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Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral
Written in 1929 at the height of the Harlem Renaissance by one of the movement's most important and prolific authors, Plum Bun is the story of Angela Murray, a young black girl who discovers she can pass for white. After the death of her parents, Angela moves to New York to escape the racism she believes is her only obstacle to opportunity. What she soon discovers is that being a woman has its own burdens that don't fade with the color of one's skin, and that love and marriage might not offer her salvation.
408 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1929
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6787 people want to read
About the author
Jessie Redmon Fauset
43 books111 followersJessie Redmon Fauset was an American editor, poet, essayist and novelist.
Fauset was born in Fredericksville, an all-black hamlet in Camden County, New Jersey, also known as Free Haven (now incorporated into the borough of Lawnside, New Jersey). She was the daughter of Anna "Annie" Seamon and Redmon Fauset, a Presbyterian minister. Her mother died when she was still a young girl. Her father remarried Bella Huff (a white woman), and they had three children, including civil rights activist and folklorist Arthur Fauset (1899–1983).
Fauset attended Philadelphia High School for girls, and graduated as the only African American in her class. After high school Fauset graduated from Cornell University in 1905, and is believed to be the second black woman elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She later received her M.A. in French from the University of Pennsylvania. Fauset came to the NAACP's journal, The Crisis, in 1912. From 1919 to 1926 she served as the literary editor of The Crisis under W. E. B. Du Bois. Eventually 58 of her 77 published works first appeared in the journal's pages. She is the author of four novels, There Is Confusion (1924), Plum Bun (1928), The Chinaberry Tree: A Novel of American Life (1931), and Comedy, American Style (1933). She is an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta.
Fauset worked as a schoolteacher for many years and retired from teaching in 1944. She died in 1961 from heart failure.
Fauset was born in Fredericksville, an all-black hamlet in Camden County, New Jersey, also known as Free Haven (now incorporated into the borough of Lawnside, New Jersey). She was the daughter of Anna "Annie" Seamon and Redmon Fauset, a Presbyterian minister. Her mother died when she was still a young girl. Her father remarried Bella Huff (a white woman), and they had three children, including civil rights activist and folklorist Arthur Fauset (1899–1983).
Fauset attended Philadelphia High School for girls, and graduated as the only African American in her class. After high school Fauset graduated from Cornell University in 1905, and is believed to be the second black woman elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She later received her M.A. in French from the University of Pennsylvania. Fauset came to the NAACP's journal, The Crisis, in 1912. From 1919 to 1926 she served as the literary editor of The Crisis under W. E. B. Du Bois. Eventually 58 of her 77 published works first appeared in the journal's pages. She is the author of four novels, There Is Confusion (1924), Plum Bun (1928), The Chinaberry Tree: A Novel of American Life (1931), and Comedy, American Style (1933). She is an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta.
Fauset worked as a schoolteacher for many years and retired from teaching in 1944. She died in 1961 from heart failure.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 172 reviews
January 9, 2018
What if Sister Carrie were black? ish? Harlem Renaissance author Jessie Redmon Fauset reminds me of no one more than Theodore Dreiser. Both are concerned with single women trying to make it on their own terms, and neither is particularly skilled at writing. Dreiser is better - more powerful in the end, less susceptible to Victorian plot twists, and less moralistic - but this is good.
Weird to say moralistic, given that Plum Bun advertises its lack of moral in the title, but the title is a lie: there are morals galore here, about pride in ancestry and the importance of family and proper behavior and what have you, and they're not subtle.
Maybe I should be comparing her to Jane Austen.
Passing, which is where a light-skinned black person decides to define herself as white, was of vivid interest to the Harlem Renaissance writers. It shows up in Nella Larsen's terrific Passing, the best treatment of it; it's also covered satirically in George Schuyler's Black No More, and awkwardly in Jean Toomer's actual life. We don't talk about it so much anymore. Both black and white people find it...what, gauche? I don't know. The last time I heard about passing was when Rachel Dolezal tried a reverse pass. (That's the woman who was head of the NAACP until her Caucasian parents released a statement like, hey, btw, let's make Thanksgiving awkward.) Given its frequent discussion a century ago, I would assume that many black people made this decision at some point previous, and now it's in the past, their families have been white for generations. Suck it racists, I guess?
We're still stuck on the idea that a drop of black blood makes one black, which is sortof weird and ugly. What if a person of mixed race, like Barack Obama, just declared that he was white? Why shouldn't he? The very definition of passing sucks.
Anyway, that's what Plum Bun is about. Fauset, who had siblings who could pass, is against it. Her protagonist, Angela Murray, This is all handled adequately well.
Plum Bun is at its best, though, describing loneliness. Here too there may be autobiographical elements: like Angela, Fauset moved alone to Harlem, and the poignancy of her description of loneliness in New York City feels very real. I loved these parts of the book.
They're not enough to make me love the whole thing, which totters into Victorian melodrama at a certain point and then proceeds to drown in it. Angela's sister Virginia
E.B. White opens Here is New York with what could be the epigram to this book:
Angela uses the privacy to reinvent herself, but she ends up realizing that you can't have one without the other. The book is about that choice: both or neither.
Weird to say moralistic, given that Plum Bun advertises its lack of moral in the title, but the title is a lie: there are morals galore here, about pride in ancestry and the importance of family and proper behavior and what have you, and they're not subtle.
She began to see the conventions, the rules that govern life, in a new light; she realized suddenly that for all their granite-like coldness and precision they also represented fundamental facts; a sort of concentrated compendium of the art of living and therefore as much to be observed and respected as warm, vital impulses.
Maybe I should be comparing her to Jane Austen.
Passing, which is where a light-skinned black person decides to define herself as white, was of vivid interest to the Harlem Renaissance writers. It shows up in Nella Larsen's terrific Passing, the best treatment of it; it's also covered satirically in George Schuyler's Black No More, and awkwardly in Jean Toomer's actual life. We don't talk about it so much anymore. Both black and white people find it...what, gauche? I don't know. The last time I heard about passing was when Rachel Dolezal tried a reverse pass. (That's the woman who was head of the NAACP until her Caucasian parents released a statement like, hey, btw, let's make Thanksgiving awkward.) Given its frequent discussion a century ago, I would assume that many black people made this decision at some point previous, and now it's in the past, their families have been white for generations. Suck it racists, I guess?
