The Complete Fiction Of Nella Larsen: Passing, Quicksand, And The Stories (2001) - Plot & Excerpts
Although this slim volume actually represents Harlem Renaissance writer Nella Larsen's entire written output, for my money her 1929 novella Passing so far eclipses any of its other contents, that I might almost suggest starting the book on page 163, reading to the end, and only re-starting from the beginning if you fall in love with what you find. I'll therefore be focusing today on Passing, with only a brief note to explain my preference: in her 1928 Quicksand, and even more in the short stories that precede it, I was underwhelmed by Larsen's compulsion to "tell" rather than "show"; in fact she spends so much time over-explaining her main character's mental states that she has scarcely any opportunity to demonstrate them through actions or circumstances. While the result would probably still be of interest to a diaspora studies major (the protagonist of Quicksand, Helga Crane, is a chronically restless woman of mixed race attempting to find her place in the world), it struck me as basically a bundle of theoretical circumstances, with no real evocation of place or character. Add to that a "cold," not-particularly-supple prose style, and I was surprised to have read about Larsen's increasing prominence in the canon over the past few years—unless Quicksand is to be read purely as a logic-based essay on mixed-race socialization.Passing, however, changed my opinion of Larsen's capabilities, and made me regret her 1930 abandonment of writing for nursing, since I would love to see where her trajectory would have taken her otherwise. While Larsen's preoccupation with her protagonist's psychology is still on display here, it is complemented by vivid depictions of late 1920s Harlem and its upper-middle-class black culture. Her prose is more limber, more versatile, and creates sinister undercurrents running among her characters. With this kind of backdrop, Larsen's trademark insights into the liminal spaces between white and black (and possibly between same-sex and opposite-sex attraction) are much more engaging, since they seem to pertain to actual humans rather than to bundles of explication only.Plot-wise, Passing centers around the relationship between two old school friends, Irene Redfield and Clare Kindry, who meet again by chance on hot summer day after many years apart. Irene, from whose perspective we get our limited-third-person narration, is an upstanding member of the middle-class Negro set, the kind of woman who organizes luncheons and charity balls. As such she feels scandalized by the knowledge, picked up here and there via vague rumors, that blond, charismatic Clare has crossed the color line, married a white man, and is passing herself off as white. Indeed, it soon transpires that Clare's situation is both more privileged and more precarious than Irene's own, and both women have conflicted feelings about the choices they have made. Although Irene spends much of her time feeling offended by Clare, and repeatedly promises herself and her husband that she will cut all ties with her old friend, she allows an ongoing relationship to develop—this even after she has met Clare's shockingly racist husband, and despite her knowledge that by helping Clare to revisit Harlem she is putting them both in danger.One of the interesting aspects of the novella is Irene's relationship with the idea of "passing." She herself is light-skinned, usually taken for someone of Italian or Spanish descent, and in the opening scene we actually see her passing for white herself by entering and allowing herself to be served at a segregated restaurant:No, the woman sitting there staring at her couldn't possibly know. [...] Nevertheless, Irene felt, in turn, anger, scorn, and fear slide over her. It wasn't that she was ashamed of being a Negro, or even of having it declared. It was the idea of being ejected from any place, even in the polite and tactful way in which the Drayton would probably do it, that disturbed her.Despite her own willingness to slip through the color boundary now and then, however, Irene's morality is outraged by Clare's decision to turn her back on "her own kind," to live permanently with white people who believe that she is also white. Interestingly, many of Irene's objections seem to be similar to those a middle-class white woman might make: Clare ought to know her place, but instead she is grasping. Irene says several times that Clare always had a "having" disposition, that she was greedy, unsatisfiable. When Clare asks Irene if she's ever thought of "passing," Irene answers contemptuously "No, why would I?" (despite the fact that she IS passing at the very moment this conversation is going on), and continues "I have everything I want." Passing, then, in Irene's mind and also Clare's, equates to a way of "getting more," of obtaining illicit goods and status that would be unavailable to a black person. Irene takes Clare's decision as an insult, since it implies that what Irene "has" isn't good enough, but she also, at some level, understands the allure. She also definitely