Aphra Behn comes to Chawton House
Channel: ChawtonHouse
Date: 2022-12-14

Often hailed as the first professional woman writer, Aphra Behn (1640-89) was briefly a spy, before turning to her pen to provide her living. She wrote fiction, plays, poetry and translations, deftly moving between romantic, comic, erotic and satiric modes, and her characters traversed the globe from West African royal courts to Surinam plantations, the London stage to the continental nunnery. Outspoken about her literary talents, she claimed ‘I value Fame as much as if I had been born a Hero.’ In January 2022, the A is for Aphra campaign (@AphraStatue) and the Canterbury Commemoration Society began the process of commissioning a statue of Aphra Behn to remember her in the city of her birth. Four of the 47 proposals, designed by Christine Charlesworth, Maurice Blik, Victoria Atkinson and Meredith Bergmann, were created as 50cm bronze maquettes, and these went on tour across the UK in the summer, with the winner chosen in Autumn 2022. They came to Chawton House in July 2022, and we were joined by Behn experts Professor Elaine Hobby and Charlotte Cornell. 

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