We're still stuck on the idea that a drop of black blood makes one black, which is sortof weird and ugly. What if a person of mixed race, like Barack Obama, just declared that he was white? Why shouldn't he? The very definition of passing sucks.
Anyway, that's what Plum Bun is about. Fauset, who had siblings who could pass, is against it. Her protagonist, Angela Murray, This is all handled adequately well.
Plum Bun is at its best, though, describing loneliness. Here too there may be autobiographical elements: like Angela, Fauset moved alone to Harlem, and the poignancy of her description of loneliness in New York City feels very real. I loved these parts of the book.
Loneliness! Loneliness such as that offered by the great, noisy city could never be imagined. To realize it one would have to experience it.
They're not enough to make me love the whole thing, which totters into Victorian melodrama at a certain point and then proceeds to drown in it. Angela's sister Virginia
E.B. White opens Here is New York with what could be the epigram to this book:
On any person who desires such queer prizes, New York will bestow the gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy.
Angela uses the privacy to reinvent herself, but she ends up realizing that you can't have one without the other. The book is about that choice: both or neither.
February 24, 2014
Written at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, this is one of those novels that isn't nearly as widely read as it should be. Fauset's novel is so readable as to often seem casual, but the heart of the story is a detailing of psychology related to racism, sexism, and the question/process of "passing". By focusing on a young African American girl who wants nothing more than to be a free woman and artist, Fauset tracks her young protragonist through Philadelphia and then New York with a constant eye toward the politics of her life. Because the focus of the novel is on the personal psychology of characters, as opposed to larger politics affecting society, the book and protagonist might come across as deceptively simple, or even selfish. Instead, the novel works to provide a picture of simple, and even realistic, survival.
In the end, Fauset's subtitle, "a novel without a moral", is both important and careful. As prolific and involved as Fauset was during the Harlem Renaissance, there's no question that this work is never without thought, but it is also incredibly engaging and readable, maybe so much so that its very readability has allowed it to be overlooked when we look back at the serious literature of its time. Plum Bun: A Novel WIthout a Moral is, though, a pointed critique of anyone who would attempt to call "passing" a simple matter of morality, pride, or confidence--it is a serious work of fiction, worth reading and considering, that sheds real light onto race and gender politics of the early twentieth century.
Simply, this may be a book you haven't heard of...but it shouldn't be.
Absolutely recommended.
In the end, Fauset's subtitle, "a novel without a moral", is both important and careful. As prolific and involved as Fauset was during the Harlem Renaissance, there's no question that this work is never without thought, but it is also incredibly engaging and readable, maybe so much so that its very readability has allowed it to be overlooked when we look back at the serious literature of its time. Plum Bun: A Novel WIthout a Moral is, though, a pointed critique of anyone who would attempt to call "passing" a simple matter of morality, pride, or confidence--it is a serious work of fiction, worth reading and considering, that sheds real light onto race and gender politics of the early twentieth century.
Simply, this may be a book you haven't heard of...but it shouldn't be.
Absolutely recommended.
December 21, 2015
Overly erudite. Corny ending. Nothing much really happens in the book. In short, I enjoyed it!! An anthropological treasure. Its like a time capsule with this young, black, female author struggling for attention and respect both as a woman and as a negro. I am not describing the plot of the book, I'm stating my perception of how the author came across to me in the telling of the story. The story itself was not that complex. A coming of age story of a young woman in the 1920s who attempted to pass and found out she'd rather be who she was. Her journey was the story. Simply fascinating.
Almost 3.5 stars
Almost 3.5 stars
July 17, 2021
This book feels so modern and fresh that, if it wasn't for the cool-girl-from-the-1920's writing style, I'd say it was published today. The characters are all amazingly layered, their relationships compelling, and the whole narrative had a movie-like aspect to it that it makes me sad that we're unlikely to see an adaptation any time soon. The last third of the book also had the twists and turns you'd see in a Brazilian telenovela, which is delightful considering , and by the end I was grinning so much that I even felt a little bit silly. Loved it!
June 3, 2020
I loved this novel. It’s a classic that I’d been wanting to read for ages. But it wasn’t exactly easy to find, and they didn’t have it in my local library.
Written in the 20s, it’s a clear picture of life for a woman in NYC, on both sides of the color line. The main character, Angela Murray, grows up in Philadelphia as a very light-skinned African American, and she learns about passing from her equally light-skinned mother. For her mother, it’s a little game that involves tea and shopping, not a serious path. But Angela feels the limitations of her racial heritage more acutely, and when she gets older, she resolves to doff her black identity completely. She goes to New York City, and not long afterwards, her darker-skinned sister Virginia follows her there.
The novel’s subtitle is “a novel without a moral” and this is one of the things I loved most about it. The author doesn’t pass judgment on any of her character’s choices, but rather very subtly shows the effects, both psychological and social.
There are a lot of interesting characters here, all carefully and vividly drawn. Even the racists in the novel are depicted in all their complexity, as whole people. Racism is shown as a kind of toxic social fungus which infects and affects people to a greater or lesser extent. The people in the novel use different strategies to avoid or contain it, and these are explored in detail. When is it worthwhile to fight, and when do you just slough it off? For Angela, occupying that edge between black and white, there are constant subtle reminders. Meanwhile, for the white people, awareness and responses to racism comprise moral crossroads.
A couple of times, the question of whether white blood is itself toxic is raised, but the author makes no judgments. She lets her characters ask the questions and try to live the answers, as best they can.
New York City in the 20s is depicted with great skill and vividness, which figures, since Jessie Redmon Fauset was an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance. All the descriptions in this book are very visual, and this also makes sense, since Angela, the main character, is an artist. It’s also a wonderfully feminist book, since Angela is thrust into a social marketplace where women are bought and sold – not literally, but in essence. She has to learn to value herself and the work she does. In this way, the book reminds me of novels by Edith Wharton which explore a woman’s longing for freedom within rigid social hierarchies.
