Quicksand & Passing

By Nella Larsen

Nella Larsen's novels Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929) document the historical realities of Harlem in the 1920s and shed a bright light on the social world of the black bourgeoisie. The novels' greatest appeal and achievement, however, is not sociological, but psychological. As noted in the editor's comprehensive introduction, Larsen takes the theme of psychic dualism, so popular in Harlem Renaissance fiction, to a higher and more complex level, displaying a sophisticated understanding and penetrating analysis of black female psychology.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Start Publishing LLC
• Release date: Apr 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781627931328

Nella Larsen

Nella Larsen was born in Chicago in 1891 to a white Danish mother and a black West Indian father. She studied in America and Denmark and throughout her writing career she worked as a children’s librarian and primarily as a nurse. In 1928 her first novel Quicksand was published to great critical acclaim. Passing was published a year later. Her marriage to Dr Elmer Imes brought her into contact with the upper echelons of New York’s black society and she became an important female voice of the Harlem Renaissance. She was the first black woman to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship for creative writing. Divorced in 1933, she spent the rest of her life working as nurse. Nella Larsen died in 1964.

Reviews for Quicksand & Passing

[wendyrey · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Two short novels from an African-American woman writer of the 1920s and 30s. Well written stories that i enjoyed more than expected. 'Passing' is mainly the story of a mixed race woman who spent a lot of her life 'passing' as a white person in a time when it mattered.