The Fair Jilt; Or, the Amours of Prince Tarquin and Miranda

by Aphra Behn

Aphra Behn, née Johnston (1640-1689) was a Restoration poet, novelist, playwright, feminist and spy, considered by many to be the first English professional female writer. Unappreciated for years, she is now rightly regarded as a highly talented, innovative and prolific author. Her most famous work is a novel, Oroonoko (1688) which tells the tragic love story of its eponymous hero, an African forced into slavery. Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister (1683) is an epistolary novel, (the first ever written) and an innovative and pioneering work. Her other works The Forced Marriage (1670), The Dutch Lover (1673), The Feigned Courtesans (1679), The Roundheads (1681), The City Heiress (1682) and Poems Upon Several Occasions (1684).

Genres: Read For School, Classics, 17th Century, British Literature

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Aphra 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.

Reviews

[Gwyneth · Rating 3 out of 5]

The way my jaw dropped during the last part of the story…like wutttt. Did not expect that…plot twist.

[Jemma Forster · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two dimensional characterisations and not a particularly engaging story line but Aphra’s style is, as always, yummy

[nell · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was okay, i wasn’t too fussed on the story but i like her writing style

[Mary]

Read for ENGL 114EM: Early Modern Women Writers

Always so weird reading 17th c texts because they end so abruptly.

Fun to see literary conventions established. For example, Behn hasn’t fully figured out how to do back and forth dialogue smoothly—so the constant “(he said),” “(she replied)” were really cool to me. Birth of the novel, in a way!

Miranda as inversion of the corrupting rake? Using feminine wiles etc

[Matt Miles · Rating 3 out of 5]

It may take a couple of reads to catch what Aphra Behn is doing here, but it's worth the effort. The key word to understanding a twisted love story like this is "deception." When the narrator conceals the true hero of the story (in several ways) within the introduction, you realize there's more at play here than just the exploits of a wicked woman. This isn't the best story by Behn, or even close to my favorite, but it's clever.

[Delanie Dooms · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are many ways to view this book. The one which most appeals to me is that of a work revolving around deception.

We see, first, a long description on a form of deception: the male courting process. The fop is a man whose whole mind is dictated by fashion and style, his love supposedly conquered by nothing more than convention; he is incapable of true love because it is only through more affectation that his love can express itself.

This same love of style is found in the conniving Miranda, but she--being the other side of the coin--knows all too well that the wanton nature of love found within these men's hearts is not only manipulable, but loveable by degree. She loves only some things, only some parts of them, and her passionate heart could never fall to a single man--could never attain to marriage--precisely because she doesn't know a real flame of impassioned love. Her position of power (and, indeed, of wit) above the dandies of her day, gives the story depth. We see what Miranda is thinking--her position, particularly, one the meaning of sensual desire--is well articulated; she isn't despised, necessarily, for loving and trying to get the man she will eventually love: the friar.

What one must see about his love, however, is first that it has some all-encompassing wrongness about it, imposed from without. When the love of his life dies, she dies because he is not there; it is because he is fled that she dies, it is because he respects her dignity (her chastity, her reputation as a married woman, her virtue) that she dies. That he doesn't fight, even if he doesn't know, about the plot against his life.

This wrongness is never converted into a blessing. Rather, it is a righteousness and virtuous power which cannot be charmed--like the charm of the fops--by Miranda, not even by his lust for her. His love of virtue--the same love which lost him his actual love--is what causes it.

It must be remembered that the deception at play from Miranda--the many voices she assumes to seduce him in her letters--all go neglected, or show only that he wants friendship with her; that she is in his prayers. When she attempts to seduce him in person--to conquer him--her seductions result in nothing more than an attempted rape (on her part) and an accusation of rape (from her) against him--for she cannot simply lack his love, and her love is 'cured' by the use of power. (And why would Behn make that such an important point? :) )

In this sense, we perceive three distinct worlds: virtue, society, and love; the love is from Miranda, it is her passion; society, from those things which convey pain upon virtue (e.g., an inability to cope with the reality of his passion for his in-law sister, precisely because she is stolen from him); and virtue from love of that which is morally just, modesty and good action.

"She
frames
an
Idea
of
him
all
gay
and
splendid,
and
looks
on
his

present
Habit
as
some
Disguise
proper
for
the
Stealths
of
Love;
some
feign'd
put‐on

Shape,
with
the
more
Security
to
approach
a
Mistress,
and
make
himself
happy;
and

that,
the
Robe
laid
by,
she
has
the
Lover
in
his
proper
Beauty,
the
same
he
wou'd

have
been
if
any
other
Habit
(though
never
so
rich)
were
put
off:
In
the
Bed,
the

silent,
gloomy
Night,
and
the
soft
Embraces
of
her
Arms,
he
loses
all
the
Friar
,
and

assumes
all
the
Prince;
and
that
awful
Reverence,
due
alone
to
his
holy
Habit,
he

exchanges
for
a
thousand
Dalliances
for
which
his
Youth
was
made;
for
Love,
for

tender
Embraces,
and
all
the
Happiness
of
Life.
"

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Big fan of the writing style. Usually I'm an advocate for supporting women's wrongs but not sure if I can in this case because Miranda does so many truly reprehensible things. What a gossip-y story!

[Chelsea · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5, my mind was not really in the mood for this read, and the edition i read it in didnt make it any better, as some parts were difficult to read

[Kim]

Read for 18th Century Literature class, Spring 2021

[Dan Kamenov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe revolutionary or rebellious for its time, however, today, it sounds like an overblown gossip story, especially the ending.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

she’s a killer queeen gunpowder gelatine (+ poyson)

[cole · Rating 3 out of 5]

ok it was actually lowkey interesting

[Carlye Krul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why is Miranda actually so unhinged?

[lina · Rating 4 out of 5]

very fulfilling, interesting and rich narrative in restoration era. so good!!! love the descriptions

[Carlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this novel for a college course that I took, and, while saying that I don't have many thoughts on it feels like an exaggeration, that is kind of what I'm thinking right now.
The language used in this novel is something that makes you work to understand what you are reading. The parts of this novel that stick with me long after finishing this one was the depiction of the female characters. She was slightly villainized and most certainly misunderstood.
While this novel was challenging to read/understand, there is value in the ideas that the text is tackling and working to depict.
I would like to come back one day and study this read a little deeper in order to develop a deeper opinion and understanding.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the other amatory fictions I've read. It still had the wild, twisting plot, but there was something missing that the others had. I think it was probably the main character's voice. She was like an object that influenced everyone around her, rather than an actual person. It made it harder to care about everything that was happening.

[Kay Robart · Rating 2 out of 5]

See my review here:

https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2022...