Wastrel’s Reviews > The Secret Life of Aphra Behn > Status Update
Wastrel
is on page 545 of 560
For my own future refence, I'll round off with a brief map of what's in which chapter:
— Jul 12, 2022 10:05AM
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Wastrel’s Previous Updates
Wastrel
is on page 435 of 560
Let me with Sappho and Orinda be
Oh ever sacred Nymph, adorn'd by thee;
And give my Verses Immortality.
Well, that's that finished (from here on is just notes, bibliography and index). Though it'll take me some time to go back through and add some notes for the last 90 pages...
— May 29, 2022 01:09PM
Oh ever sacred Nymph, adorn'd by thee;
And give my Verses Immortality.
Well, that's that finished (from here on is just notes, bibliography and index). Though it'll take me some time to go back through and add some notes for the last 90 pages...
Wastrel
is on page 346 of 560
Bulstrode Whitelocke succinctly sums up Aphra's (ex-)boyfriend: "an Atheist, a Sodomite professed, a corruptor of youth, & a Blasphemer of Christ".
[he was also probably a murderer, but that wasn't controversial enough in those days to be worth mentioning]
— Feb 18, 2022 02:29PM
[he was also probably a murderer, but that wasn't controversial enough in those days to be worth mentioning]
Wastrel
is on page 229 of 560
"Custom is unkind to our Sex; not to allow us free choice, but we above all Creatures must be forced to endure the formal recommendations of a Parent; and the more insupportable Addresses of an Odious Foppe, whilst the Obedient Daughter stands - thus - with her Hands pinn'd before her, a set look, few words, and a mein that cries - 'come marry me - out upon't!'"
(from 'Sir Patient Fancy')
— Nov 02, 2021 09:26AM
(from 'Sir Patient Fancy')
Wastrel
is on page 210 of 560
A neat encapsulation of the changing times: in 1637, George Wilkins published a dour and moral Jacobean tragedy, The Miseries of Inforst Marriage; in the late 1670s, Aphra adapted the play, but this time as a farcical comedy, The Town-Fopp, complete with an accidential-lesbianism subplot...
— Nov 02, 2021 09:17AM
Wastrel
is on page 207 of 560
A constant problem with a biography of Aphra Behn is that we know very, very little about her. But it could be worse: now we're being introduced to her fellow female poet, Ephelia - about whom we know absolutely nothing. Todd guesses she was a lowborn actress; others have suggested she was instead a duchess and the sister of the PM.
Todd claims they were friends but I don't think there's any basis for that?
— Oct 02, 2021 12:50PM
Todd claims they were friends but I don't think there's any basis for that?
Wastrel
is on page 167 of 560
Interesting the multiple instances of women openly bargaining for open relationships. Behn herself, in a poem to her married boyfriend cautions: "do not take / Freedoms you'll not to me allow". In Ravenscroft's 'Careless Lovers', the marriage negotiations include a demand for sexual liberty for both; Euphemia in Behn's 'The Dutch Lover' asks 'would you have conscience to tye me to harder conditions than I would you?'
— Jul 01, 2021 04:42AM
Wastrel
is on page 159 of 560
The epilogue to a Dryden play has an actress (Dryden's girlfriend) explain why playwrights were now obsessed with having women play male roles: so that they can be "To the men women, and to the women men... in dreams both sexes may their passions ease". Not just an example of the popularity of gender fluidity in this period, but also interesting in explicitly appealing to the sexual gaze of the female audience.
— May 31, 2021 02:40PM
Wastrel
is on page 158 of 560
"Masks have made more cuckolds than the best faces that ever were known"
- a character in Wycherley's "The Country Wife".
— May 25, 2021 08:51AM
- a character in Wycherley's "The Country Wife".
Wastrel
is on page 135 of 560
Strange that in talking about 'To Mrs Harsenet' - in which Behn admits that her boyfriend is right to want to cheat on her, because Harsenet is stupendously wonderful, but warns her that she should have higher standards, because Behn's boyfriend isn't worth it and she should have someone who understands how great she is - Todd doesn't consider that Behn's unnamed better suitor for Harsenet might be... herself.
