There Is Confusion
Published in 1924, this was Fauset’s first novel and one of the books often credited with helping open the Harlem Renaissance. It follows a group of educated Black Philadelphians, chief among them Joanna Marshall, a gifted and driven young woman who dreams of the stage, and Peter Bye, whose family history ties back to slavery and old grievances. Around them Maggie Ellersley schemes and rises, and questions of class, color, and ambition shape every friendship and courtship. Fauset writes about a Black middle class rarely shown in the fiction of her day, people balancing respectability against desire. The result is a warm, watchful study of what talent and pride cost the people who carry them. Free to read as a PDF and EPUB edition.
About the Author
Jessie Redmon Fauset (1882-1961) was an American novelist, poet, and educator who served as literary editor of The Crisis. She championed young Harlem Renaissance writers including Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen, and her own fiction gave rare, dignified attention to educated Black women’s lives.
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