And it’s also a page-turner, especially the second half. I enjoy a good romance, as long as it’s well-written, intelligent, and fair to women. This is a good novel in many other ways, but it’s also a riveting romance.
After I finished it, I spent some time wondering where the title came from, but a Wikipedia page explained it to me.
Written in the 20s, it’s a clear picture of life for a woman in NYC, on both sides of the color line. The main character, Angela Murray, grows up in Philadelphia as a very light-skinned African American, and she learns about passing from her equally light-skinned mother. For her mother, it’s a little game that involves tea and shopping, not a serious path. But Angela feels the limitations of her racial heritage more acutely, and when she gets older, she resolves to doff her black identity completely. She goes to New York City, and not long afterwards, her darker-skinned sister Virginia follows her there.
The novel’s subtitle is “a novel without a moral” and this is one of the things I loved most about it. The author doesn’t pass judgment on any of her character’s choices, but rather very subtly shows the effects, both psychological and social.
There are a lot of interesting characters here, all carefully and vividly drawn. Even the racists in the novel are depicted in all their complexity, as whole people. Racism is shown as a kind of toxic social fungus which infects and affects people to a greater or lesser extent. The people in the novel use different strategies to avoid or contain it, and these are explored in detail. When is it worthwhile to fight, and when do you just slough it off? For Angela, occupying that edge between black and white, there are constant subtle reminders. Meanwhile, for the white people, awareness and responses to racism comprise moral crossroads.
A couple of times, the question of whether white blood is itself toxic is raised, but the author makes no judgments. She lets her characters ask the questions and try to live the answers, as best they can.
New York City in the 20s is depicted with great skill and vividness, which figures, since Jessie Redmon Fauset was an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance. All the descriptions in this book are very visual, and this also makes sense, since Angela, the main character, is an artist. It’s also a wonderfully feminist book, since Angela is thrust into a social marketplace where women are bought and sold – not literally, but in essence. She has to learn to value herself and the work she does. In this way, the book reminds me of novels by Edith Wharton which explore a woman’s longing for freedom within rigid social hierarchies.
And it’s also a page-turner, especially the second half. I enjoy a good romance, as long as it’s well-written, intelligent, and fair to women. This is a good novel in many other ways, but it’s also a riveting romance.
After I finished it, I spent some time wondering where the title came from, but a Wikipedia page explained it to me.
September 18, 2011
1929. The Harlem Renaissance: the high-swinging days of Langston Hughes, Richard Wright and Zora Neale Hurston. These names produced some of the most recognizable and justifiable literature in the 20th century. Stories of jazz, sexuality and freedom bloomed from the minds of these poets and novelists.
In a time when ideas pollinized the cities’ streets, very few names could be spotted on the radar and could be etched into time. Writers like Jessie Redmon Fauset published their works and passed on as if they were the racially passing characters in which they wrote. The protagonist in Plum Bun, Angela Murray, realizes that she can pass for white. Throughout the novel, this proves itself as an advantage and a disadvantage. Fauset creates a character who in some capacity is both static and dynamic. She characterizes Angela as a conflicted, naïve woman who will never understand what it is to be true to oneself.
In a time when ideas pollinized the cities’ streets, very few names could be spotted on the radar and could be etched into time. Writers like Jessie Redmon Fauset published their works and passed on as if they were the racially passing characters in which they wrote. The protagonist in Plum Bun, Angela Murray, realizes that she can pass for white. Throughout the novel, this proves itself as an advantage and a disadvantage. Fauset creates a character who in some capacity is both static and dynamic. She characterizes Angela as a conflicted, naïve woman who will never understand what it is to be true to oneself.
March 5, 2017
Worth a read. I enjoyed Nella Larson's telling of the same story better in Passing and Quicksand.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
January 5, 2015
IQ "I don't mind a man's not marrying me; but I can't forgive him if he thinks I'm not good enough to marry him. [...]It's wrong for men to have both money and power; they're bound to make some woman suffer" Paulette, 128
Obviously this novel was going to discuss race and the emotional as well logistical complexities of a Black person passing for white but I was also pleased that it touched on male privilege and sexism. It also has very independent female characters who have *gasp* casual sex and a few nods at homosexuality which was not something I expected for a novel written in 1929. I love how fearless this novel was for its time. There is outright disapproval of Angela passing but her sister Jinny tries to look at it from both sides which keeps the novel from sounding like it's trying to impart a lesson; "And each of us will have go her chosen way. After all each of us is seeking to get all she can out of life! and if you can get more out of it by being white, as you undoubtedly can, why, why shouldn't you? Only it seems to me there are certain things in living that are more fundamental even than color,-but I don't know. I'm all mixed up", she continues "After all in a negative way, merely by saying nothing, you're a disclaiming your black blood in a country where it is an inconvenience,-oh! there's not a doubt about that. You may be proud of it, you may be perfectly satisfied with it-I am-but it certainly can shut you out of things. So why shouldn't you disclaim a living manifestation of that blood?" (171). The perfect mixture of disapproval with sisterly love and attempt at understanding.
The novel also manages to get across its social causes in a subtle manner, for example, presenting a look at the Black middle class which was still extremely rare. Furthermore the author has clearly thought out every aspect of the novel. It is divided into five sections, each starting with a line from the poem that the title derives from. A bildungsroman that deftly employs the marriage plot and also uses passing to discuss power dynamics. I quite enjoyed watching Angela flounder around a bit and eventually grow. I wish schools would require this be read side-by-side with Passing, these two novels are far too often over looked and I think they give a great glimpse into Black lives in the early 20th century/the writers of the Harlem Renaissance.
