2016/05/28

BOOK REVIEW:
OROONOKO BY APHRA BEHN

Title: Oroonoko: Or, The Royal Slave, A True Story
Author: Aphra Behn
Published: 1688
Language: English
Pages: 128
Rating: 3/5


Summary:
When Prince Oroonoko falls in love with a woman, it arouses the jealousy of his grandfather. The lovers are cast into slavery, and though he soon wins the respect of his European captors, he struggles for his freedom.


Review:
I haven't read that many books from the 17th century, so this was quite an interesting experience for me.

The first thing that stands out to me is that it is quite racist. The value of the dark skinned people are raised because they have similar physical features to Europeans and in many ways act like them. "Common slaves" are barely considered people, and although one can understand that this is a view common to the times, I found it very distracting.

Otherwise, it was a rather interesting story. I quite enjoyed the characters, though I found some a bit one-dimensional. The setting was pretty interesting as well, and it has a rather epic love story. It is a bit challenging to read in the sense that it has no chapters, and it's easy to loose track if you put the book down.

I definitely think it was interesting to read something written from this era, and if you're interested in history I would recommend it.

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