppressed sense of freedom and whimsy after a lifetime of convention. In 1948 she was appointed a Companion of Honour for her services to literature. She continued to develop her garden at Sissinghurst Castle and for many years wrote a weekly gardening column for The Observer. In 1955 she was awarded the gold Veitch medal of the Royal Horticultural Society. In her last decade she published a further biography, Daughter of France (1959) and a final novel, No Signposts in the Sea (1961).
She died of cancer on June 2, 1962.
This prolific English author, poet, and memoirist in the early 20th century lived not so privately.
While married to the diplomat Harold Nicolson, she conducted a series of scandalous amorous liaisons with many women, including the brilliant Virginia Woolf. They had an open marriage. Both Sackville-West and her husband had same-sex relationships. Her exuberant aristocratic life was one of inordinate privilege and way ahead of her time. She frequently traveled to Europe in the company of one or the other of her lovers and often dressed as a man to be able to gain access to places where only the couples could go. Gardening, like writing, was a passion Vita cherished with the certainty of a vocation: she wrote books on the topic and constructed the gardens of the castle of Sissinghurst, one of England's most beautiful gardens at her home.
She published her first book Poems of East and West in 1917. She followed this with a novel, Heritage, in 1919. A second novel, The Heir (1922), dealt with her feelings about her family. Her next book, Knole and the Sackvilles (1922), covered her family history. The Edwardians (1930) and All Passion Spent (1931) are perhaps her best known novels today. In the latter, the elderly Lady Slane courageously embraces a long suppressed sense of freedom and whimsy after a lifetime of convention. In 1948 she was appointed a Companion of Honour for her services to literature. She continued to develop her garden at Sissinghurst Castle and for many years wrote a weekly gardening column for The Observer. In 1955 she was awarded the gold Veitch medal of the Royal Horticultural Society. In her last decade she published a further biography, Daughter of France (1959) and a final novel, No Signposts in the Sea (1961).
She died of cancer on June 2, 1962.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 17, 2024
"L'importanza del fatto che una donna borghese come Aphra Behn si sia guadagnata da vivere con il proprio ingegno - osserva Woolf sulla scia di Sackville-West - è maggiore di qualunque cosa ella abbia scritto. Allargando la visione, Woolf aggiunge che con Aphra Behn comincia per le donne la "libertà della mente", attribuendole [...] il merito di aver dimostrato la possibilità per le donne di una libertà di pensiero e di parola, una volta conquistata la propria autonomia".
Dall'introduzione "Aphra, Vita, Virginia" di Stefania Arcara.
Dall'introduzione "Aphra, Vita, Virginia" di Stefania Arcara.
September 29, 2016
E' senza dubbio difficile scrivere una biografia di qualcuno di cui si sa ben poco e quando si hanno a che fare con fonti storiche non troppo attendibili. Vita Sackville-West ci è riuscita, consegnandoci del materiale interessante ma soprattutto un ritratto così vivido da apparire autentico.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews