"A light-skinned beauty who spends years passing for white finds herself dangerously drawn to an old friend's Harlem neighborhood. A restless young mulatto tries desperately to find a comfortable place in a world in which she sees herself as a perpetual outsider. A mother's confrontation with tragedy tests her loyalty to her race." "The gifted Harlem Renaissance writer Nella Larsen wrote compelling dramas about the black middle class that featured sensitive, spirited heroines struggling to find

This book explores the history, themes, styles, and forms of rebellion in literature. It focuses on defining works, especially from British and American writers such as Melville, Dickinson, Shelley, and Amis, with additional authors representing diversity in gender and ethnicity as well as in their economic, spiritual, and political orientations.