— Apr 22, 2021 11:46AM
Wastrel
is on page 93 of 560
Finally we arrive at reality: Behn enters history as "160" or "Mrs Affora", a spy sent to the Low Countries.
Todd insists on undermining her at every turn, calling her "naive" and "inexperienced", assuming she is inept and unable to operate secretly, claiming she will be in awe of any member of the Royal Society she meets, etc...
— Apr 14, 2021 04:00PM
Todd insists on undermining her at every turn, calling her "naive" and "inexperienced", assuming she is inept and unable to operate secretly, claiming she will be in awe of any member of the Royal Society she meets, etc...
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How do you feel - satisfied, relieved, enchanted etc - having finished this?
*shrug*I'll do a review at some point, but in short: don't know, really. I've been chipping away at it for so long it's kind of been a chore - particularly because I've been reading a big chunk, and then going back over it making notes. And, like a lot of biographies, it's repetitive and lacks a good narrative structure! On the other hand, I wouldn't exactly say I was relieved to have finished, because it was never unpleasant to read exactly - it took me so long as a reflection of my own bad habits, rather than of any great difficulty or unpleasantness on its part (though, to be sure, there are a few things I got frustrated by...). So... yeah, I don't know, really.
Your notes would count as a review. Anyway, it's now checked off your list, so that's something.
[...not sure why GR has now decided that my most recent update for this book was one I made back in 2015? It's not like the more recent ones were deleted, it's just that the 'currently reading' has gone all the way back to there...]
Chapter 2: teenage speculation (Sidneys? Resistance courier?)
Chapter 3: Surinam
Chapter 4: Aphra going to Surinam
Chapter 5: Surinam; The Young King
Chapter 6: Returning from Surinam; Mr Behn; Killigrew; The Plague
Chapter 7: Sent to the Netherlands as Agent 160
Chapter 8: Netherlands; begining of recorded existence
Chapter 9: Agent 160 in poverty in Netherlands; discussion of The Fair Jilt
Chapter 10: return; possible imprisonment; setting herself up in London; "To Mrs Harsnett"; the theatre
Chapter 11: The Forc'd Marriage
Chapter 12: The Amorous Prince; The Covent Garden Drolery; "I led my Silvia to a grove"
Chapter 13: "Our Cabal"; The Dutch Lover; "Letter to a Brother of the Pen in Tribulation"
Chapter 14: Hoyle; Barry; Abdelazer; Emily Price; mention of The Constant Nymph
Chapter 15: Rochester; "The Disappointment"; "On a Juniper-Tree"; mid-70s; Elizabeth Taylor; Ephelia
Chapter 16: The Town-Fopp; The Debauchee; the Counterfeit Bridegroom; The Rover
Chapter 17: Whigs and Tories; Monmouth and William; Sir Patient Fancy
Chapter 18: The Popish Plot; Sussex/Cleveland/Mazarine/Montaigue; Treaty of Dover; The Feign'd Curtizans; dedication to Nell Gwynn
Chapter 19: "Oenone"; The Revenge; death of Rochester; Anne Wharton; Burnet
Chapter 20: The Second Part of the Rover; the Oxford Parliament; The Roundheads; The City-Heiress; The False Count
Chapter 21: warrant for arrest; Creech/Lucretius; visit to Paris; 1683
Chapter 22: Rye House Plot; "To Damon"; Love Letters Between a Nobleman and his Sister
Chapter 23: poetry anthologies; The Island of Love; sex
Chapter 24: Valentinian, The Younger Brother, Love Letters Part II; death of Charles; coronation of James
Chapter 25: Monmouth Rebellion; Astrea's Booke; The Lucky Chance; illness; The Emperor of the Moon
Chapter 26: La Rochefoucauld; Aesop; La Montre; Lycidus; "Clarinda"
Chapter 27: Love Letters Part III; The History of the Nun> and dedication to Mazarine
Chapter 28: A Discovery of New Worlds, Of Trees, The Happy Birth
Chapter 29: The Widow Ranter, Ooronoko; The Glorious Revolution
Chapter 30: coronations; death; conclusions