{"title":"Nella Larsen","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"passing-9780375758133b","title":"Passing","description":"\"Passing,\" first published to critical acclaim in 1929, is the electrifying story of two women who dare to cross the color line in New York in the 1920s. This Modern Library Paperback Classics edition is published with an Introduction by Ntozake Shange and new explanatory notes.","brand":"Modern Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Bargain","offer_id":42817768587344,"sku":"9780375758133B","price":8.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/8173\/5760\/files\/9780375758133-l.jpg?v=1785866299"},{"product_id":"the-complete-fiction-of-nella-larsen-9780385721004b","title":"The Complete Fiction Of Nella Larsen","description":"This volume brings together the complete fiction of the author of Passing and Quicksand, one of the most gifted writers of the Harlem Renaissance. Throughout her short but brilliant literary career, Nella Larsen wrote piercing dramas about the black middle class that featured sensitive, spirited heroines struggling to find a place where they belonged. Passing, Larsen’s best-known work, is a disturbing story about the unraveling lives of two childhood friends, one of whom turns her back on her past and marries a white bigot. Just as disquieting is the portrait in Quicksand of Helga Crane, half black and half white, who is unable to escape her loneliness no matter where and with whom she lives. Race and marriage offer few securities here or in the other stories in this compulsively readable collection, rich in psychological complexity and imbued with a sense of place that brings Harlem vibrantly to life.","brand":"Anchor Books","offers":[{"title":"Bargain","offer_id":42872776425552,"sku":"9780385721004B","price":10.49,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/8173\/5760\/files\/9780385721004-l.jpg?v=1785873339"},{"product_id":"quicksand-twentieth-century-classics-9780141181271b","title":"Quicksand (Twentieth Century Classics)","description":"Born to an indifferent white mother and an absent black father, and scorned for her dark skin, Helga Crane has long had to fend for herself. As a young woman, Helga teaches at an all-black school in the South, but even here she feels different. Moving to Harlem and eventually to Denmark, she attempts to carve out a comfortable life and place for herself, but ends up back where she started, choosing emotional freedom that quickly translates into a narrow existence.","brand":"Penguin Books","offers":[{"title":"Bargain","offer_id":42819772416080,"sku":"9780141181271B","price":7.49,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/8173\/5760\/files\/9780141181271-l.jpg?v=1785877298"},{"product_id":"passing-macmillan-collector-s-library-9781529040289b","title":"Passing (Macmillan Collector's Library)","description":"Irene Redfield, married to a successful physician, enjoys a comfortable life in 1920s Harlem, New York. Reluctantly, she renews her friendship with old school friend, Clare Kendry. Clare, who like Irene is light skinned, ‘passes’ as white and is married to a racist white man who has no idea about Clare’s racial heritage. Clare is very persuasive and Irene, despite misgivings, can’t resist letting her back into her world. As tensions mount between friends and between couples, this taut and mesmerizing narrative spins towards an unexpected end.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDesigned to appeal to the book lover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautifully bound pocket-sized gift editions of much loved classic titles. Bound in real cloth, printed on high quality paper, and featuring ribbon markers and gilt edges, Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.","brand":"MacMillan","offers":[{"title":"Bargain","offer_id":42869530361936,"sku":"9781529040289B","price":6.49,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/8173\/5760\/files\/9781529040289-l.jpg?v=1785881866"},{"product_id":"quicksand-modern-library-torchbearers-9780593730270b","title":"Quicksand (Modern Library Torchbearers)","description":"\u003cb\u003eA classic novel of identity, sexuality, religion, and race by the author of \u003ci\u003ePassing, \u003c\/i\u003ehailed as “an original and hugely insightful writer” by \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e—with an introduction by Asali Solomon, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Days of Afrekete\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e“\u003ci\u003eQuicksand\u003c\/i\u003e . . . open[s] up a whole world of experience and struggle that seemed to me, when I first read [it] years ago, absolutely absorbing, fascinating, and indispensable.”—Alice Walker\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBorn to a white Danish mother and a Black American father, Helga Crane has long struggled to carve a path for herself amid the racial segregation of the early twentieth century. As a teacher at an all-Black boarding school in the South, Helga quickly becomes unsettled by the way the school measures excellence based on proximity to whiteness. Journeying to Chicago, Harlem, and Copenhagen, she attempts to thrive free from the constraints of category—mother or wife, promiscuous or chaste, white or Black, American or Danish. But these categories, though slippery and unstable, are constantly reinforced.