# Oroonoko By Aphra Behn, 1688 ★☆☆☆☆ First read in September 2022 --- There are many literary works of the distant past that I appreciate both within and outside of their historical context. This one is not one of them. What a horrible, horrible piece of literature.  I read it as an astonishing piece of historical evidence for: 1. The horrifying (inner and outer) world humanity inhabited ever since the dawn of human time and 2. My personal conviction that given the choice to time travel to either the (human, not geological) past or the future, only an ignorant sadistic fool would choose the past.  Oh and such horrible, convoluted writing. The little bit of humour there is in there is shy, hidden beneath layers of crap. Ie: “Imoinda, seeing his eyes fierce and his hands tremble (whether with age or anger, I know not, but she fancied the last)”. ** Pg. 7 About African Blacks sold as slaves: "Some of the beauties, which indeed are finely shaped, as almost all are, and who have pretty features, are very charming and novel, for they have all that is called beauty, except the colour, which is a reddish yellow or, after a new oiling, which they often use to themselves, they are of the colour of a new brick, but smooth, soft, and sleek." Pg. 9 About native Americans: "With these people, as I said, we live in perfect tranquillity and good understanding, as it behoves us to do, they knowing all the places where to seek the best food of the country and the means of getting it, and for very small and unvaluable trifles, supply us with what 'tis impossible for us to get." About African Blacks: "Those who want slaves make a bargain with a master, or captain of a ship and contract to pay him so much a piece, a matter of twenty pound a head for as many as he agrees for and to pay for 'em when they shall be delivered on such a plantation. So that when there arrives a ship laden with slaves, they who have so contracted go aboard and receive their number by lot, and perhaps in one lot that may be for ten, there may happen to be three or four men, the rest, women and children. Or, be there more or less of either sex, you are obliged to be contented with your lot." Pg 10  "The king of Coromantien was himself a man of a hundred and odd years old, and had no son, though he had many beautiful black wives, for most certainly there are beauties that can charm of that colour." "He was adorned with a native beauty so transcending all those of his gloomy race, that he struck an awe and reverence even in those that knew not his quality." Pg. 12 "A man more admirably turned from head to foot. His face was not of that brown, rusty black which most of that nation but a perfect ebony, or polished jet. His eyes were the most awful that could be seen and very piercing, the white of 'em being like snow, as were his teeth. His nose was rising and Roman, instead of African and flat. His mouth, the finest shaped that could be seen, far from those great turned lips, which are so natural to the rest of the Negroes. The whole proportion and air of his face was so noble and exactly formed that, bating his colour, there could be nothing in nature more beautiful, agreeable, and handsome. There was no one grace wanting that bears the standard of true beauty. His hair came down to his shoulders, by the aids of art, which was by pulling it out with a quill and keeping it combed, of which he took particular care. Nor did the perfections of his mind come short of those of his person, for his discourse was admirable upon almost any subject, and whoever had heard him speak would have been convinced of their errors, that all fine wit is confined to the white men, especially to those of Christendom, and would have confessed that Oroonoko was as capable even of reigning well and of governing as wisely, had as great a soul, as politic maxims, and was as sensible of power, as any prince civilised in the most refined schools of humanity and learning. or the most illustrious courts." “I ought to tell you that the Christians never buy any slaves but they give 'em some name of their own, their native ones being likely very barbarous, and hard to pronounce; so that Mr. Trefry gave Oroonoko that of Caesar.” About Imoinda "But Oroonoko was none of those profession but as he had right notions of honour, so he made her such propositions as were not only and barely such but, contrary to the custom of his country, he made her vows she should be the only woman he would possess while he lived; that no age or wrinkles should incline him to change, for her soul would be always fine and always young, and he should have an eternal idea in his mind of the charms she now bore and he should look into his heart for that idea when he could find it no longer in her face." About Imoinda (Clemene): "Trefry, who was naturally amorous, and loved to talk of love as well as anybody, proceeded to tell him they had the most charming black that ever was beheld on their plantation, about fifteen or sixteen years old, as he guessed; that for his part he had done nothing but sigh for her ever since she came; and that all the white beauties he had seen never charmed him so absolutely as this fine creature had done; and that no man, of any nation, ever beheld her that did not fall in love with her; and that she had all the slaves perpetually at her feet; and the whole country resounded with the fame of Clemene."