The Complete Fiction: Passing. Quicksand. And the Stories

(Hardback)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

A hardback omnibus of the complete fiction of one of the most gifted writers of the Harlem Renaissance, including her most famous novel, Passing. Throughout her short but brilliant literary career, Nell Larsen wrote piercing dramas about the black middle class that featured sensitive, spirited heroines struggling to find a place where they belong. Passing is a disturbing story about the unravelling lives of two childhood friends, one of whom turns her back on her past and marries a white racist. Just as disquieting is the portrait in Quicksand of biracial Helga Crane, who is unable to escape her loneliness no matter where and with whom she lives. Race and marriage offer few securities here or in the other stories in this compulsively readable collection, rich in psychological complexities and imbued with a vibrant sense of place - be it 1920s Harlem, Chicago, or Copenhagen.

Author Bio

Nella Larsen (Author) Nella Larsen (1891-1964) was an American novelist and major figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Born in Chicago, she attended university in Nashville and subsequently lived in Denmark and New York, where she worked as a nurse and librarian. Her two novels, Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929), established her as one of the most important black female novelists in American history. Erika Williams (Introducer) INTRODUCER BIOGRAPHY Erika Renee Williams in an associate professor of English and Africana Studies at the University of Connecticut. She is the author of Tales of Du Bois and is at work on a book about narratives of racial passing in modernist and contemporary literature.