understands the allure of Clare herself; there is a strong current of physical attraction that overtakes her more logical resolutions every time she meets Clare in person. During their initial meeting Irene thinks to herself that Clare hadalways had that pale gold hair, which, unsheared still, was drawn loosely back from a broad brow, partly hidden by the small close hat. Her lips, painted a brilliant geranium red, were sweet and sensitive and a little obstinate. A tempting mouth. The face across the forehead and cheeks was a trifle too wide, but the ivory skin had a peculiar soft luster. And the eyes were magnificent! Dark, sometimes absolutely black, always luminous, and set in long, black lashes. Arresting eyes, slow and mesmeric, and with, for all their warmth, something withdrawn and secret about them. Ah! Surely! They were Negro eyes! Mysterious and concealing. and set in that ivory face under that bright hair, there was about them something exotic.At first flush the above paragraph reads like so many pointless fawning descriptions of beautiful women, but in reality there's much more going on. As Irene contemplates Clare, she is more and more drawn in—that "tempting" mouth isn't just tempting in the abstract, but tempting to Irene specifically. It's worth noting, too, that as much as Clare's decision to pass for white legitimately offends Irene, it's the "exotic" mixture of white European and black African features in the other woman's face that she finds so irresistible. So too, Clare's "Negro" eyes are "mysterious and concealing"—mysterious even to Irene, who herself identifies as a Negro. In this association of Negro with mystery, we can see Irene's internalization of the dominant (i.e., white) messaging around racial identity. Even though she is herself black, and socializes primarily with black people, she still thinks of blacks as embodying "mystery" in a way whites do not. Later in the novel, she and a white novelist speculate about what draws white men and women to balls given by black people. Irene opines that it's merely "curiosity" about potential dancing partners of another race, but she herself is more curious about—and drawn to—the "mysterious" hidden blackness of Clare than about dancing with any white man.In fact, if we consider Irene's association of exoticism, mystery and concealment with black people, and if we see her own bourgeois morality as inherited from white Christian society, Larsen could be read as implying that blond, passing Clare is somehow more of a Negro than black-haired, repressive Irene—or at least, that Irene is engaged in just as much artifice as her coveted friend. I know that this review is almost over and I've hardly strayed outside the novella's opening scene, but this is a piece whose plot-based subtleties are best discovered for oneself. Suffice it to say that the anxieties and ambivalences on display in this scene continue to grind against each other in interesting and, ultimately, tragic ways as the novella progresses. A fascinating glimpse of the interactions of race and sexuality in early 20th century Harlem.
"The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen" reminds that there are many hidden niches in the world of literature. This, for example, is mostly a collection of stories of African Americans who had passed the times of slavery and had made actual lives for themselves but still had to deal with the race struggle no matter how successful they became or how nice they dressed or whatever type of fancy apartments that they lived in, mainly because that struggle still did (and does) exist.I had read the story 'Quicksand' before but was too young to understand it and see it for what it was: an experience. For those interested in African-American literature/fiction/writing, this book should be on their list. Nella Larsen writes with real, raw thought. Her female leads are beautiful, confused and flawed, which I believe makes them realistic.I really enjoyed "Passing" and I liked the ending, how Clare Kendry killed herself with that bare smile on her lips. Anyone can judge her character...but they don't know how much she could have possibly suffered or how ashamed she could have felt in the situation that she had put herself in. The grass always looks greener on the other side unntil you walk in another person's shoes, if you get the chance...
What do You think about The Complete Fiction Of Nella Larsen: Passing, Quicksand, And The Stories (2001)?
I took a workday coffee break just so I could finish the last few pages of this book and not wait for my evening commute, so 5 stars it is.Quicksand is my favourite work of Larsen's, but I was drawn in by Passing, as well. I even enjoyed the short stories -- which were like O.Henry with more social awareness -- although the book's preface told me that Larsen herself considered these "hack writing" (or "throwaway songs", as John Lennon would say). This is the first time I've read Larsen, and I feel fortunate to have found this particular collection as it starts off with a mini-biography of the author and explains the semi-autobiographical nature of her characters.