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eHelga finally settles into a life that feels secure yet completely at odds with her previous ambitions—married to a preacher in the Deep South, hoping to find peace under the wings of the Church. Landing back where she started, in social and existential oblivion, Helga forces us to consider: In a society marred by injustice, is it even possible to find a true, authentic self? With intriguing parallels to Larsen’s own life, \u003ci\u003eQuicksand \u003c\/i\u003eis an engrossing page-turner that is as relevant now as ever before.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Modern Library Torchbearers series features women who wrote on their own terms, with boldness, creativity, and a spirit of resistance.\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Modern Library","offers":[{"title":"Bargain","offer_id":42822326386768,"sku":"9780593730270B","price":9.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/8173\/5760\/files\/9780593730270-l.jpg?v=1785887485"},{"product_id":"quicksand-passing-serpent-s-tail-classics-9781846687853b","title":"Quicksand \u0026 Passing (Serpent's Tail Classics)","description":"\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: bold;\"\u003eA writer of the Harlem Renaissance, Nella Larsen wrote just two novels, published here, and a handful of short stories. Critically acclaimed, both speak powerfully of the contradictions and restrictions experienced by black women at that time.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003eQuicksand\u003c\/span\u003e, written in 1928, is an autobiographical novel about Helga Crane, a mixed race woman caught between fulfilling her desires and gaining respectability in her middle class neighbourhood.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWritten a year later, \u003cspan style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003ePassing\u003c\/span\u003e tells the story of two childhood friends, Clare and Irene, both light skinned enough to pass as white. Reconnecting in adulthood, Clare has chosen to live as a white woman, while Irene embraces black culture and has an important role in her community.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNella Larsen's novels are moving, characterful, and important books. She pioneered writing about the conflicts of sexuality, race and the secret suffering of women in the early twentieth century.","brand":"Serpent's Tail","offers":[{"title":"Bargain","offer_id":42822361088080,"sku":"9781846687853B","price":7.49,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/8173\/5760\/files\/9781846687853-l.jpg?v=1785887624"},{"product_id":"passing-9781800811683b","title":"Passing","description":"Now a major Netflix film starring Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga and Alexander Skarsgard\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChildhood friends Clare and Irene are both light-skinned enough to pass as white, but only one of them has chosen to cross the colour line and live with the secret hanging over her. Clare believes she had successfully cut herself off from any connection to her past. Married to a racist white man who is oblivious to her African-American heritage, it is vital to her that the truth remains hidden. Irene is living as a middle-class Black woman with her husband and children in Harlem, taking on an important role in her community and embracing her origins.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBoth women are forced to re-examine their relationships with each other, with their husbands and with the truth, confronting their most closely guarded fears. Nella Larsen's powerful, tragic and acutely observant writing established her as a lodestar of America's Harlem Renaissance. Almost a century later, Passing and its nuanced exploration of the many fraught ways in which we seek to survive remains as timely as ever","brand":"Serpent's Tail","offers":[{"title":"Bargain","offer_id":42823330791504,"sku":"9781800811683B","price":7.49,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/8173\/5760\/files\/9781800811683-l.jpg?v=1785891835"},{"product_id":"passing-9780142437278b","title":"Passing","description":"Clare Kendry leads a dangerous life.  Fair, elegant, and ambitious, she is married to a white man unaware of her African American heritage, and has severed all ties to her past.  Clare's childhood friend, Irene Redfield, just as light-skinned, has chosen to remain within the African American community, but refuses to acknowledge the racism that continues to constrict her family's happiness.  A chance encounter forces both women to confront the lies they have told others - and the secret fears they have buried within themselves.","brand":"Penguin Books","offers":[{"title":"Bargain","offer_id":42823801438288,"sku":"9780142437278B","price":8.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/8173\/5760\/files\/9780142437278-l.jpg?v=1785893984"},{"product_id":"quicksand-9781454953111b","title":"Quicksand","description":"The orphan of a Danish mother and a West Indian father, Helga Crane is a young woman caught between cultures and in search of a home. Though her beauty and education open many doors, as a biracial woman in 1920s America, Helga is accepted by neither the Black nor the white communities—instead remaining an object of curiosity and an outsider wherever she goes. Her furious quest for belonging will take her from Chicago to New York to Denmark: a journey rife with autobiographical parallels to Larsen’s own life. With its astonishingly contemporary take on identity and an angry, rebellious heroine, \u003ci\u003eQuicksand\u003c\/i\u003e is a classic novel ripe for rediscovery.","brand":"Union Square","offers":[{"title":"Bargain","offer_id":42824622440528,"sku":"9781454953111B","price":5.