Oroonoko : A Norton Critical Edition

This long-awaited Norton Critical Edition of Aphra Behn's best-known and most influential work makes available the original 1688 text, the only text published in her lifetime.The editor, Joanna Lipking, supplies explanatory annotations and textual notes.

"Historical Backgrounds" is an especially rich collection of seventeenth-and eighteenth-century documents about colonizers and slaves in the new world. Topically arranged-"Montaigne on America," "The Settling of Surinam," "Observers of Slavery, 16541712," "After Oroonoko: Noble Africans in Europe," and "Opinions on Slavery"-these selections create a revealing context for Behn's unusual story. Illustrations and maps are also included.