—Brianna
Anthology Entry: Nella Larsen Nella Larson was an American novelist and short story writer that is mostly associated with the Harlem Renaissance era. She was born on April 13, 1891 in Chicago, Illinois. Her mother was Danish and her father was West Indian and she is described as being a “light skinned black women with limp hair and white facial features” (Figueroa). Her father died when she was two years old and her mother remarried to “a man of her own race and nationality” (Figueroa). Her stepfather seemed to view Nella as an embarrassment and in turn she did not see her family very often. Larsen studied at Fisk University from 1909-1910 and then moved to Copenhagen from 1910-1912 where she attended classes at the University of Copenhagen. She also studied nursing and spent many years working as a nurse in New York City. Larsen married a physicist named Elmer S. Imes on May 3, 1919 and she eventually took a job as a librarian in Harlem. Being married to Imes she was considered a “socialite wife,” and because of this she was introduced to many black authors of the Harlem Renaissance such as Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, and James Weldon Johnson. Her first novel Quicksand was published in 1928 and her second novel Passing in 1929. In 1930 she was accused of plagiarism. Her short story Sanctuary seemed to be very similar to another story that was published a few years prior. She eventually proved that she had not plagiarized but she was never published again. Larsen was also experiencing marital problems during this time and which eventually led to a divorce in 1933. Crushed by the accusation of plagiarism and her subsequent divorce she withdrew from the literary world and worked as a nurse for the remainder of her life. Nella Larsen died in March of 1964. During the time that Nella Larsen was living in New York City the Harlem Renaissance was taking place. This had a huge impact on Larsen and her introduction to many black authors of that time period was very influential on her writing. Writers such as James Weldon Johnson, Jessie Fauset, Jean Toomer, and Langston Hughes. Larsen was also very influenced by her own upbringing and background with many of her stories focusing on her “own personal experiences, ideas, thoughts and beliefs” (Figueroa). She has influenced many contemporary authors, including Heidi Durrow. Passing by Nella LarsenLarsen’s second novel is the story of a mulatto woman whose skin is so fair that she decided to “pass” as a white woman. Clare Kendry has married a bigoted white man and has lived a life of wealth and privilege but she longs to be back among African Americans. When she meets an old childhood friend, Irene Redfield, Clare begins to start associating with African Americans again. Irene does not fully trust Clare but she begins to socialize with Irene’s group of friends and eventually has an affair with Irene’s husband. When Clare’s husband finds out that she is black, he storms into a party and confronts her. During the confusion Clare mysteriously falls from a window and dies. It is not clear whether Irene pushed her or it was just an accident. Passing is similar to Larsen’s first novel Quicksand in that they both deal with women who attempt to “pass” as white during a time when there was a great deal of violence and discrimination against African Americans, especially African American women. There is also a strong theme of racism throughout both novels. This novel is important because it can easily be related to Nella Larsen’s life. She was a light-skinned African American woman who could have easily passed for white. She felt that she deserved equality because she was partially white but she also wanted blacks and whites to be equal as well. Timeline:April 13, 1891: Nella Larsen born1909-1910: Attended Fisk University1910-1912: Moves to Copenhagen, attends University of Copenhagen1912-1915: Studies nursing in NYCMay 3, 1919: Marries Elmer S. Imes1928: Quicksand published1929: Passing published 1930: Accused of plagiarism 1933: Divorce from Elmer S. Imes1933-1964: Withdraws from literary world and continues nursingMarch 1964: Nella Larsen diesFigueroa, Priscilla. "Nella Larsen." True Women, New Women: Women in New York City, 1890-1940. The College of Staten Island of The City University of New York, 14 Dec. 1998. Web. 3 Mar. 2011.
—Engl 328
So I originally wrote this incredibly well-worded review, then submitted it to the site to save. Apparently that botched. Anything I try now will be a mere shadow of the utter awesomeness of my prior review.I made some sly references and jabs at The Awakening; I insulted how boring Henry James can be; I even threw some metaphorical, dark, cryptic insults in the direction of George Elliot, specifically that 800 page piece of monotony embodied: Middlemarch. Middlemarch, furthermore, brings to mind the commonplace phrase, "Excuse me while I go pound my balls flat."This book didn't evoke that, so, cheers, Nella Larsen. To be frank, I only read "Quicksand." To be frank again, I only read it because it was less than 150 pages long, and, well, I had to. I have a professor that originally appeared to know what he was talking about. He still does, but lacks any semblance of ability to carry a class discussion about literature. But I figure I can toss out some chewy comments if I actually read the book. Hence, my reading it this evening - nay, finishing it - and wasting some time writing a lackluster review instead of studying for my midterm tomorrow.
—Zach
