In 1920s Harlem, Irene Redfield has a chance reunion with her childhood friend Clare Kendry. Irene is shocked to discover that Clare has been passing as white, sharing a young daughter with a venomously racist white husband. Each woman grows increasingly fascinated with the other’s lifestyle, drawn deeper into an arrangement that moves from precarious to tragic.

Written by Nella Larsen and published in 1929 during the heart of the Harlem Renaissance, Passing is a mesmeric tale of race, identity, sexuality, and obsession.

Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel Passing is hailed today as a significant literary work of Harlem Renaissance, though for several decades it, like all of her works, was out of print. As history rights a wrong and recommits Larsen’s name to memory, it is beneficial to look at the other writings she published over her short career, collected here in Beyond Passing: The Further Writings of Nella Larsen. Contained within are her autobiographical novel Quicksand, and three short stories “Freedom,” “The Wrong Man,” and “Sanctuary.”

Fiends, ghouls, and certified freaks

Vamps, spooks, and bona fide beasts

Gothic monsters in all their glory

Classic creeps in every story

Be it shock, fright, chill, or scare

Open and read on… if you dare

Princess Irene lives in a large castle with only servants for company, with her father the king away often on royal business. One night, the princess and her nursemaid Lootie run afoul of nasty goblins and are saved by a young miner named Curdie. Curdie and Irene find themselves in frequent need of each other from that very moment, most of all when Curdie discovers that the goblins plan to kidnap the princess. Add in one beautiful fairy grandmother and George MacDonald’s The Princess and the Goblin earns its reputation as a classic fantasy tale for all ages.