Description

Nella Larsen’s powerful, thrilling, and tragic tale about the fluidity of racial identity that continues to resonate as of late. A New York Times Editors’ Choice
 
Clare Kendry is living at 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 concurrently 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 eager 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 may be 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 most efficient works right through history and across genres and disciplines. Readers believe the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and recent authors, in addition to up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
[amz_corss_sell asin=”0142437271″]