Surprising is indeed the most appropriate word to describe Larsen's works. Her literary creations are not only filled with elements of surprise but also carry an air of foreboding and suspense.

Take "Quicksand" for example. It is a ghastly and horrible piece of work that makes the reader's hair stand on end. The passing scenes in the story seem to foreshadow something sinister lurking around the corner.

All in all, every single one of Larsen's works is both surprising and haunting. They have the power to grip the reader's attention from the very beginning and keep them on the edge of their seats until the very end. Her unique writing style and ability to create an atmosphere of mystery and dread make her works truly unforgettable.

Nella Larson, a remarkable writer, was born in 1891.

Despite the fact that her works were published nearly a century ago, her talent for precisely capturing the emotions and delicate conflicts of ordinary people is truly outstanding. Her stories continue to resonate with readers even today, and it is certain that they will do so in the days and years to come.

One of the most impressive aspects of Larson's writing is her incredibly rich and vivid descriptions of different settings. These descriptions not only bring the stories to life but also beautifully reflect the mood of her characters or the themes of the works.

Her heroines, such as Helga and Irene, are extremely well-developed and complex. They are multi-faceted characters with whom readers can easily relate. Additionally, the character of Irene's foil, Clare, adds another layer of depth and complexity to the story.

I am truly glad that I had the opportunity to read these classics from the Harlem Renaissance. In particular, I am grateful for the foreword included in this edition, which details Nella Larson's life. Without it, I would have never known about her trials and tribulations. Learning more about her life and the environment in which she grew up has made the stories even more significant and meaningful to me.

The short stories: 3/5
Quicksand: 5/5
Passing: 4/5

Total: 4.5/5

\\n  She hated white people with a deep and burning hatred, with the kind of hatred which, finding itself held in sufficiently numerous groups, was capable someday, on some great provocation, of bursting into dangerously malignant flames.
But she aped their clothes, their manners, and their gracious ways of living.\\n

As time has passed and I've been exposed to a wealth of new material, my ratings for Larsen's works remain unchanged. I could follow this with the common phrase "for good or for ill", but given my recent experiences with revisiting authors who have written my favorites, I'm content to focus on the good. While Larsen excels at the pithy, I found each of her short stories a bit too brief. The minute details of her razor-sharp analysis of emotions were perhaps compacted a touch too much into the realm of melodrama, making for a less engaging read. However, her novels give her incisive wit and writing style the room to soar to endings that, while unhappy, are all too realistic and steeped in a world that the US has yet to fully move past, despite its efforts to deny such.

\\n  [N]o matter what the intensity of his feelings or desires might be, he was not the sort of man who would for any reason give up one particle of his own good opinion of himself.\\n

It's not necessarily a positive thing for a classic to still be relevant due to its specific descriptions of institutionalized pain and oppression. This can give the group responsible for such an excuse to maintain a myopic view of the constructed Other, as seen in the numerous slave narratives that receive adulation in film awards and other highly publicized evaluation systems. The creative mind is free, but if the only images of certain groups that are presented to the public are those that consign them to a life of hell on earth, then fiction becomes just another tool in the hegemonic arsenal. Fortunately, Larsen has the skill to address not only antiblackness but also the associated misogynoir and the trope of the tragic mulatto. Her works, while focusing on heroines forced to face monsters they never should have had to encounter, redirect and deconstruct every threat, both physical and non-physical. This is the difference between fiction and solidification: the former takes life and gives it the means to break free, while the latter cobbles together a selection of dehumanizations and presents them for the sake of maintaining the status quo and providing entertainment that reinforces capitalism.

\\n  In that second she saw that she could bear anything, but only if no one knew that she had anything to bear.\\n

After a reread, I understand why Passing is clinically superior. It is less erratic, more believable, and builds upon the more volatile elements of Quicksand rather than centering around it. However, as incredibly as Helen Crane hurtles through life, the leaps of faith she takes again and again resonate more deeply with my own heart and experiences than the tenacious hold Irene Redfield has on her domestic stability. So, while Passing is more self-contained and conforms to a traditional plot arc, it just misses the mark for me by a hair. One aspect that Passing has that Quicksand doesn't is suggestions of bisexuality. While the Wiki immediately labels it as lesbianism, the most Irene does is find both men (even her husband) and women extremely attractive, so monosexuals will just have to calm down. I'll also admit that Passing has a better ending: There's nothing quite like the feeling of maybe having gotten away with murder.

\\n  Here were no tatters and rags, no beggars. But, then, begging, she learned, was an offense punishable by law.\\n

I eagerly anticipate future rereads.

