Sir Peter Lely (1618–1680), Aphra Behn, ca. 1670

Aphra Behn (1640–1689) is considered to have helped pave the way for the English novel. She was the first professional female writer to have a public profile. She wrote several successful theatre plays and poems, which mostly dealt with love, eroticism and double standards in sexual morality. She was very popular during her own lifetime, but her frivolous comedies of manners and her confident and financially independent lifestyle were subsequently criticized. Thus, she increasingly fell into obscurity and was only rediscovered in the 1980s. Her grave is in Westminster Abbey, though not in Poet's Corner.

Sir Peter Lely (1618–1680), Aphra Behn, oil on canvas, 76,8 x 64,1 cm, ca. 1670; image source: Yale Center for British Art, Bequest of Arthur D. Schlechter, accession number: B2002.15, http://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/1669432, public domain.