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A classic novel of the Harlem Renaissance: Jessie Redmon Fauset's moving, delicately observed portrait of life along the color line
Jessie Redmon Fauset’s Plum Bun (1928) brilliantly exemplifies the cultural, social, and creative ferment of the Harlem Renaissance. Its heroine, the young, talented, light-skinned Angela Murray, hopes for more from life than her black Philadelphia neighborhood and her middle-class upbringing seem to offer. Seeking romantic and creative fulfilment, and refusing to accept racist and sexist obstacles to her ambition, she makes a radical choice: to pass as white, and study art in New York City.
Against the vivid, cosmopolitan backdrop of Harlem and Greenwich Village in the Roaring Twenties, her subsequent journey through seduction, betrayal, protest, and solidarity is ultimately a journey toward self-understanding. Along the way, Fauset includes fictionalized portraits of leading Harlem Renaissance figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois (for whom she edited The Crisis) and the sculptor Augusta Savage, recently denied a chance to study in Paris because of her skin color. Revising conventional narratives of the “tragic mulatta” and skillfully blending realism and romance, Plum Bun raises questions about art, race, gender, inspiration, and authenticity that will continue to resonate for readers today.
Jessie Redmon Fauset’s Plum Bun (1928) brilliantly exemplifies the cultural, social, and creative ferment of the Harlem Renaissance. Its heroine, the young, talented, light-skinned Angela Murray, hopes for more from life than her black Philadelphia neighborhood and her middle-class upbringing seem to offer. Seeking romantic and creative fulfilment, and refusing to accept racist and sexist obstacles to her ambition, she makes a radical choice: to pass as white, and study art in New York City.
Against the vivid, cosmopolitan backdrop of Harlem and Greenwich Village in the Roaring Twenties, her subsequent journey through seduction, betrayal, protest, and solidarity is ultimately a journey toward self-understanding. Along the way, Fauset includes fictionalized portraits of leading Harlem Renaissance figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois (for whom she edited The Crisis) and the sculptor Augusta Savage, recently denied a chance to study in Paris because of her skin color. Revising conventional narratives of the “tragic mulatta” and skillfully blending realism and romance, Plum Bun raises questions about art, race, gender, inspiration, and authenticity that will continue to resonate for readers today.
5 Reviews
4.0
hailey
Created over 1 year agoShare
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“what a profound relic of time— this book was juiiiiicy in its lore, storytelling and influence. i was floored!”
Nina Giannangeli
Created about 2 years agoShare
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Oldbaefries
Created almost 3 years agoShare
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“Won in a GR Giveaway. This was a measured and detailed read. satirous yet her treatment of the characters' inner life was still compassionate. The foreword and afterwords put into context Ms. Fauset's work & her larger influence on the Harlem Renaissance.”
K Doubleu Em
Created over 12 years agoShare
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About Jessie Redmon Fauset
Jessie Redmon Fauset (1882—1961) was a novelist, critic, and poet who played an instrumental role in the Harlem Renaissance as the literary editor of The Crisis magazine, where she published the works of such writers as Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, and Jean Toomer. She was the author of several novels including There Is Confusion (1924), Plum Bun (1928), The Chinaberry Tree (1931), and Comedy: American Style (1933).
Other books by Jessie Redmon Fauset
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