Obviously this novel was going to discuss race and the emotional as well logistical complexities of a Black person passing for white but I was also pleased that it touched on male privilege and sexism. It also has very independent female characters who have *gasp* casual sex and a few nods at homosexuality which was not something I expected for a novel written in 1929. I love how fearless this novel was for its time. There is outright disapproval of Angela passing but her sister Jinny tries to look at it from both sides which keeps the novel from sounding like it's trying to impart a lesson; "And each of us will have go her chosen way. After all each of us is seeking to get all she can out of life! and if you can get more out of it by being white, as you undoubtedly can, why, why shouldn't you? Only it seems to me there are certain things in living that are more fundamental even than color,-but I don't know. I'm all mixed up", she continues "After all in a negative way, merely by saying nothing, you're a disclaiming your black blood in a country where it is an inconvenience,-oh! there's not a doubt about that. You may be proud of it, you may be perfectly satisfied with it-I am-but it certainly can shut you out of things. So why shouldn't you disclaim a living manifestation of that blood?" (171). The perfect mixture of disapproval with sisterly love and attempt at understanding.
The novel also manages to get across its social causes in a subtle manner, for example, presenting a look at the Black middle class which was still extremely rare. Furthermore the author has clearly thought out every aspect of the novel. It is divided into five sections, each starting with a line from the poem that the title derives from. A bildungsroman that deftly employs the marriage plot and also uses passing to discuss power dynamics. I quite enjoyed watching Angela flounder around a bit and eventually grow. I wish schools would require this be read side-by-side with Passing, these two novels are far too often over looked and I think they give a great glimpse into Black lives in the early 20th century/the writers of the Harlem Renaissance.
March 11, 2015
This novel was published almost 90 years ago, and as such the language and writing style took a bit of getting used to for me. At first I was like, “I’ll try to make it through 50 pages a day…” but actually, once I got into it (by the end of the first section), I was hooked and I gobbled it up in two days.
I really like the story in this book, and even though the ending seems , I thought it was all really-well executed.
Besides the story, the issues Fauset explores with the book are really important. The major plot device and one of the main themes in the book is passing, but Fauset also deals with gender roles, family, male/female love relationships, the individual vs. the group, coming of age, and of course race. Sometimes it is explicit and sometimes the angle is more subtle, but it always seems to “fit” very well into the narrative and the style.
It’s this month’s book at Literary Fiction by People of Color and it’s shaping up to be a good discussion.
I really like the story in this book, and even though the ending seems , I thought it was all really-well executed.
Besides the story, the issues Fauset explores with the book are really important. The major plot device and one of the main themes in the book is passing, but Fauset also deals with gender roles, family, male/female love relationships, the individual vs. the group, coming of age, and of course race. Sometimes it is explicit and sometimes the angle is more subtle, but it always seems to “fit” very well into the narrative and the style.
It’s this month’s book at Literary Fiction by People of Color and it’s shaping up to be a good discussion.
March 30, 2022
This is such a remarkable novel from the Renaissance Era that is written so eloquently to model that time of history. This one brought several smiles to my face! After reading, this novel centers around Angela, a young African-American woman that is "passing" as white. My initial smile began from the title, "Plum Bum" because this is a pastry that we know now as a cinnamon roll. Back then, they were baked with dark colored dried fruits (raisins, etc). This novel will have your mind aroused with so many questions. Is this really a Novel without a Moral? This brought the second smile to my face. I gave so much thought to Angela's relationship with her mom, Mattie. Her actions seemed to influence Angela during her life. But, did her Mother honestly prepare her for the sincere lessons of Life? A very Delightful read!
March 30, 2022
Plum Bun!! A Novel without a Moral!! An underappreciated masterpiece of the Harlem Renaissance. I adored the measured language, the dense psychology, and the melodrama. At times, the story is very sedate, ruminative. At other moments, I was wailing with anxiety! There is much to say about what makes this book incredible. I can't do it justice -- fortunately, there is a fascinating Afterword that expounds on its brilliance -- all I can say is that it made me scream and shout with the joy of discovery!!
did-not-finish
February 3, 2019I read a page and a half and that was way too much. The pedantic, overly Latinate prose turned me off— to put it mildly. I get why some African-American writers of the era might have wanted to imitate such mediocre white styles, but...no thanks, I’m good.
December 30, 2019
Five stars! This is our first read for Sin and Redemption in North American Literature. I had previously read five Harlem Renaissance novels, of the six that my daughter picked for us to read. Our first read happens to be another Harlem Renaissance.
Individual Choice
"She had the complete egoist's desire for solitude" (57). Egoist => solipsist. Also (99).
". . . almost an arrogance of confidence" (58). Hubris!
"'She would have seen what she wanted and taken it," . . ." (61).
"How quickly she had forgotten those fears and uncertainties" (63).
"There was a simple, genuine steadfastness in him that made her realize that he would seek for the expression of truth and of himself even at the cost of the trimmings of life. And she was ashamed, . . ." (65). Angela realizes that what she seeks is 'trimmings.'
"Stolen waters are the sweetest" (72). Also (110). "Once she thought that stolen waters were sweetest, but now it was the unwinding road and the open book that most intrigued" (190).
"And she wondered what it would be like to love" (76). Not to put too much on it, but so would a sociopath. Also (83, 101, 136).
"She turned back to her plate, her heart sick" (77).
"It was Roger, Roger and the sight of him made her dumb with fear" (92). She understands the choice she is making.
"She was naturally cold; . . . . it was a matter of fastidiousness" (116).
"And she began to wonder which was the more important, a patent insistence of the fact of colour or an acceptance of the good things of life which cold come to you in America if either you were not coloured or the fact of your racial connections was not made known" (27).
Is this Angela's catastrophe? from Latin catastropha, from Greek katastrophē ‘overturning, sudden turn’, from kata- ‘down’ + strophē ‘turning’ (from strephein ‘to turn’).
Or is it, "If she did not withdraw from her acquaintanceship with Roger now, even though she committed no overt act she would never be the same; she could never again face herself with the old, unshaken pride and self-confidence" (103). Also (110).
"Already she was infinitely wiser, . . . more weariness than she had yesterday with Roger" (104). This is far from Aristotle's love of knowledge that leads to virtue.
Roger and Angela become lovers just as she is about to break it off. (117 - 119).
". . . . had failed to supply her with a single friend to whom she could turn in an hour of extremity" (137).
". . . for a time I was nothing, worthless, only I have never denied my color; I have always taken up with coloured causes" (169).
