PassingA 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. |
Contents
Introduction | vii |
Suggestions for Further Reading | xxxiii |
A Note on the Text | xxxv |
Encounter | 7 |
ReEncounter | 49 |
Finale | 83 |
Explanatory Notes | 115 |
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Common terms and phrases
African Americans amused anger answer asked biracial black middle class boys Brian Broyard Carl Van Vechten Chicago Chicago Surface Lines Clare Kendry cultural dance desire Drayton everything eyes face father fear feeling Felise felt gaze Gertrude girl gone Good-bye hand happened Harlem Renaissance Hugh husband Irene Redfield Irene told Irene's Jack Jessie Fauset John Bellew joke Junior Kendry's knew Larsen laughed lips lives look Margery marriage mean mother Negro Nella Larsen Nellie Walker never nice nigger novel passers passing Penguin Books Plessy queer Quicksand race racial identity remember Rene dear resentment Rhinelander Rudolph Fisher seemed sexual silent silly skin color smile social someone sorry staring stood strange streets sure talk tell Thank thing thought turned voice W. E. B. Du Bois wanted Wentworth white woman words write to Penguin York Zulena