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/8173\/5760\/files\/9781454953111-l.jpg?v=1785897354"},{"product_id":"passing-signature-editions-9781454959823b","title":"Passing (Signature Editions)","description":"\u003cp\u003e Irene Redfield is a light-skinned Black woman living in Harlem, NY, with her husband and two sons. After a chance encounter, Irene resumes contact with a childhood friend, Clare Kendry. Though Clare is also Black, she is even more fair-skinned than Irene and passes as a white woman. To the point that she’s married a deeply racist white man who has no knowledge of her race. As the two women’s lives intertwine with fascination and repulsion, their troubling friendship leads them to examine the choices they’ve made and face the dangerous consequences.??  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e   \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Union Square \u0026 Co","offers":[{"title":"Bargain","offer_id":42824798535760,"sku":"9781454959823B","price":6.49,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/8173\/5760\/files\/9781454959823-l.jpg?v=1785898109"},{"product_id":"quicksand-signature-classics-9781454953074b","title":"Quicksand (Signature Classics)","description":"The orphan of a Danish mother and a West Indian father, Helga Crane is a young woman caught between cultures and in search of a home. Though her beauty and education open many doors, as a biracial woman in 1920s America, Helga is accepted by neither the Black nor the white communities—instead remaining an object of curiosity and an outsider wherever she goes. Her furious quest for belonging will take her from Chicago to New York to Denmark: a journey rife with autobiographical parallels to Larsen’s own life. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e With its astonishingly contemporary take on identity and an angry, rebellious heroine, \u003ci\u003eQuicksand \u003c\/i\u003eis a classic novel ripe for rediscovery.","brand":"Union Square \u0026 Co","offers":[{"title":"Bargain","offer_id":42825453895760,"sku":"9781454953074B","price":8.49,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/8173\/5760\/files\/9781454953074-l.jpg?v=1785901007"},{"product_id":"passing-signature-editions-9781454956693b","title":"Passing (Signature Editions)","description":"\u003cp\u003e Irene Redfield is a light-skinned Black woman living in Harlem, New York, with her husband and two sons. After a chance encounter, Irene resumes contact with a childhood friend, Clare Kendry. Though Clare is also Black, she is even more fair-skinned than Irene and passes as a white woman—to the point that she’s married to a deeply racist white man who has no knowledge of her race. As the two women’s lives intertwine with fascination and repulsion, their troubling friendship leads them to examine the choices they’ve made and face the dangerous consequences.??  \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Union Square \u0026 Co","offers":[{"title":"Bargain","offer_id":42825507143760,"sku":"9781454956693B","price":7.49,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/8173\/5760\/files\/9781454956693-l.jpg?v=1785901241"},{"product_id":"passing-9780593437841b","title":"Passing","description":"Irene Redfield is a Black woman living an affluent, comfortable life with her husband and children in the thriving neighborhood of Harlem in the 1920s. When she reconnects with her childhood friend Clare Kendry, who is similarly light-skinned, Irene discovers that Clare has been passing for a white woman after severing ties to her past—even hiding the truth from her racist husband.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eClare finds herself drawn to Irene’s sense of ease and security with her Black identity and longs for the community (and, increasingly, the woman) she lost. Irene is both riveted and repulsed by Clare and her dangerous secret, as Clare begins to insert herself—and her deception—into every part of Irene’s stable existence. First published in 1929, Larsen’s brilliant examination of the various ways in which we all seek to “pass,”  is as timely as ever.","brand":"Signet Book","offers":[{"title":"Bargain","offer_id":42827064508496,"sku":"9780593437841B","price":4.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/8173\/5760\/files\/9780593437841-l.jpg?v=1785908659"},{"product_id":"passing-9780143137368b","title":"Passing","description":"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. First published in 1929, Passing feels just as timely as ever today.","brand":"Penguin Group","offers":[{"title":"Bargain","offer_id":42827244109904,"sku":"9780143137368B","price":8.49,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/8173\/5760\/files\/9780143137368-l.jpg?v=1785909412"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookoutlet.com\/en-ca\/collections\/nella-larsen.oembed","provider":"Book Outlet","version":"1.0","type":"link"}