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The Lucky Chance
An awe inspiring and thought provoking book!
76 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1686
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70 people want to read
About the author
Aphra Behn
306 books246 followersAphra Behn, or Ayfara Behn, of the first professional women authors in English on Britain wrote plays, poetry, and her best known work, the prose fiction
Oroonoko
(1688).
Aphra Behn was a prolific dramatist of the Restoration and was one of the female. Her contributed to the amatory genre of literature. People sometimes refer to Delarivier Manley, Eliza Haywood, and her as part of "the fair triumvirate of wit."
In reckoning of Adeline Virginia Stephen Woolf, more important total career of Behn produced any particular work. Woolf wrote, "All women together, ought to let flowers fall upon the grave of Aphra Behn … for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds." Victoria Mary Sackville-West called Behn "an inhabitant of Grub Street with the best of them, … a phenomenon never seen and … furiously resented." Felix Shelling called her "a very gifted woman, compelled to write for bread in an age in which literature … catered habitually to the lowest and most depraved of human inclinations. Her success depended upon her ability to write like a man." Edmund Gosse remarked that "the George Sand of the Restoration" lived the bohemian life in London in the 17th century as Paris two centuries later.
Aphra Behn was a prolific dramatist of the Restoration and was one of the female. Her contributed to the amatory genre of literature. People sometimes refer to Delarivier Manley, Eliza Haywood, and her as part of "the fair triumvirate of wit."
In reckoning of Adeline Virginia Stephen Woolf, more important total career of Behn produced any particular work. Woolf wrote, "All women together, ought to let flowers fall upon the grave of Aphra Behn … for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds." Victoria Mary Sackville-West called Behn "an inhabitant of Grub Street with the best of them, … a phenomenon never seen and … furiously resented." Felix Shelling called her "a very gifted woman, compelled to write for bread in an age in which literature … catered habitually to the lowest and most depraved of human inclinations. Her success depended upon her ability to write like a man." Edmund Gosse remarked that "the George Sand of the Restoration" lived the bohemian life in London in the 17th century as Paris two centuries later.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
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April 25, 2021I Just read the Preface for some purposes of literary criticism. So, no ratings for now :)
February 27, 2024
julia choose me instead men ain't shit
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February 20, 2024The cover of this is absolutely atrocious
May 3, 2017
A troubling and complex play in which Behn exposes the view of wife as property and the lack of security in a society where relationships are based on capital. The play builds to a climactic scene in which Sir Cautious bets a night with his wife against 300 pounds. Do not be fooled by the play's label as a comedy, it straddles the boundary between black comedy and tragedy. A hugely different play from The Rover and extremely thought-provoking. Worth giving a chance, however the play definitely benefits from a second-reading.
May 9, 2013
Awful, boring and pretty hard to follow. Can see why this play never gets produced anymore. No relevance.
September 18, 2017
i'd rather be reading the rover.
February 17, 2024
I have to be honest; I don't get why the relatively low (3.13 average as I'm writing this) score or the unfavorable reviews of some. I think this play is a magnificent work.
The characterizations are more complex than her previous two stage comedies I've read (The Rover and The Feigned Courtesans)—whereas those two plays have pretty clear-cut foil main couples (the innocent maid meeting the honorable hero in Florinda/Belville, Marcella/Fillamour; and the would-be-libertine, sexually-curious female companion who ends up with a reformed rake in Hellena/Willmore, Cornelia/Galliard), I enjoyed the contrast between our main two couples' circumstances and fates. Belmour and Leticia's backstory of being pulled apart prior to the action of the play immediately is opposed with his friend Gayman's less honorable pursuit of the married Lady Julia Fulbank. Aphra Behn shows a lot more literary range in how differently her two heroines fair, and to what extent they have made their choices for themselves or been tricked by the controlling men in their lives.
Leticia begins the play having been duped into engagement with Sir Feeble Fainwould, who has tricked Leticia into believing Belmour is dead, but is crafty enough with the help of her wronged lover and their allies to get out of it before consummating the marriage. Leticia and Belmour, through a series of lucky chances, overcome the seemingly impossible. They are lawfully wed (as they were supposed to be, before Belmour was banished on death for dueling), Belmour is pardoned, Sir Feeble ultimately does right and is apologetic for having separated them, and they're all grateful to each other in the end.
Such is very much not the case with our other trio of troubled lovers: Sir Cautious Fulbank, Lady Fulbank, and her lover Mr. Gayman. Julia Fulbank is unlike any other heroine I've seen in a play from this period. She's neither innocent nor dishonorable. Her characterization rejects the Madonna-whore complex entirely. She admits as much to her husband that she is not attracted to him and is still in love with Gayman, but while he's trying to ease her into the idea of willfully cuckolding him, she thinks he's being ridiculous—unluckily for him, who has lost a night with her for Gayman in a gamble that she didn't know they had made between them. Earlier, it is up for interpretation, whether she would have, intended to, or did in fact cuckold her husband. I enjoy the ambiguity of that and see so much potential for it in staging. But it's such a great expansion of Behn's metaphor of how these men see their wives as property. The second Julia finds out her husband has essentially promised another man her sexual favors, she quits his bed forever. And even though she does love Gayman, the door is still left open whether or not she will ever reconcile with him, whether in the sanctioned adultery of Sir Cautious or honorably waiting for him to pass on. I love that so much; I think it is so, so clever.
