In Larsen’s second novel, “Passing,” first published in 1929, the author revisits the theme of her first novel “Quicksand”, that being the struggle for racial identity by children of mixed-race. The novel details the lives of two childhood friends, Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield, both of whom are of mixed African and European ancestry and are “passing” as whites. The novel picks up in the lives of the two as they later reunite in adulthood. An ambiguous relation develops between the two as they...
"Absolutely absorbing, fascinating, and indispensable.–Alice Walker"A work so fine, sensitive, and distinguished that it rises above race categories and becomes that rare object, a good novel."–The Saturday Review of LiteratureMarried to a successful physician and prominently ensconced in Harlem's vibrant society of the 1920s, Irene Redfield leads a charmed existence-until she is shaken out of it by a chance encounter with a childhood friend who has been «passing for white.» An...
First published in 1928, “Quicksand” is the first novel by American author Nella Larsen. It is the semi-autobiographical tale of a young, mixed race woman who struggles to find her place in the world. Like her main character, Helga Crane, Larsen was the daughter of a Danish white mother and a West Indian black father who disappeared from her life as a baby. Larsen and the fictional Crane never feel that they belong in either the white world or the black world and both travel around the United...
Helga's mother is white, and her father is black–and absent. Ostracized throughout her lonely childhood for her dark skin, Helga spends her adult life seeking acceptance. Everywhere she goes — the American South, Harlem, even Denmark–she feels oppressed. Socially, economically, and psychologically, Helga struggles against the «quicksand» of classism, racism, and sexism.One of the most acclaimed and influential writers of the Harlem Renaissance, Nella Larsen published her powerful...
Published in 1928, Nella Larsen's first novel «Quicksand» regards the story of Helga Crane, the lovely and refined mixed-race daughter of a Danish mother and a West Indian black father. The character is loosely based on Larsen's own experiences and deals with the character's struggle for racial and sexual identity, a theme common to Larsen's work. In Larsen's second novel, «Passing,» published in 1929, the author revisits this struggle through the lives of two childhood...