These stories were truly amazing.

Larsen delves into the race problem in an incredibly complex manner. It is presented in a way that is either extremely forward, downplayed, or ambiguous.

The works of fiction she creates are completely different from anything I've read before. The main characters are vividly real, constantly struggling, and have their own flaws.

This aspect really appealed to me and made me enjoy the stories even more. It added a layer of authenticity and depth that made the characters and their experiences come alive on the page.

I found myself completely engaged with the stories and eager to see how the characters would overcome their challenges and grow throughout the narrative.

Larsen's ability to handle such a sensitive and important topic with such skill and nuance is truly remarkable.

Nella Larsen's "Passing" is a captivating exploration of Self and Race. In 1927, Clare and Irene, two light-skinned Afro-Americans, navigate the complex terrain of identity. Clare has "passed" into white society, leaving her roots behind and marrying a white man ignorant of her heritage. She now lives as a white woman. Irene, on the other hand, lives as a privileged Afro-American but has the option to "pass" as white when it suits her. However, she chooses to live and be known as coloured within her circle.

The story of their friendship and its consequences is masterfully crafted, keeping the reader engaged from start to finish. Larsen's tight writing style adds to the intensity of the narrative. This was my first encounter with Larsen's work, but it will not be my last. I am eagerly looking forward to delving into the rest of her stories and uncovering more of the profound insights she has to offer on the themes of identity and race.

Passing is a thought-provoking and beautifully written novel that offers a unique perspective on the experiences of light-skinned Afro-Americans in the 1920s. It is a must-read for anyone interested in exploring the complexities of race and identity.

I read Passing and Quicksand in the late 90s. At that time, I truly enjoyed Passing. Although I couldn't claim that I liked Quicksand, I also couldn't say that I disliked it. Recently, I came across the complete works of hers and decided to read them again.

To put it simply, I didn't like Quicksand at all. It's hard to like a story when you dislike the main character, and that was the case with Quicksand. The main character was shallow, petty, self-centered, and very immature. She had no real redeeming qualities. Passing was just mediocre and nothing more. The characters were undeveloped, overly dramatic, and phony. This character issue persisted throughout both stories. I didn't encounter a single character in either book that had substance. The lack of strong characters led to hollow stories without substance as well.

Also, if you didn't know that the author was black, you would never have thought that the characters were black either. It reads in every aspect like a book written by a white person with white characters, and I found that odd. I've been an avid reader all my life, and as an African American, I've never read a book by a black author with black characters that literally had none of the characteristics of the black culture, none. Here's an excerpt from Passing where Irene, the main character, said to a friend about her husband's mood, "do go downstairs and talk to Brian. He has a mad on." This quote is a mild example, but it sums up the way they spoke throughout her stories. Her characters spoke more British than American or within our culture. It's very disappointing.

I'm so grateful that the recent adaptation of Passing has brought Nella Larsen to my attention.

This remarkable author had been somewhat overlooked for far too long. Her works, with their deep exploration of themes such as race, identity, and gender, are truly gems.

The story of Passing, in particular, delves into the complex lives of two African American women who choose to "pass" as white in a society that is rife with discrimination.

Larsen's writing is细腻 and poignant, allowing readers to truly understand the inner turmoil and struggles of her characters.

Thanks to this adaptation, more people are now discovering the genius of Nella Larsen and her important contributions to literature.

It is my hope that this newfound interest will lead to a greater appreciation of her work and a recognition of her place in literary history.

A while back, I had the pleasure of reading "Passing" by Nella Larsen. I was truly blown away by her fierce courage in writing that book when she did. Almost a hundred years ago, in a time when few novelists, whether Black or white, dared to, she had the audacity to tackle race and American life. For a long time, I had wanted to read her previous novel "Quicksand," but I simply couldn't find a copy. That is, until I came across this omnibus collection of her works.

I generally avoid anything like an omnibus or "collected stories" just because I'm a bit weird like that. But finally, I broke down and decided to pick this up at the local library.

"The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen" truly lives up to its name. It contains three of her stories and the complete texts of her two novels, "Quicksand" and "Passing." The stories, although slight in comparison to her longer works, are still entertaining enough and explore much of the same territory as her novels. They deal with the mixing of races and how that affects women in a society where they are unable to assimilate into one or the other of their identities. Larsen, herself the product of a mixed-race couple, writes tenderly yet honestly about the struggles that these women face and what they can do to survive in a hostile world.

