The story itself is briefly as follows.  Oroonoko was a brave young chief, the grandson of a king whose dominions lay on the coast of Africa.  He had distinguished himself in war, and already commanded all the forces of his grandfather’s kingdom.  Hitherto rather unsusceptible to female charms, he became deeply enamored of Imoinda, on returning victorious from a great war.  Unfortunately the king noticed Imoinda at the same time, and had her brought to his palace as his concubine.  According to the rules of the court, this would separate the lovers forever.  Oroonoko in desperation made his way to Imoinda’s chamber in the palace at night, where he was discovered by the king’s servants.  Imoinda was immediately sold as a slave.  Oroonoko made his way down to the seashore, and was there allured, under false pretenses of hospitality, on board an English ship.  He was carried to the West Indies, and sold to a planter of Surinam, the colony in which Mrs. Behn was living, and where by a remarkable chance Imoinda had already been sold.  The beauty of Imoinda had brought about her a large number of suitors, all of whom met with a cold repulse.  The tenderness of the meeting between Oroonoko and Imoinda prevailed upon their master to allow them to live together.  But Oroonoko longed for liberty.  He plotted a revolt among his fellow-slaves, and on its suppression was brutally flogged.  Enraged by this, he escaped into the woods with Imoinda, who was then pregnant.  Fearing that she might fall into the hands of the whites, and unwilling to be the father of a slave, he killed her, and remained by her dead body several days, half insensible with grief and without food.  Again taken by the colonists, he was tied to a post, hacked to pieces and burned.  The story, simple in itself, becomes striking in the hands of Mrs. Behn.  The hut of the old negro king is given the brilliancy of an Eastern court, and his harem is copied after that of a Turkish potentate.  When Oroonoko is induced to board the English slaver, it is in no common style, but “the Captain in his Boat richly adorned with Carpets and velvet Cushions went to the Shore to receive the Prince, with another Long Boat where was placed all his Music and Trumpets.”  Mrs. Behn’s methods of adorning her tale are best shown by her description of Oroonoko himself, which is a good example of the tone in which the story is written.

I have often seen and conversed with this Great Man, and been a Witness to many of his mighty Actions:  and do assure my Reader, the most illustrious Courts could not have produced a braver Man, both for Greatness of Courage and Mind, a Judgment more solid, a Wit more quick, and a Conversation more sweet and diverting.  He knew almost as much as if he had read much; he had heard of and admired the Romans; he had heard of the late Civil Wars in England, and the deplorable Death of our great Monarch; and would discourse of it with all the Sense and abhorrence of the Injustice