Passing /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A NETFLIX BOOK CLUB PICK

Nella Larsen's powerful, thrilling, and tragic tale about the fluidity of racial identity that continues to resonate today. A New York Times Editors' Choice. Now a major motion picture starring Tessa Thompson and Alexander Skarsgård

One of The Atlantic 's Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

Clare Kendry is living on the edge. Light-skinned, elegant, and ambitious, she is married to a racist white man unaware of her African American heritage, and has severed all ties to her past after deciding to "pass" as a white woman. Clare's childhood friend, Irene Redfield, just as light-skinned, has chosen to remain within the African American community, and is simultaneously allured and repelled by Clare's risky decision to engage in racial masquerade for personal and societal gain. After frequenting African American-centric gatherings together in Harlem, Clare's interest in Irene turns into a homoerotic longing for Irene's black identity that she abandoned and can never embrace again, and she is forced to grapple with her decision to pass for white in a way that is both tragic and telling. This edition features a new introduction by Emily Bernard and notes by Thadious M. Davis.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction: Nella Larsen's Erotics of Race (p. ix)
• Acknowledgments (p. xxix)
• A Note on the Text (p. xxxi)
• The Text of Passing (p. 1)
• Backgrounds and Contexts (p. 83)
• Reviews (p. 85)
• "Passing" Is a Novel of Longings (April 27, 1929) (p. 85)
• Beyond the Color Line (April 28, 1929) (p. 85)
• The Color Line (April 28, 1929) (p. 87)
• The Dilemma of Mixed Race: Another Study of the Color-line in New York (May 1, 1929) (p. 88)
• As in a Looking Glass (May 3, 1929) (p. 90)
• Touch of the Tar-brush (May 18, 1929) (p. 91)
• Passing (June 1929) (p. 93)
• The Cat Came Back (June 5, 1929) (p. 94)
• Novel of Race Consciousness (June 23, 1929) (p. 96)
• Passing (July 1929) (p. 97)
• Passing (July 1929) (p. 99)
• Passing (Aug. 1929) (p. 99)
• Do They Always Return? (Sept. 28, 1929) (p. 101)
• Passing (Dec. 1929) (p. 102)
• Passing (Dec. 12, 1929) (p. 102)
• Contemporary Coverage of Passing and Race (p. 105)
• When Is a Caucasian Not a Caucasian? (March 2, 1911) (p. 105)
• Writer Says Brazil Has No Color Line (Oct. 1925) (p. 107)
• Does It Pay to "Pass?" (Aug. 20, 1927) (p. 107)
• From White Negroes (May-June 1928) (p. 109)
• 3,000 Negroes Cross the Line Each Year (July 12, 1928) (p. 111)
• From Negro to Caucasion, Or How the Ethiopian Is Changing His Skin (1929) (p. 112)
• Crossing the Color Line (July 28, 1929) (p. 117)
• From Crossing the Color Line (Aug. 26, 1931) (p. 121)
• 75,000 Pass in Philadelphia Every Day (Dec. 19, 1931) (p. 123)
• Careful Lyncher! He May Be Your Brother (Jan. 21, 1932) (p. 124)
• Blonde Girl Was 'Passing' (Jan. 23, 1932) (p. 125)
• Virginia Is Still Hounding 'White' Negroes Who 'Pass' (p. 126)
• The Rhinelander/Jones Case (p. 129)
• Society Youth Weds Cabman's Daughter (Nov. 14, 1924) (p. 129)
• Poor Girl to Fight Hubby's Parents (Dec. 26, 1924) (p. 130)
• From Calls Rhinelander Dupe of Girl He Wed (Nov. 10, 1925) (p. 133)
• From Loved Rhinelander, Wife's Letters Say (Nov. 13, 1925) (p. 134)
• From Rhinelander Bares Love Secrets (Nov. 21, 1925) (p. 137)
