A talk by George Woodcock
The name of Mrs. Aphra Behn usually suggests that of a Restoration playwright, but George Woodcock draws attention to other aspects of her career-as the first woman professional writer, an early novelist, an early defender of the rights of women who anticipated Rousseau's theory of ' the natural man,' and one who was enmeshed in contemporary politics and acted as a spy in the Netherlands. Quotations from Mrs. Benn's works are read by Julia Lang