Showing results by author "Nella Larsen" in All Categories

Nella Larsen's "Quicksand" paints a poignant portrait of Helga Crane, a young woman grappling with her mixed racial heritage in the 1920s. Caught between societal expectations and her yearning for identity, Helga navigates different settings.

Light-skinned Black woman Irene Redfield encounters an old childhood friend - Clare - who is now "passing" as a White woman. Clare is married to a racist White man, who doesn't know she has African American blood. In spite of the danger of being found out by her husband and society at large, she finds herself helplessly drawn to Irene's world.

Helga Crane yearns to become more than she is and to feel the world more intensely. She consequently dismisses her native Chicago, New York's Harlem, Copenhagen even. She also passes on opportunities for extended family, for marriage, and for true love. What is always latent in this truly outstanding work; is how much the background of 1920's American racial segregation defines Helga's malaise, and how much - paradoxically - is of herown doing.

First published in 1929, Passing is a remarkable exploration of the shifting racial and sexual boundaries in America. Larsen, a premier writer of the Harlem Renaissance, captures the rewards and dangers faced by two Negro women who pass for White in a deeply segregated world.

This collection brings together the powerful and thought-provoking works of Nella Larsen, a literary voice of the Harlem Renaissance, whose nuanced exploration of race, identity, and societal constraints remains as relevant today as when first written. Featuring Passing and Quicksand, Larsen's celebrated novels, alongside shorter but equally compelling pieces like The Wrong Man, Freedom, and Sanctuary, this anthology showcases her ability to illuminate complex human experiences with elegance and depth.

Light-skinned black woman Irene Redfield meets an old childhood friend - Claire - who is now "passing" as a white woman... Claire is married to a racist white man, who doesn't know she has African American blood. Despite the danger of being found out by her husband and society at large she finds herself helplessly drawn to Irene's world. An absolutely fascinating listening experience on many levels simultaneously.

Light-skinned black woman Irene Redfield encounters an old childhood friend - Claire- who is now "passing" as a white woman. Claire is married to a racist white man, who doesn't know she has African American blood. In spite of the danger of being found out by her husband and society at large; she finds herself helplessly drawn to Irene's world... "Passing" is a fascinating listening experience on many simultaneous levels.

A woman wrestles with stifling race and gender expectations in this debut novel by Nella Larsen, one of the most important voices of the Harlem Renaissance.

African American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent. It begins with the works of such late 18th-century writers as Phillis Wheatley. Before the high point of enslaved people narratives, African-American literature was dominated by autobiographical spiritual narratives. The genre known as slave narratives in the 19th century were accounts by people who had generally escaped from slavery, about their journeys to freedom and ways they claimed their lives.

The New York Classics Collection: Stories of the City brings together 11 of the greatest works of fiction ever written about New York City, collected into one audiobook. Featuring a sweeping history of New York City in Washington Irving's History of New York, tales of the Jazz Age in The Great Gatsby; love and deception in Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence; alongside many more grand stories from 18th and 19th century, this collection will whisk you away into the high and low of the city that never sleeps, with some of the greatest novels ever written.

In Passing, Nella Larsen, a prominent voice of the Harlem Renaissance, delves into the intricate dynamics of friendship, identity, and race. Published in 1929, this captivating novel tells the story of two mixed-race women, Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, who can seamlessly navigate between worlds. While Irene embraces her life in Harlem with her black husband, Clare chooses to marry a prejudiced white man. When Clare reappears in Irenes life after years apart, she reignites unsettling questions about identity and belonging. (Introduction by Elizabeth Klett)

A chance meeting reunites Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, estranged friends who have long been separated by their ambitions. Since losing touch, Irene has become a wife and mother in Harlem, where she remains closely connected to her racial heritage. The seductive Clare, however, now “passes,” enjoying the privileges of white society while hiding her roots from the world, including her rich (and racist) husband.

Quicksand is a novel by American author Nella Larsen, first published in 1928. This is her first novel and she completed the first draft quickly. The novel was out of print from the 1930s to the 1970s. Quicksand is a work that explores both cross-cultural and interracial themes. Larsen dedicated the novel to her husband. Discussing the novel, Jacquelyn Y. McLendon called it the more "obviously autobiographical" of Larsen's two novels. Larsen called the emotional experiences of the novel "the awful truth" in a letter to her friend Carl van Vechten.

In Passing, Nella Larsen delivers a powerful, evocative exploration of identity, race, and the complex choices we make to survive. Irene Redfield, a Black woman living in Harlem, finds her world upended when she reconnects with her childhood friend, Clare Kendry. Clare, who has "passed" as white for years, leads a life of privilege, while Irene’s identity remains grounded in the Black community.

Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel Passing is hailed today as a significant literary work of Harlem Renaissance, though for several decades it, like all of her works, was out of print. As history rights a wrong and recommits Larsen’s name to memory, it is beneficial to look at the other writings she published over her short career, collected here in Beyond Passing: The Further Writings of Nella Larsen.

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Amaka Okafor, an acclaimed stage actress and composer who performs all over the country at venues such as The National Theatre, The Old Vic and National Theatre Scotland. A classic, brilliant and layered novel that has been at the...

Irene Redfield is a woman with an enviable life. She and her successful husband, Brian, share a comfortable Harlem townhouse with their sons. But everything changes on the day she encounters a long-lost childhood friend. Clare Kendry - light-skinned, charming and beautiful - tells Irene how she left behind the black neighbourhood of her adolescence and began passing for white, hiding her true identity from everyone, including her racist husband....

Quicksand, a poignant novel by Nella Larsen, delves into the life of Helga Crane, a mixed-race schoolteacher in the American South during the 1920s. As the story unfolds, Helga makes a bold decision to abandon her teaching career and journey north to reconnect with her roots in Chicago. This semi-autobiographical tale captures Helgas tumultuous quest for identity, reflecting Larsens own experiences of navigating the complexities of her mixed heritage amid the pervasive racism of the era. Published in 1928, the novel is now in the public domain, bringing to life the rich struggles and triumphs ...

Passing is a novel by American author Nella Larsen, first published in 1929. Set primarily in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City in the 1920s, the story centers on the reunion of two childhood friends—Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield—and their increasing fascination with each other's lives. The title refers to the practice of "racial passing", which is a key element of the novel. Clare Kendry's attempt to pass as white for her husband, John (Jack) Bellew, is significant and is a catalyst for the tragic events.

Clare está "passando-se": leva a vida de uma branca, embora seja, na dicotomia racial norte-americana, uma negra. Com a pela clara, linda e ambiciosa, casou-se por interesse com um rico homem branco, racista, que não sabe da origem afroamericana da esposa. Sua amiga de infância, Irene...