Vintage-3.10.225788-banner

Reading lists

The essential Harlem Renaissance reads

A photograph of Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson in 1920s clothing in Passing

50665363356-c8efd3ff24-o-1612451325.jpeg

Features

Passing: how the Nella Larsen book and the Netflix film compare

Black-Female-Authors_Hero-Desktop_Penguin

Must-read classics by Black female authors

Main-Triumphant-Late-Career-books-1800×1200.jpg

7 brilliant authors who wrote their best books late in their careers

Quicksand

'The overlooked American writer who blows apart modern thinking on race' Telegraph 
 
Born to a Danish mother and a West Indian father, Helga Crane has long had to fend for herself as a mixed-race woman in the Deep South of 1920’s America. She moves to Harlem and then to Copenhagen in her search for a sense of belonging and acceptance, but wherever she goes, she cannot escape the perceptions and prejudices of others. One of the finest works of the Harlem Renaissance, Nella Larsen’s semi-autobiographical first novel is a powerful portrayal of one woman’s fractured inner life.

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.

Born to a white mother and an absent black father, and despised for her dark skin, Helga Crane has long had to fend for herself. As a young woman, Helga teaches at an all-black school in the South, but even here she feels different. Moving to Harlem and eventually to Denmark, she attempts to carve out a comfortable life and place for herself, but ends up back where she started, choosing emotional freedom that quickly translates into a narrow existence. 
 
Nella Larsen's powerful first novel has intriguing autobiographical parallels and at the same time invokes the international dimension of African American culture in the 1920s. Slow, moving and reflective, Quicksand is a detailed and evocative portrayal of a biracial woman's inner life.

Passing. Quicksand. And the Stories

The Complete Fiction

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.

Two Novellas

Quicksand & Passing

A beloved novel from the Harlem Renaissance that follows the fraught relationship between two childhood friends, one who passes for white and one who chooses not to

'Absolutely absorbing, fascinating and indispensable'

NELLA LARSEN (1891-1964) was an American writer 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.

VINTAGE CLASSICS' HARLEM RENAISSANCE SERIES 
 
Celebrating the finest works of the Harlem Renaissance, one of the most important Black arts movements in modern history. 
 
'She could neither conform nor be happy in her unconformity' 
 
Nella Larsen wrote two novels in her lifetime, both of which are collected here. The first, Quicksand, follows a mixed-race woman who runs from the fictional town of Naxos to Chicago to Harlem to Copenhagen. It becomes easy for her to leave behind places but the discrimination she's running from is inescapable. In Passing, two childhood friends reconnect later in life. One, slightly more light-skinned than the other, lives her life passing for a white person, married to a flagrant racist while her friend observes uneasily. 
 
Masterfully plotted and infinitely illuminating, Quicksand and Passing are two of the finest works of the Harlem Renaissance. 
 
'A beloved novel from the Harlem Renaissance that follows the fraught relationship between two childhood friends, one who passes for white and one who chooses not to' Brit Bennett 
 
'Absolutely absorbing, fascinating and indispensable' Alice Walker 
 
'Buy the book' W. E. B. Du Bois

Penguin Classics

Passing

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. 
 
Celebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to a love story on the moon. Beautifully designed and printed, these collectible editions are bound in colourful, tactile cloth and stamped with foil. 
 
Clare Kendry, elegant, fair-skinned and ambitious, is married to a white man who is unaware of her African-American heritage. When she reunites with childhood friend Irene, who has not hidden her origins, both women are forced to confront the secret fears they have buried within themselves. A taut exploration of race and gender, Passing is one of the Harlem Renaissance's greatest works. 
 
'A tragic story rooted in inescapable facts of American life' The New York Times

Nella Larsen

The classic 1920s story of a friendship torn apart, Passing is Nella Larsen's devastating masterpiece 
 
Irene Redfield is living a life of careful balance in Harlem when a chance encounter draws her back into the orbit of Clare Kendry, a childhood friend. Passing as white, Clare moves effortlessly through a world that Irene has chosen to reject. Their renewed intimacy is charged with fascination and envy. 
 
BRIEF ENCOUNTERS: classic novellas and captivating stories, to be read in a single sitting or savoured over days

Nella Larsen

Books by Nella Larsen

Series by Nella Larsen

Harlem Renaissance Series

Articles featuring Nella Larsen

The essential Harlem Renaissance reads

Passing: how the Nella Larsen book and the Netflix film compare

Must-read classics by Black female authors

7 brilliant authors who wrote their best books late in their careers

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter