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  • Published: 3 March 2020
  • ISBN: 9780143129424
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 160
  • RRP: $48.00

Passing




The powerful, thrilling, and tragic tale about the fluidity of racial identity that continues to resonate today, now a part of the Penguin Vitae series, with an introduction by Emily Bernard.

A Penguin Classic Hardcover

A NETFLIX BOOK CLUB PICK

The powerful, thrilling, and tragic tale about the fluidity of racial identity that continues to resonate today, with an introduction by Emily Bernard. Now a major motion picture starring Tessa Thompson and Alexander Skarsgård

A Penguin Vitae Edition

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.

Penguin Classics launches a new hardcover series with five American classics that are relevant and timeless in their power, and part of a dynamic and diverse landscape of classic fiction and nonfiction from almost seventy-five years of classics publishing. Penguin Vitae provides readers with beautifully designed classics that have shaped the course of their lives, and welcomes new readers to discover these literary gifts of personal inspiration, intellectual engagement, and creative originality.

  • Published: 3 March 2020
  • ISBN: 9780143129424
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 160
  • RRP: $48.00

About the author

Nella Larsen

NELLA LARSEN (1891-1964) was an American writer and major figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Born in Chicago, she attended university in Nashville and subsequently lived in Denmark and New York, where she worked as a nurse and librarian. Her two novels, Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929), established her as one of the most important black female novelists in American history.

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