num_pages: 144
description: One of the most acclaimed and influential writers of the Harlem Renaissance, Nella Larsen published her powerful first novel in 1928. Quicksand features intriguing autobiographical parallels with Larsen's own life, in addition to reflecting many aspects of African-American culture in the 1920s.Helga's mother is white, and her father is black — and absent. Ostracized throughout her lonely childhood for her dark skin, Helga spends her adult life seeking acceptance. Everywhere she goes — the American South, Harlem, even Denmark — she feels oppressed. Socially, economically, and psychologically, Helga struggles against the "quicksand" of classism, racism, and sexism.Alice Walker praised Quicksand and Passing (Larsen's second novel) as "novels I will never forget. They open up a whole world of experience and struggle that seemed to me, when I first read them years ago, absolutely absorbing, fascinating, and indispensable."
language: English
title: Quicksand
titlecomplete: Quicksand
characters: Katrina Dahl, Poul Dahl, Anne Grey, Robert Anderson (Quicksand), Helga Crane, Axel Olsen, James Vayle
genres: Read For School, 20th Century, American, Historical Fiction, School, Literature, Race, African American, Classics, Fiction
ratings_count: 6833
places: Harlem, New York City, New York, Denmark, Copenhagen, New York (State), The United States of America, New York City, New York
publisher: Dover Publications