At the end of the novella, he is brutally killed by Byam’s associate. Once again, his plan fails and having killed his beloved wife, his strength leaves him. This item: Oroonoko (Penguin Classics) by Aphra Behn Paperback 11.22 Candide by Voltaire Paperback 6.25 A Discourse on Inequality (Penguin Classics) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau Paperback 10.68 Oroonoko (Norton Critical Editions) Aphra Behn 109 Paperback 119 offers from 1. The uprising does not succeed and Oroonoko is betrayed by the Deputy Governor Byam, who promised him his freedom only to mete out a cruel punishment instead.īurning with a desire for revenge, Oroonoko decides to kill Imoinda and their unborn child, before killing Byam and then himself. Soon after Imoinda conceives a child, Oroonoko begins to suspect further treachery on the part of the English and stages a slave uprising, attempting to lead his fellow slaves to freedom. Although both Imoinda and the female narrator play an important role in this short novel, as the title suggests, it is the male Oroonoko who is the centre of Behn’s Oroonoko, or, the Royal Slave. There, too, he discovers Imoinda, now named Clemene and the reunited lovers finally live as husband and wife. There, his true identity is discovered-even as he is renamed Caesar-and he is promised his freedom. Oroonoko is overcome by grief and distracts himself with the friendship of an English sea captain, who ultimately tricks the prince into slavery, taking him to Surinam where he is sold to the plantation where the narrator resides. As punishment, the King pretends to put Imoinda to death, when he has actually sold her into slavery.

Imoinda refuses to submit to his desires, and Oroonoko manages to break into the Otan and consummate his marriage. Despite the fact that Oroonoko and Imoinda are married, the King forces her to become part of his Otan, or harem, separating them.

However, their love is thwarted by Oroonoko’s grandfather, the king, who desires Imoinda for himself. Oroonoko’s tale is one of an exemplary man who falls in love with an exceptional woman, Imoinda.

Oroonoko novel