"Aphra Behn (1640-1689) was the first British woman to be a professional creative writer. In the years in which she was active, from 1670 to her death, she had far more new plays staged than anyone else, and she is now increasingly being rediscovered as an important and original talent. Nevertheless, there has hitherto been no book-length study of her plays.

Derek Hughes subtly analyses all her theatrical works, using his unrivalled knowledge of the Restoration repertory to explain her often dominant place in a diverse and unstable theatrical culture. He clarifies her divided responses to the crises that menaced and finally toppled the Stuart monarchy, her innovative portrayals of the evolution of patriarchal political structures, and her interest in free thought and scepticism.

Chiefly, however, he reveals her as a woman of the theatre, who used the seen as richly and significantly as the spoken."--BOOK JACKET.