"Yet that clear mind of warned her again and again that there was nothing inherently wrong or mean or shameful in the stand which she had taken. . . . instead of sharing the burdens of her own group . . . She had long since given up the search for happiness" (194). Yet she seems closer to eudaimonia.
Accident
"Certain fortuitous endowments . . . bestowed quite blindly and disproportionately . . . toward a glowing and pleasant existence" (8)
"One might break free from . . . but color . . . clearly one of those fortuitous endowments of the gods" (8).
"Gradually the rule formed that Angela accompanied her mother and Virginia her father.
On such fortuities does life depend" (10).
"Darling child, it's very much better . . . to be born lucky than rich. But I am lucky and I'll be rich too" (28).
"I mean she's left me, she doesn't want me anymore. She wants other people" (176). Is this an Oedipus-like coincidence?
Systemic Injustice
"First, that the great rewards of life riches, glamour, pleasure, are for white-skinned people only" (10).
"It was the one god apparently to whom you could sacrifice everything" (26).
". . . the elect of the world for whom all things are made" (116).
The Moral?
"Jinny had changed her life and been successful. Angela had changed hers and found pain and unhappiness. Where did the fault lie? Not, certainly, in her determination to pass from one race to another" (141).
Sin has been narrated as social and as personal in mainstream, North American storytelling - as a matter of lies writ large and as a result of individual choice. Through a close reading of these works in North American literature, we will think through different ways of reckoning with trauma, accident, and systemic injustice. We will also consider ways that each author offers possibilities for continuing to risk the possibility of change, and even love.
Individual Choice
"She had the complete egoist's desire for solitude" (57). Egoist => solipsist. Also (99).
". . . almost an arrogance of confidence" (58). Hubris!
"'She would have seen what she wanted and taken it," . . ." (61).
"How quickly she had forgotten those fears and uncertainties" (63).
"There was a simple, genuine steadfastness in him that made her realize that he would seek for the expression of truth and of himself even at the cost of the trimmings of life. And she was ashamed, . . ." (65). Angela realizes that what she seeks is 'trimmings.'
"Stolen waters are the sweetest" (72). Also (110). "Once she thought that stolen waters were sweetest, but now it was the unwinding road and the open book that most intrigued" (190).
"And she wondered what it would be like to love" (76). Not to put too much on it, but so would a sociopath. Also (83, 101, 136).
"She turned back to her plate, her heart sick" (77).
"It was Roger, Roger and the sight of him made her dumb with fear" (92). She understands the choice she is making.
"She was naturally cold; . . . . it was a matter of fastidiousness" (116).
"And she began to wonder which was the more important, a patent insistence of the fact of colour or an acceptance of the good things of life which cold come to you in America if either you were not coloured or the fact of your racial connections was not made known" (27).
Is this Angela's catastrophe? from Latin catastropha, from Greek katastrophē ‘overturning, sudden turn’, from kata- ‘down’ + strophē ‘turning’ (from strephein ‘to turn’).
Or is it, "If she did not withdraw from her acquaintanceship with Roger now, even though she committed no overt act she would never be the same; she could never again face herself with the old, unshaken pride and self-confidence" (103). Also (110).
"Already she was infinitely wiser, . . . more weariness than she had yesterday with Roger" (104). This is far from Aristotle's love of knowledge that leads to virtue.
Roger and Angela become lovers just as she is about to break it off. (117 - 119).
". . . . had failed to supply her with a single friend to whom she could turn in an hour of extremity" (137).
". . . for a time I was nothing, worthless, only I have never denied my color; I have always taken up with coloured causes" (169).
"Yet that clear mind of warned her again and again that there was nothing inherently wrong or mean or shameful in the stand which she had taken. . . . instead of sharing the burdens of her own group . . . She had long since given up the search for happiness" (194). Yet she seems closer to eudaimonia.
Accident
"Certain fortuitous endowments . . . bestowed quite blindly and disproportionately . . . toward a glowing and pleasant existence" (8)
"One might break free from . . . but color . . . clearly one of those fortuitous endowments of the gods" (8).
"Gradually the rule formed that Angela accompanied her mother and Virginia her father.
On such fortuities does life depend" (10).
"Darling child, it's very much better . . . to be born lucky than rich. But I am lucky and I'll be rich too" (28).
"I mean she's left me, she doesn't want me anymore. She wants other people" (176). Is this an Oedipus-like coincidence?
Systemic Injustice
"First, that the great rewards of life riches, glamour, pleasure, are for white-skinned people only" (10).
"It was the one god apparently to whom you could sacrifice everything" (26).
". . . the elect of the world for whom all things are made" (116).
The Moral?
"Jinny had changed her life and been successful. Angela had changed hers and found pain and unhappiness. Where did the fault lie? Not, certainly, in her determination to pass from one race to another" (141).
Sin has been narrated as social and as personal in mainstream, North American storytelling - as a matter of lies writ large and as a result of individual choice. Through a close reading of these works in North American literature, we will think through different ways of reckoning with trauma, accident, and systemic injustice. We will also consider ways that each author offers possibilities for continuing to risk the possibility of change, and even love.
May 3, 2019
Plum Bun was my challenge book of the year. I started reading it 2 years ago and it has been stop & start up until the last week or so. The writing isn't bad, the storyline is intriguing, though I didn't appreciate it until the last third of the book.
Plum Bun is about passing, but there's more to it. Angela grew up with a mother that could pass and this was done occasionally. I don't think it was because their life was particularly hard, but maybe more because at the turn of the 20th century white people controlled everything. Angela moves to New York and passes as a white art student. Her goal may have been security and comfort, but what price is too high?
The story's ending is a neat and near perfect with Angela finding exactly what she searched for. I think that's where the subtitle fits, "novel without a moral" because in the end Angela didn't lose anything by passing as white. It was a lesson in which she ultimately learned self acceptance- "colored" not white and to cherish family and friends.
Plum Bun is about passing, but there's more to it. Angela grew up with a mother that could pass and this was done occasionally. I don't think it was because their life was particularly hard, but maybe more because at the turn of the 20th century white people controlled everything. Angela moves to New York and passes as a white art student. Her goal may have been security and comfort, but what price is too high?
