Aphra Behn (1640–1689) was the first female English author to earn her living through writing. After a brief career as a spy for Charles II, she turned to writing for the stage and novels, being a key member of the libertine circles of the Restoration. She is famously praised in Virginia Woolf’s ‘A Room of One’s Own’ (1929): ‘All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn which is, most scandalously but rather appropriately, in Westminster Abbey, for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds.’
This book was recently on display in LMH Library, in an exhibition on female authors and female education. Please contact librarian@lmh.ox.ac.uk if you would like to view it.