The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen - (Paperback)

About the Book

In this collection, readers rediscover one of the most gifted writers of the Harlem Renaissance, whose career flamed brightly but briefly in the 1920s. Nella Larsen's subject is the struggle of sensitive, spirited heroines to find a place for themselves in a hostile world.

Book Synopsis

A remarkable volume that brings together the complete fiction of the author of Passing and Quicksand, one of the most gifted writers of the Harlem Renaissance. - "An original and hugely insightful writer." --The New York Times

Throughout her short but brilliant literary career, Nella Larsen wrote piercing dramas about the black middle class that featured sensitive, spirited heroines struggling to find a place where they belonged. Passing, Larsen's best-known work, is a disturbing story about the unraveling lives of two childhood friends, one of whom turns her back on her past and marries a white bigot. Just as disquieting is the portrait in Quicksand of Helga Crane, half black and half white, 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 complexity and imbued with a sense of place that brings Harlem vibrantly to life.

Review Quotes

"Highly charged interior dramas of the black middle class in Harlem [by] an original and hugely insightful writer." --The New York Times

"Discovering The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen is like finding lost money with no name on it. One can enjoy it with delight and share it without guilt." --Maya Angelou

"[Nella Larsen's novels] open up a whole world of experience that seemed to me, when I first read them years ago, absolutely absorbing, fascinating, and indispensable. They do that still." --Alice Walker

About the Author

NELLA LARSEN (1891-1964) was the author of two novels, Quicksand and Passing, and several short stories. She received a Guggenheim fellowship to write a third novel in 1930 but, unable to find a publisher for it, she disappeared from the literary scene and worked as a nurse. Larsen died in New York City in 1964.