Editions

Passing

  • Imprint: Penguin Classics

  • ISBN: 9780142437278

  • Length: 320  Pages

  • Dimensions: 197mm x 10mm x 130mm

  • Weight: 132g

  • RRP: £9.99

Passing

A classic, brilliant and layered novel that has been at the heart of racial identity discourse in America for almost a century.

Clare Kendry leads a dangerous life. Fair, elegant, and ambitious, she is married to a white man unaware of her African American heritage and has severed all ties to her past. Clare's childhood friend, Irene Redfield, just as light-skinned, has chosen to remain within the African American community, but refuses to acknowledge the racism that continues to constrict her family's happiness. A chance encounter forces both women to confront the lies they have told others - and the secret fears they have buried within themselves.

  • Imprint: Penguin Classics

  • ISBN: 9780142437278

  • Length: 320  Pages

  • Dimensions: 197mm x 10mm x 130mm

  • Weight: 132g

  • RRP: £9.99

Reviews

  • 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

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.

Nella Larsen

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Recommendations

7 brilliants authors who triumphed late in their careers

As Mark Twain said, 'ageing is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter'. George Orwell, Kate Chopin and Nella Larsen, to name a few, would no doubt have agreed.

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