Quicksand
Helga Crane cannot find a place where she belongs. The daughter of a Danish immigrant mother and a Black father, she moves restlessly from a stifling Southern school to Chicago, to the glitter of Harlem, and finally to Copenhagen, where her relatives display her as an exotic novelty. Everywhere she is admired, and everywhere she feels caged, unable to reconcile her hunger for beauty and freedom with the narrow roles a divided society will grant her. Larsen’s 1928 debut is one of the sharpest novels of the Harlem Renaissance, tracing how race, class, and desire close in on a woman who wants only to feel fully herself. This free PDF and EPUB edition makes an overlooked classic available again.
About the Author
Nella Larsen (1891-1964) was a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance and one of the first African-American women to win serious critical attention as a novelist. Trained as a nurse and librarian, she wrote only two novels, Quicksand and Passing, both probing race, class, and…
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Listen to Quicksand Audiobook Free
Listen to Quicksand by Nella Larsen free online. The full audiobook (5 hr 4 min, 25 chapters, read by Elizabeth Klett) streams free on this page.
Quicksand (1928) is a public domain work.
| # | Chapter | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chapter 1 | 22:03 | |
| 2 | Chapter 2 | 12:43 | |
| 3 | Chapter 3 | 14:07 | |
| 4 | Chapter 4 | 10:35 | |
| 5 | Chapter 5 | 8:19 | |
| 6 | Chapter 6 | 13:30 | |
| 7 | Chapter 7 | 12:33 | |
| 8 | Chapter 8 | 9:15 | |
| 9 | Chapter 9 | 13:41 | |
| 10 | Chapter 10 | 9:50 | |
| 11 | Chapter 11 | 11:30 | |
| 12 | Chapter 12 | 9:40 | |
| 13 | Chapter 13 | 14:09 | |
| 14 | Chapter 14 | 19:32 | |
| 15 | Chapter 15 | 21:58 | |
| 16 | Chapter 16 | 8:44 | |
| 17 | Chapter 17 | 7:18 | |
| 18 | Chapter 18 | 15:12 | |
| 19 | Chapter 19 | 8:17 | |
| 20 | Chapter 20 | 12:52 | |
| 21 | Chapter 21 | 6:43 | |
| 22 | Chapter 22 | 10:50 | |
| 23 | Chapter 23 | 9:06 | |
| 24 | Chapter 24 | 14:11 | |
| 25 | Chapter 25 | 6:54 |
Prefer reading? Read Quicksand online free or download the PDF and EPUB above.