The story's ending is a neat and near perfect with Angela finding exactly what she searched for. I think that's where the subtitle fits, "novel without a moral" because in the end Angela didn't lose anything by passing as white. It was a lesson in which she ultimately learned self acceptance- "colored" not white and to cherish family and friends.
July 3, 2022
** 3 stars **
Angela and Virginia are sisters that grow up in an African American family, but Angela is very light-skinned and can "pass" as white (Virginia cannot), which complicates their relationship as they grow older. Angela eventually makes her way to New York where she decides to start "passing" full-time, a decision that creates more problems than she'd bargained for, especially where her sister and her romantic relationships are concerned.
I enjoyed the thematic explorations of racial passing and white supremacy in this novel more than I enjoyed the actual characters or plot developments (which seemed too quickly and neatly resolved), but I would still recommend it if you are interested in less well-known Harlem Renaissance-era novels and/or depictions of racial passing in literature.
Angela and Virginia are sisters that grow up in an African American family, but Angela is very light-skinned and can "pass" as white (Virginia cannot), which complicates their relationship as they grow older. Angela eventually makes her way to New York where she decides to start "passing" full-time, a decision that creates more problems than she'd bargained for, especially where her sister and her romantic relationships are concerned.
I enjoyed the thematic explorations of racial passing and white supremacy in this novel more than I enjoyed the actual characters or plot developments (which seemed too quickly and neatly resolved), but I would still recommend it if you are interested in less well-known Harlem Renaissance-era novels and/or depictions of racial passing in literature.
February 22, 2016
Read for my Harlem Renaissance class. The marriage plot gets a little blah toward the end, but everything else about this book is so interesting - plot focused on a woman who is passing in NYC in the 1920s/30s, and the complications this creates for her romantic and familial relationships, also while trying to make it as a young artist. Fascinating!
September 17, 2020
This book was wonderful! Highly recommend!
Read
October 16, 2023dnf 50%
February 23, 2025
I read Harlem Rhapsody and I had my first encounter with Jessie. My interest was peaked, and I wanted to read one of her books. The book was pretty good. 3.5 rating
April 17, 2017
Plum Bun, by Jessie Redmon Faust is an exquisitely painful story that details the travails of African Americans who try to make their way in America by literally "crossing the line", and becoming someone else. Angela Murray, older fair skinned daughter of Junius and Mattie Murray does not want to be shut out of the opportunities that white people are able to benefit from with no effort. Her mother is also very fair and the two of them regularly go about their community in Philadelphia and "pass" enjoying shopping and excursions to tea rooms and other places that they would not be welcomed if it was known that they are Negro. Her father is black, and her sister Virginia are brown skinned which means the family members essentially live in different worlds. Angela moves from Philadelphia to New York City separating herself from her sister after the death of their parents. In New York she enters a glittering and yet treacherous world and learns many difficult lessons as she moves towards self acceptance at last becoming "at home" with herself. A gripping reading experience, harrowing, heartbreaking and at last healing. Recommended.
March 6, 2015
This book brought me a completely new perspective on white colored people's lives around the 20s. At first, I found Fauset's writing very simple and dry but as I read on, found out how simply but very precisely she depicts the psychological shifts of the protagonist, Angela. Through her sufferings caused by racism, gender and financial status, she gradually discovers the core of her problem - loneliness. And this loneliness she cannot overcome wherever she lives - in New York, Paris or even her hometown Philadelphia. Today, almost a century after this book was written, this same loneliness causes many people to suffer. As a woman and the similar age myself as Angela, I could empathize with her in so many ways. The complication of her life circumstances, despite which she maintained her tenacious spirit and never gave up on pursuing happiness, encouraged me to strive always forward in life.
May 12, 2016
3.5 starts. Loved the writing. This book was really engaging but slow in some parts of the story. For the first time ever, I can say k disliked a character which made me enjoy the boom even more. Angela or Angél grew up passing as white with her mother in Philadelphia. However living as a black female and enduring the injustices as a person of color, she decided to leave Philadelphia and move to NY where she would pass as white. What I hated about Angela which also drew me to want to read more was this insistent idea of having to be with a male, marriage. It appeared that many do the things she did was for the sake of man which really got me angry. There are a lot of surprises in the book which I loved. This is a must read.
Read
June 5, 2020First half of this novel is excellent, with wonderful detail, but second half gets bogged down by romantic melodrama. The men are rather dull compared to the complex Angela, which makes matters worse. But worth reading.
October 10, 2018
Uneven at times but nonetheless an immensely illuminating novel on race, color, and gender by a major writer of the Harlem Renaissance.
March 1, 2026
Description (from Goodreads):
When I read "Harlem Rhapsody" by Victoria Christopher Murray last year, I berated myself that I had never heard of Jessie Redmon Fauset, a doyenne of the Harlem Renaissance, and I pledged that I would read one of her books. Well...let's just say that I am no longer shocked that her name has fallen out of common knowledge. "Plum Bun" was...odd: a rather stolid mixture of philosophy and fiction, and I found Fauset's writing to be awkward sometimes to the point of almost being unreadable. (Sidenote: the Mint Editions copy published in 2024 that I got from our library was filled with some truly egregious typos, like sentences that were completely out of order. I had to download a digital copy to read instead. But even once the major typos were gone, I still found the prose to be clunky and tedious.)
So you may be wondering why I gave the book 4 stars, which is a decent rating for me. In spite of disliking Fauset's writing and finding the plot to be dull and predictable, I still thought "Plum Bun" was an intriguing case study of a time period. Angela's decision to pass and her ongoing debates about its morality were interesting. There were a few moments of real human emotion that moved me. And I ultimately think I will find the characters memorable, even if they were not particularly well-developed. So it worked a weird kind of magic on me, in which I was both annoyed by it and compelled by it at the same time.
But man, that end was cheesy. 😆 And just too neat for my tastes - like with a literal bow on it? For a novel of that same time period on passing, I would recommend Nella Larsen's "Passing" over "Plum Bun." Interestingly, Fauset and Larsen were friends and encouraged each other's writing.
Written in 1929 at the height of the Harlem Renaissance by one of the movement's most important and prolific authors, Plum Bun is the story of Angela Murray, a young black girl who discovers she can pass for white. After the death of her parents, Angela moves to New York to escape the racism she believes is her only obstacle to opportunity. What she soon discovers is that being a woman has its own burdens that don't fade with the color of one's skin, and that love and marriage might not offer her salvation.
When I read "Harlem Rhapsody" by Victoria Christopher Murray last year, I berated myself that I had never heard of Jessie Redmon Fauset, a doyenne of the Harlem Renaissance, and I pledged that I would read one of her books. Well...let's just say that I am no longer shocked that her name has fallen out of common knowledge. "Plum Bun" was...odd: a rather stolid mixture of philosophy and fiction, and I found Fauset's writing to be awkward sometimes to the point of almost being unreadable. (Sidenote: the Mint Editions copy published in 2024 that I got from our library was filled with some truly egregious typos, like sentences that were completely out of order. I had to download a digital copy to read instead. But even once the major typos were gone, I still found the prose to be clunky and tedious.)
So you may be wondering why I gave the book 4 stars, which is a decent rating for me. In spite of disliking Fauset's writing and finding the plot to be dull and predictable, I still thought "Plum Bun" was an intriguing case study of a time period. Angela's decision to pass and her ongoing debates about its morality were interesting. There were a few moments of real human emotion that moved me. And I ultimately think I will find the characters memorable, even if they were not particularly well-developed. So it worked a weird kind of magic on me, in which I was both annoyed by it and compelled by it at the same time.
But man, that end was cheesy. 😆 And just too neat for my tastes - like with a literal bow on it? For a novel of that same time period on passing, I would recommend Nella Larsen's "Passing" over "Plum Bun." Interestingly, Fauset and Larsen were friends and encouraged each other's writing.
December 28, 2025
3.5 stars. I had never heard of Jessie Redmon Fauset until someone told me she was like Jane Austen, and of course I immediately had to pick up one of her books. This is a novel of passing - passing for white, that is, which was common among light-skinned Black people of this period. Angela is light-skinned enough to do this, but her sister Jinny is not, and Angela's choice to pass pushes the sisters farther apart as they both move to New York for a new start.
I thoroughly enjoyed the novel's depiction of 1920s New York, both the world of the Harlem Renaissance, which Jinny inhabits, and the bohemian artists that Angela hangs out with while passing as white. As someone who went to grad school and still has a lot of friends who are students, I thought the way the characters relate to each other, the relationships they get in and out of, the lectures they attend and discuss, etc. were extremely relatable. The authorial voice has a wry tone that relies on understatement, similar to Jane Austen (but not quite so funny), and this and the way the book tackles issues of both race and class reminded me of her.
The one thing I didn't really like was how the romance was handled. The main couple don't have enough real scenes together for me to buy their relationship, and there's some drama that quickly becomes very corny and could have been resolved much more quickly than it was. That's the main reason this isn't getting a higher rating from me - I still look forward to reading more of Fauset's work!
I thoroughly enjoyed the novel's depiction of 1920s New York, both the world of the Harlem Renaissance, which Jinny inhabits, and the bohemian artists that Angela hangs out with while passing as white. As someone who went to grad school and still has a lot of friends who are students, I thought the way the characters relate to each other, the relationships they get in and out of, the lectures they attend and discuss, etc. were extremely relatable. The authorial voice has a wry tone that relies on understatement, similar to Jane Austen (but not quite so funny), and this and the way the book tackles issues of both race and class reminded me of her.
The one thing I didn't really like was how the romance was handled. The main couple don't have enough real scenes together for me to buy their relationship, and there's some drama that quickly becomes very corny and could have been resolved much more quickly than it was. That's the main reason this isn't getting a higher rating from me - I still look forward to reading more of Fauset's work!
June 16, 2015
'Now be practical, [Virginia]; after all, I am both white and Negro and look white. Why shouldn't I declare for the one that brings me the greatest happiness, prosperity, and respect?'
The primary concern of Jessie Redmon Fauset's 'Plum Bun' rests on this very question.
This novel has an irresistible charm—its character's are affable and its story lovable. In this 'novel without a moral' we follow Angela Murray as she comes of age in a systematically racist America as she lives on both sides of the color line. Angela is what is known as 'passing for white'—when she realizes this, Angela believes that the only way to escape the tired old conversations on race and the limitations which majority white society places on the advancement of blacks, is to up-sticks and head to New York City, to reinvent herself (as so many New Yorkers do) as a white girl named 'Angele Mory'. Angela believes that this is only right, for she is owed an opportunity for a life of affluence and the finer things, what in her eyes amount to happiness. She soon finds, however, that happiness is much a more complicated thing... Angela is not a 'bad' person, just immature, and I think Fauset is very good at making sure the reader doesn't come to this conclusion.
There's something a whiff ironic about Angela's search for what she deems happiness in that Angela comes from a very happy family. Her parents (a black father and 'passing' mother) are truly in love and have done everything imaginable for their children's comfort and safety in order to spare them from the immense hardship they themselves had to overcome in their lifetime. Yet, Angela knows that her racial background denies her pleasantries and is rightly frustrated by this. This very fact is made apparent in heartbreaking scenes where Angela's father must pose as her mother's chauffeur in order to receive her from the hospital, or when in a moment of weakness, Angela and her mother pretend not to recognize their very own husband and father in the street while on a shopping spree in the city while together passing for white—it is on these very shopping sprees where Angela cultivates a very reductive, materialist vision of what happiness is. For Angela it can only be a life of luxury, without the worries and cares of place, race, and roots. She wishes to live a life of unfettered agency.
Virginia, Angela's sister, is bound by her darker skin to identify as black, and so comes to different conclusions as to what makes a happy life since she would never be let into the establishments where Angela and her mother shop in the first place. She quickly becomes acquainted with, and builds off of her limitations and lives a far richer life in New York as a result. While Angela's life is defined by money, empty social niceties, and denial of one's past (all elements to Angela's day-to-day existence embodied by her fraught relationship with Robert), Virginia is able to live a vibrant life of the mind in Harlem which runs in concert with her past. This contrast between the lives of Angela and Virginia reaches a twin climax first at the dinner party with Margaret, and second, at the Van Meier lecture in Harlem.
Angela's 'people' are of a white artistic persuasion. Their whiteness is paramount to understanding their point of view, for it is the point of view of one's point of view being taken as granted... that is, as heard by the majority. It is the difference between one who speaks with the authority of one who is used to being heard, and one who must articulate their self, or perish. They are a 'political' group, professedly concerned with the rights of humankind. And yet, even Angela senses their limitations of these seemingly limitless agents...
'And again it seemed to her that they represented an almost alarmingly unnecessary class. If any great social cataclysm were to happen they would surely be first to be swept out of the running. Only real people could survive.'
This thought reaches maturity at the Van Meier lecture, where the arresting black orator calls upon the race to draw pride and strength on their own terms, a call which would surely transcend the status symbols and social privileges of a white world which Angela holds so dear.
'It is neither courage, no, nor hate
That lets us do the things we do;
It's pride that bids the heart be great.'
This calling is beyond mere 'discursivity'—it is a fierce calling to those whose very lives are at stake, a calling by which Margaret and Ladislas' dinner party politics pales pathetically in comparison.
After two years of denial, lies, and failed friendships and relationships in New York, Angela's life lacks true social cohesion. She finds herself no better than when she arrived, just another lonely soul wandering crowded 14th street. It's in the depths of this loneliness that Angela learns to strive for the merits of a friendship based in love, belonging, and a pureness of heart.
And oh, geez, what a love story!!! OK, so the story has what you might call a typical happy ending... so what? Sometimes life is a happy, happy thing... it'll melt your heart, guaranteed...
—AF
The primary concern of Jessie Redmon Fauset's 'Plum Bun' rests on this very question.
This novel has an irresistible charm—its character's are affable and its story lovable. In this 'novel without a moral' we follow Angela Murray as she comes of age in a systematically racist America as she lives on both sides of the color line. Angela is what is known as 'passing for white'—when she realizes this, Angela believes that the only way to escape the tired old conversations on race and the limitations which majority white society places on the advancement of blacks, is to up-sticks and head to New York City, to reinvent herself (as so many New Yorkers do) as a white girl named 'Angele Mory'. Angela believes that this is only right, for she is owed an opportunity for a life of affluence and the finer things, what in her eyes amount to happiness. She soon finds, however, that happiness is much a more complicated thing... Angela is not a 'bad' person, just immature, and I think Fauset is very good at making sure the reader doesn't come to this conclusion.
There's something a whiff ironic about Angela's search for what she deems happiness in that Angela comes from a very happy family. Her parents (a black father and 'passing' mother) are truly in love and have done everything imaginable for their children's comfort and safety in order to spare them from the immense hardship they themselves had to overcome in their lifetime. Yet, Angela knows that her racial background denies her pleasantries and is rightly frustrated by this. This very fact is made apparent in heartbreaking scenes where Angela's father must pose as her mother's chauffeur in order to receive her from the hospital, or when in a moment of weakness, Angela and her mother pretend not to recognize their very own husband and father in the street while on a shopping spree in the city while together passing for white—it is on these very shopping sprees where Angela cultivates a very reductive, materialist vision of what happiness is. For Angela it can only be a life of luxury, without the worries and cares of place, race, and roots. She wishes to live a life of unfettered agency.
Virginia, Angela's sister, is bound by her darker skin to identify as black, and so comes to different conclusions as to what makes a happy life since she would never be let into the establishments where Angela and her mother shop in the first place. She quickly becomes acquainted with, and builds off of her limitations and lives a far richer life in New York as a result. While Angela's life is defined by money, empty social niceties, and denial of one's past (all elements to Angela's day-to-day existence embodied by her fraught relationship with Robert), Virginia is able to live a vibrant life of the mind in Harlem which runs in concert with her past. This contrast between the lives of Angela and Virginia reaches a twin climax first at the dinner party with Margaret, and second, at the Van Meier lecture in Harlem.
Angela's 'people' are of a white artistic persuasion. Their whiteness is paramount to understanding their point of view, for it is the point of view of one's point of view being taken as granted... that is, as heard by the majority. It is the difference between one who speaks with the authority of one who is used to being heard, and one who must articulate their self, or perish. They are a 'political' group, professedly concerned with the rights of humankind. And yet, even Angela senses their limitations of these seemingly limitless agents...
'And again it seemed to her that they represented an almost alarmingly unnecessary class. If any great social cataclysm were to happen they would surely be first to be swept out of the running. Only real people could survive.'
This thought reaches maturity at the Van Meier lecture, where the arresting black orator calls upon the race to draw pride and strength on their own terms, a call which would surely transcend the status symbols and social privileges of a white world which Angela holds so dear.
'It is neither courage, no, nor hate
That lets us do the things we do;
It's pride that bids the heart be great.'
This calling is beyond mere 'discursivity'—it is a fierce calling to those whose very lives are at stake, a calling by which Margaret and Ladislas' dinner party politics pales pathetically in comparison.
After two years of denial, lies, and failed friendships and relationships in New York, Angela's life lacks true social cohesion. She finds herself no better than when she arrived, just another lonely soul wandering crowded 14th street. It's in the depths of this loneliness that Angela learns to strive for the merits of a friendship based in love, belonging, and a pureness of heart.
And oh, geez, what a love story!!! OK, so the story has what you might call a typical happy ending... so what? Sometimes life is a happy, happy thing... it'll melt your heart, guaranteed...
—AF
May 2, 2023
Feminist Book Club - May 2023
August 16, 2019
This is a hidden gem of a novel from the Harlem Renaissance. Fauset addresses racial ‘passing’ and gender roles as well as romantic relationships and the struggle for independence. I thoroughly enjoyed the prose and the fleshed-out characters, including Angela’s development as a self-accepting ‘colored’ woman. Although there were some sections which I found slow, for the most part, it was a book I couldn’t put down and was an overall enjoyable read.
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