Nella Larsen's Passing: Authoritative Text Backgrounds and Contexts Criticism (review)

Harlem Renaissance writer Nella Larsen could not have imagined the extent of current-day interest in her life or writing. Although she gained prominence in her time for two well-received novels, became the first African-American woman awarded a Guggenheim, and played a central role in Harlem's vibrant social scene, she died in obscurity after close to forty years of literary silence. Dubbed the "Mystery Woman of the Harlem Renaissance" two decades ago, Larsen now figures as one of the period's central and most studied authors. Carla Kaplan's new, deftly edited critical edition of Passing confirms Larsen's place in the literary canon and ensures that her work will not be forgotten again.

Kaplan, in her introduction, states the importance of Larsen's second novel: "[ . . . ] Passing questions the very idea of race, exposing it as one of our most powerful—and dangerous fictions" (xi). Passing is the story of two light-skinned black women whose comfortable lives unravel when they are re-acquainted in a whites-only restaurant. Irene, a prominent physician's wife, enjoys the Harlem Renaissance's new prosperity, but fears that her husband is less serene with their middle-class life. Her estranged childhood friend Clare, who has been passing for white in a restrictive marriage to a wealthy, racially intolerant businessman, suddenly finds the magnetic pull of Harlem too strong to resist. The women's renewed friendship has tragic consequences when Clare's African-American past is discovered.

Larsen's swift-moving, modern story needs little explanation, even now, close to eighty years later. Kaplan wisely chooses not to interfere in this critical edition. She presents Larsen's slim novel with limited commentary, appending footnotes mostly to define the out-of-date slang (e.g., "ofay" indicating a white person) or to provide biographies of popular Harlem Renaissance figures perhaps unfamiliar today, such as singer-performer Ethel Waters.

The strength of Kaplan's book is the fascinating historical material she has assembled that contextualizes Larsen's novel. With dozens of tantalizing newspaper stories and contemporary journalistic accounts, Kaplan successfully presents the historical framework of passing and contemporary discussions of race. Today, it is difficult to fathom a headline like this one which appeared in a 1928 New York World: "Crossing the Color Line: Social and Economic Ambitions Lead Negroes to 'Pass' at Rate of 5,000 a Year to White Fold" (117). But such was the discussion during the time Larsen wrote her novel. Strict adherence to the one-drop rule and Jim Crow laws made policing the color line important, and African Americans who passed flaunted those rules.

Almost a century later, American ideas of race are shifting and the very notion of passing seems anachronistic. Multiracial celebrities and public figures identify and are identified as biracial or multiracial in the popular press. Future readers of Passing may not understand the problem of the color line in the same way, and these historical accounts provide helpful insight into American racial attitudes of the early 1900s.

Most interesting are the newspaper stories related to the Rhinelander case, an interracial marriage scandal that rocked New York's high society, and which is mentioned briefly in Passing. After a surprise encounter with John Bellew, Clare's racist white husband, Irene, who was in the company of an obviously black woman friend at the time, wonders whether Clare's secret past has been exposed: "What if Bellew should divorce Clare? Could he? There was the Rhinelander case" (71).

The sensational trial, in which the wealthy Leonard "Kip" Rhinelander was pressured by his family to sue for divorce from Alice Jones, garnered headlines almost daily, such as the following: "Calls Rhinelander Dupe of Girl He Wed: Husband's Counsel Says He Will Prove Bride Was Negro and Practiced Fraud" (133). Rhinelander claimed that Jones had fooled him into believing she was white. The near-year-long trial ended in a victory for Jones, but not without causing her...