Passing"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 Literature Married 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 important figure in the Harlem Renaissance, Nella Larsen was the first African-American woman to be awarded a Guggenheim fellowship. Her fictional portraits of women seeking their identities through a fog of racial confusion were informed by her own Danish-West Indian parentage, and Passing offers fascinating psychological insights into issues of race and gender. |
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afraid African-American amused answer Aubrey Beardsley awfully better Brian Carl Van Vechten certainly Chicago Clare Kendry Clare's face COLLEY CIBBER coloured Damn dance danger dark Dave Freeland door Dover Drayton dress everything eyes father fear feeling felt Frederick Douglass frock G. K. Chesterton gaze Gertrude girl glance gone Good-bye guess hand happened Harlem heard Hugh hurt husband Irene Redfield Irene thought Irene told Irene's Jack John Bellew joke Junior Kendry's knew Larsen laugh Lewis Carroll lips look Margery marriage mean mind minute Negro Nella Larsen never nice nigger OLAUDAH EQUIANO passed queer race remembered Rene dear resentment s'pose seemed silence silly smile someone sorry staring stood strange sure surprised talk tears tell Thank there's thing turned voice W. E. B. Du Bois wanted Wentworth woman wonder words Zulena