Passing - Softcover

Larsen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0881431192 ISBN 13: 9780881431193

Publisher: Ayer Company Publishers Incorporated, 1949

Synopsis

Nellallitea 'Nella' Larsen (first called Nellie Walker) was an American novelist of the Harlem Renaissance who wrote two novels and a few short stories. Though her literary output was scant, what she wrote earned her recognition by her contemporaries and by present-day critics. In "Passing," Clare and Irene were two childhood friends. They lost touch when Clare's father died and she moved in with two white aunts. By hiding that Clare was part-black, they allowed her to 'pass' as a white woman and marry a white racist. Irene lives in Harlem, commits herself to racial uplift, and marries a black doctor. The novel centers on the meeting of the two childhood friends later in life, and the unfolding of events as each woman is fascinated and seduced by the other's daring lifestyle. The novel traces a tragic path as Irene becomes paranoid that her husband is having an affair with Clare.

About this title

Review

A work so fine, sensitive, and distinguished that it rises above race categories and becomes that rare object, a good novel. Saturday Review of Literature"

"A work so fine, sensitive, and distinguished that it rises above race categories and becomes that rare object, a good novel." --Saturday Review of Literature

"It is a tragic story rooted in inescapable facts of American life: that whiteness conferred an almost universal unearned advantage, and that loyalty to a black racial identity was not only an act of pride but also one of courage."
- The New York Times

About the Author

Nella Larsen (1891-1964) was the author of two novels and several short stories. She received a Guggenheim fellowship to write a third novel in 1930 but, unable to find a publisher for it, she disappeared from the literary scene and worked as a nurse.

Thadious M. Davis is the G. C. Vanderbilt Professor of English at Vanderbilt University, the author of an acclaimed biography of Nella Larsen, and the editor of Larsen's Quicksand for Penguin Classics.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ayer Company Publishers Incorporated
• Publication date: 1949
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0881431192
• ISBN 13: 9780881431193
• Binding: Paperback