The main reason I came to this book, however, was for "Quicksand." While early on I wasn't quite as enamored with it as I was with "Passing," I still found a lot to like. Helga Crane, the orphan child of a Black man and a white, Danish woman, struggles to find herself in a world where her biracial identity is not tolerated. She goes from one extreme to another, with happiness always just out of reach, either because of her own stubbornness or because of the casual cruelties of those around her, whether they are white or Black. She doesn't fit in anywhere, except perhaps with the man she ultimately loves, but he isn't available to her. As her life continues to reach peaks and sink into valleys, she tries desperately to find herself, despite sinking ever further in the metaphorical quicksand of life as a mixed-race woman, unwelcome in both the white and Black spheres of life.

Larsen really reached the heights of her talent with "Passing," but the stories and "Quicksand" show that her imagination was working well from the beginning. There's something fierce and combative about her prose, about her willingness to make women who might otherwise be sympathetic more real because they often are not, because they lack the ability to see themselves except through the eyes of those who judge them harshly. "The Complete Fiction" is a necessary corrective to any notions that Black female writing began with Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. It actually began far earlier than that, and Nella Larsen is a part of that legacy alongside Ida B. Wells and Zora Neale Hurston. And her work truly deserves to be talked about in such esteemed circles.

Larsen crafted autobiographical tales within the context of the Harlem Renaissance.

In 'Quicksand', we first encounter Helga Crane, departing from a job at an elite 'Negro' school in the South. She believes that its education hypocritically prepares Black people for smiling subordination. The daughter of an idealized Danish mother and an absent black man, she initially flourishes in Harlem. However, her love for finery and self-adornment often leads to disgust, and she grows weary of the whirlwind of fashionable social events.

In Denmark, where she is the sole Black person, she is warmly welcomed and seemingly without racial prejudice by her aunt and new uncle. But they treat her as a curiosity, parading her in gaudy outfits and ultimately angling for her to marry a smitten painter as a means to enhance their social status. When she rejects him, the conceited Olsen insults her, saying she has the soul of a prostitute, selling herself to the highest bidder.

On her return to New York, having craved the company of Black people, she is troubled by her sexual desire for the former principal of the high school she left, who has married her close friend.

Helga's restlessness represents both a specific psychology and a vehicle for critiquing the limitations within which any'mixed race' woman must navigate. Larsen's style is both superficial and probing, borrowing from flimsier and more pop-culture first-person narratives while also joining the tradition of the European Bildungsroman. The narration remains close to Helga's experiences throughout as she is drawn into a quicksand that is, in part, of her own making.

Larsen's short story collection is truly remarkable.

In these tales, she masterfully portrays the disillusionment and the sense of never really belonging for those caught between two worlds.

Whether it's the blatant act of "Passing" or the constant struggle of moving and vainly attempting to find one's place while sinking deeper into the "Quicksand" of the race issue, these stories hit home on a very personal level.

One can feel the soul-crushing pressure of not belonging because one is neither black enough to be considered black nor white enough to be regarded as white, forever stuck in between two extremes.

The other short stories and snippets are equally engaging. I can only express my wish that she had written more and that more of her works had survived, especially the all-too-short "Wrong Man".

Larsen's ability to capture the complex emotions and experiences of her characters is truly outstanding, and her collection is a must-read for anyone interested in exploring the themes of identity, race, and belonging.

3.5 stars

This was a book that was originally published in 1928. Nevertheless, it was as contemporary as anything I have read recently. The reason I obtained this book was to read one specific story out of the five stories included - The Passing. The Passing was the second longest fictional story that Larsen wrote, consisting of 104 pages.

Set in the 1920s, the story of The Passing is about a Black woman who chose to pass for a white woman. She eventually gets married to a bigot and starts to miss her Black life. When she encounters an old schoolmate, she takes advantage of staying by her side and attending numerous Black social functions whenever her husband has to travel out of town. As you read, you are aware that this behavior will soon lead to a bad outcome. Then, there is a twist at the end of the story that you don't anticipate.

I relished all of Nella Larsen's stories. It was rumored that she plagiarized her story Quicksand. Two of the other stories were very short novellas. This is a book that is well worth reading.

Now, let's move on to the movie, which has the same name and is based on the story The Passing. It is currently airing on Netflix.

What a fast and fascinating read!

This novel may be short, yet it delves into many complex issues. It truly keeps the reader engaged from start to finish. The story unfolds in a way that makes you eager to know what will happen next.

I can't wait to discuss the ending with my book club friends. I'm sure there will be many different interpretations and perspectives.

After reading this, I will definitely have to read "Quicksand". I have a feeling that it will be just as captivating and thought-provoking.

I highly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a good read that challenges their thinking and leaves them with something to ponder.