Aphra Behn was England's first professional woman writer, but her status as a major author has only recently become clear. Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries Behn was denigrated for her "unwomanly" subject matter and intellectual immodesty. In the twentieth century she has been increasingly viewed as a leading dramatist of the Restoration and a founder of the English novel. This collection forms an important resource for those studying seventeenth century English literature and drama, and for those interested in the development of women's writing.