• From Kip's "Soul Message" Notes Read (Nov. 28. 1925) (p. 138)
• From Rhinelander Jury Reaches a Decision after Twelve Hours (Dec. 5, 1925) (p. 145)
• [Rhinelander Editorial], The Crisis (Jan. 1926) (p. 147)
• Rhinelander Gets a Fair Deal (Jan. 26, 1926) (p. 147)
• Mrs. Rhinelander to Sail (July 16, 1926) (p. 148)
• About Nella Larsen (p. 149)
• New Author Unearthed Right Here in Harlem (May 23, 1928) (p. 149)
• Behind the Backs of Books and Authors (April 13, 1929) (p. 150)
• Jean Blackwell Hutson to Louise Fox (Aug. 1, 1969) (p. 151)
• Author's Statements (p. 152)
• [Nella Larsen Imes, Guggenheim Application] (p. 152)
• [In Defense of Sanctuary] (p. 156)
• Letters (p. 158)
• To Carl Van Vechten [1925] (p. 158)
• To Charles S. Johnson [Aug. 1926] (p. 158)
• To Eddie Wasserman [April 3, 1928] (p. 161)
• To Eddie Wasserman [April 5, 1928] (p. 161)
• To Dorothy Peterson [n.d.] (p. 162)
• To Dorothy Peterson [July 19, 1927] (p. 163)
• To Dorothy Peterson [July 21, 1927] (p. 164)
• To Dorothy Peterson [Aug. 2, 1927] (p. 166)
• To Langston Hughes [n.d.] (p. 167)
• To Langston Hughes [1930] (p. 168)
• To Carl Van Vechten [April 15, 1929] (p. 168)
• To Gertrude Stein (Jan. 26, 1931) (p. 169)
• To Carl Van Vechten [May 14, 1932] (p. 170)
• The Tragic Mulatto (A) (p. 171)
• The Quadroons (p. 171)
• From The Garies and Their Friends (p. 180)
• From Clotel (p. 192)
• From Iola Leroy (p. 200)
• From An Imperative Duty (p. 207)
• The Father of Desiree's Baby (p. 213)
• From Pudd'nhead Wilson (p. 218)
• From The House Behind the Cedars (p. 220)
• The Octoroon (p. 227)
• Near White (p. 227)
• Mulatto (p. 227)
• From Imitation of Life (p. 229)
• Selections from Stories and Novels of Passing: "The Moment of Regret" (p. 243)
• From Iola Leroy (p. 243)
• From The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (p. 248)
• From Flight (p. 257)
• From Plum Bun (p. 262)
• From Black No More (p. 270)
• Passing (p. 281)
• Selected Writings from the Harlem Renaissance (p. 285)
• The Mulatto to His Critics (p. 285)
• The Sleeper Wakes (p. 285)
• Heritage (p. 308)
• Two Who Crossed a Line (p. 311)
• Criteria of Negro Art (p. 312)
• Freedom (p. 320)
• From The Negro-Art Hokum (p. 324)
• From Nigger Heaven (p. 326)
• Passing for White, Passing for Colored, Passing for Negroes Plus (p. 332)
• Criticism (p. 335)
• Nella Larsen's Passing: A Study in Irony (p. 337)
• Nella Larsen's Passing: A Problem of Interpretation (p. 342)
• Nella Larsen: Mystery Woman of the Harlem Renaissance (p. 350)
• From Passing for What? Aspects of Identity in Nella Larsen's Novels (p. 356)
• [From Black Female Sexuality in Passing] (p. 363)
• Nella Larsen's Harlem Aesthetic (p. 379)
• From Miscegenation and "The Dicta of Race and Class": The Rhinelander Case and Nella Larsen's Passing (p. 387)
• Clare Kendry's "True" Colors: Race and Class Conflict in Nella Larsen's Passing (p. 393)
• From Sororophobia (p. 409)
• Passing, Queering: Nella Larsen's Psychoanalytic Challenge (p. 417)
• From Passing Fancies (p. 435)
• Nella Larsen and the Veil of Race (p. 444)
• From The Recurring Conditions of Nella Larsen's Passing (p. 463)
• Passing and Domestic Tragedy (p. 486)
• Passing: Race, Identification, and Desire (p. 489)
• Racial Etiquette: Nella Larsen's Passing and the Rhinelander Case (p. 507)
• A Chronology (p. 533)
• Selected Bibliography (p. 539)

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

It was the last letter in Irene Redfield's little pile of morning mail. After her other ordinary and clearly directed letters the long envelope of thin Italian paper with its almost illegible scrawl seemed out of place and alien. And there was, too, something mysterious and slightly furtive about it. A thin sly thing which bore no return address to betray the sender. Not that she hadn't immediately known who its sender was. Some two years ago she had one very like it in outward appearance. Furtive, but yet in some peculiar, determined way a little flaunting. Purple ink. Foreign paper of extraordinary size. It had been, Irene noted, postmarked in New York the day before. Her brows came together in a tiny frown. The frown, however, was more from perplexity than from annoyance; though there was in her thoughts an element of both. She was wholly unable to comprehend such an attitude towards danger as she was sure the letter's contents would reveal; and she disliked the idea of opening and reading it. This, she reflected, was of a piece with all that she knew of Clare Kendry. Stepping always on the edge of danger. Always aware, but not drawing back or turning aside. Certainly not because of any alarms or feeling of outrage on the part of others. And for a swift moment Irene Redfield seemed to see a pale small girl sitting on a ragged blue sofa, sewing pieces of bright red cloth together, while her drunken father, a tall, powerfully built man, raged threateningly up and down the shabby room, bellowing curses and making spasmodic lunges at her which were not the less frightening because they were, for the most part, ineffectual. Sometimes he did manage to reach her. Butonly the fact that the child had edged herself and her poor sewing over to the farthermost corner of the sofa suggested that she was in any way perturbed by this menace to herself and her work. Clare had known well enough that it was unsafe to take a portion of the dollar that was her weekly wage for the doing of many errands for the dressmaker who lived on the top floor of the building of which Bob Kendry was janitor. But that knowledge had not deterred her. She wanted to go to her Sunday school's picnic, and she had made up her mind to wear a new dress. So, in spite of certain unpleasantness and possible danger, she had taken the money to buy the material for that pathetic little red frock. There had been, even in those days, nothing sacrificial in Clare Kendry's idea of life, no allegiance beyond her own immediate desire. She was selfish, and cold, and hard. And yet she had, too, a strange capacity of transforming warmth and passion, verging sometimes almost on theatrical heroics. Irene, who was a year or more older than Clare, remembered the day that Bob Kendry had been brought home dead, killed in a silly saloon-fight. Clare, who was at that time a scant fifteen years old, had just stood there with her lips pressed together, her thin arms folded across her narrow chest, staring down at the familiar pasty-white face of her parent with a sort of disdain in her slanting black eyes. For a very long time she had stood like that, silent and staring. Then, quite suddenly, she had given way to a torrent of weeping, swaying her thin body, tearing at her bright hair, and stamping her small feet. The outburst had ceased as suddenly as it had begun. She glanced quickly about the bare room, taking everyone in, even the two policemen, in a sharp look of flashing scorn. And, in the next instant, she had turned and vanished through the door. Seen across the long stretch of years, the thing had more the appearance of an outpouring of pent-up fury than of an overflow of grief for her dead father; though she had been, Irene admitted, fond enough of him in her own rather catlike way. Catlike. Certainly that was the word which best described Clare Kendry, if any single word could describe her. Sometimes she was hard and apparently without feeling at all; sometimes she was affectionate and rashly impulsive. And there was about her an amazing soft malice, hidden well away until provoked. Then she was capable of scratching, and very effectively too. Or, driven to anger, she would fight with a ferocity and impetuousness that disregarded or forgot any danger; superior strength, numbers, or other unfavorable circumstances. How savagely she had clawed those boys the day they had hooted her parent and sung a derisive rhyme, of their own composing, which pointed out certain eccentricities in his careening gait! And how deliberately she had--Irene brought her thoughts back to the present, to the letter from Clare Kendry that she still held unopened in her hand. With a little feeling of apprehension, she very slowly cut the envelope, drew out the folded sheets, spread them, and began to read. Excerpted from Passing by Nella Larsen, Nella Larsen All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Another trailblazer, Larsen wrote this novel in 1929. It follows Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield, two light-skinned black women who try to escape racism. Kendry chooses to sever all ties with her background and passes herself off as white, while Redfield simply denies that racism exists. Both, however, eventually are forced to face the awful truth. This edition contains a lengthy introduction and scholarly notes on the text. Essential for Black History Month. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Nella Larsen was associated with the Harlem Renaissance. She also worked as a librarian and a nurse in New York City, pursuing nursing after her brief, successful writing career until her death in 1964. Larsen's mother was Danish, and her father was West Indian; she used her experience as the child of middle-class parents in a mixed marriage to create characters in two novels who are stranded, caught between two cultures and unable to feel wholly at home in either. In each of Larsen's novels, the heroine suffers suffocating constrictions of her identity in both African American and white European culture. These crises in both Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929) are further complicated by the heroine's quest for sexual as well as social identity, and both novels end without hopeful resolution. Both contain autobiographical elements, but Quicksand, the more successful, reproduced in fictional form many of the circumstances of Larsen's own early life. Although her work had been out of print for many years, she has recently been rediscovered. (Bowker Author Biography)