The melodrama of the main couple contrasts so well with the dark satire of the secondary one. It is just so incredibly pleasing. Along with some of Behn's best blank verse, witty dialogue, and some truly hilarious scenes. The unwitting and accidental confrontation scene between Sir Feeble and Sir Cautious in Act III, scene v may just be one of the best comedic scenes I've ever read. So so funny and uncomfortable, but also underscores the themes of the play so well.
The characterizations are more complex than her previous two stage comedies I've read (The Rover and The Feigned Courtesans)—whereas those two plays have pretty clear-cut foil main couples (the innocent maid meeting the honorable hero in Florinda/Belville, Marcella/Fillamour; and the would-be-libertine, sexually-curious female companion who ends up with a reformed rake in Hellena/Willmore, Cornelia/Galliard), I enjoyed the contrast between our main two couples' circumstances and fates. Belmour and Leticia's backstory of being pulled apart prior to the action of the play immediately is opposed with his friend Gayman's less honorable pursuit of the married Lady Julia Fulbank. Aphra Behn shows a lot more literary range in how differently her two heroines fair, and to what extent they have made their choices for themselves or been tricked by the controlling men in their lives.
Leticia begins the play having been duped into engagement with Sir Feeble Fainwould, who has tricked Leticia into believing Belmour is dead, but is crafty enough with the help of her wronged lover and their allies to get out of it before consummating the marriage. Leticia and Belmour, through a series of lucky chances, overcome the seemingly impossible. They are lawfully wed (as they were supposed to be, before Belmour was banished on death for dueling), Belmour is pardoned, Sir Feeble ultimately does right and is apologetic for having separated them, and they're all grateful to each other in the end.
Such is very much not the case with our other trio of troubled lovers: Sir Cautious Fulbank, Lady Fulbank, and her lover Mr. Gayman. Julia Fulbank is unlike any other heroine I've seen in a play from this period. She's neither innocent nor dishonorable. Her characterization rejects the Madonna-whore complex entirely. She admits as much to her husband that she is not attracted to him and is still in love with Gayman, but while he's trying to ease her into the idea of willfully cuckolding him, she thinks he's being ridiculous—unluckily for him, who has lost a night with her for Gayman in a gamble that she didn't know they had made between them. Earlier, it is up for interpretation, whether she would have, intended to, or did in fact cuckold her husband. I enjoy the ambiguity of that and see so much potential for it in staging. But it's such a great expansion of Behn's metaphor of how these men see their wives as property. The second Julia finds out her husband has essentially promised another man her sexual favors, she quits his bed forever. And even though she does love Gayman, the door is still left open whether or not she will ever reconcile with him, whether in the sanctioned adultery of Sir Cautious or honorably waiting for him to pass on. I love that so much; I think it is so, so clever.
The melodrama of the main couple contrasts so well with the dark satire of the secondary one. It is just so incredibly pleasing. Along with some of Behn's best blank verse, witty dialogue, and some truly hilarious scenes. The unwitting and accidental confrontation scene between Sir Feeble and Sir Cautious in Act III, scene v may just be one of the best comedic scenes I've ever read. So so funny and uncomfortable, but also underscores the themes of the play so well.
February 3, 2019
eh. supposed to be a comedy, not received that well my end. Characters weren't as irritating as The Rover but not my favourite hah
March 2, 2022
Really didn’t know what was going on in this
August 29, 2024
Uh oh! You made the wrong sucker a cuckold!
January 4, 2025
nearly fell asleep during it. it was fairly dull? but again, might have just been bc i was very tired. that, leticia, and the bed trick are basically all i remember from this play oops.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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June 4, 2025A Uni read.
January 4, 2018
The Lucky Chance
This is a funny play, and in my opinion contains some of the best lines, such as “A woman’s passion is like the tide, it stays for no man when the hour is come” or the great line from Lady Fulbank, “I value not the censures of the crowd.” Behn’s work focuses on providing a more accurate comedic representation of men and women in Restoration drama. This play is one of her best.
See my other reviews here!
This is a funny play, and in my opinion contains some of the best lines, such as “A woman’s passion is like the tide, it stays for no man when the hour is come” or the great line from Lady Fulbank, “I value not the censures of the crowd.” Behn’s work focuses on providing a more accurate comedic representation of men and women in Restoration drama. This play is one of her best.
See my other reviews here!
July 17, 2013
Snore. I know Aphra Behn through much better works than this one :P
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews