The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen: Passing Quicksand and The Stories

Nella Larsen was a major Harlem Renaissance author. Despite her lack of output her art was powerful and well-received. This collection contains both of her novels Passing and Quicksand as well as all three of her published short stories Freedom The Wrong Man and Sanctuary. Quicksand was an autobiographical film about a womans need for sexual fulfilment in the setting of respectability and acceptance in a religious society. The novel is bleak and it ends with the protagonist being drawn into a life that is the polar opposite of all she desired. Passing confronts the issue of racial passing. Clare and Irene two childhood friends who are both fair-skinned enough to pass for white are the focus of the story.