The beloved coming-of-age novel about a Brooklyn girlhood that heralded a renaissance in Black women’s literature more than sixty years ago, with a new foreword by Nicole Dennis-Benn, the bestselling author of Patsy and Here Comes the Sun
A Penguin Classic
Selina Boyce comes of age in 1940s Brooklyn as the daughter of two Barbadian immigrants—a father she adores and who dreams of nothing but his return to his homeland, and a mother she admires and who is determined to purchase their New York City brownstone. When her father comes into an unexpected inheritance, her parents’ opposing desires set in motion the family’s collapse and Selina’s own self-realization amid the warring ideals and identities of her Black Caribbean community. With Brown Girl, Brownstones, Paule Marshall pioneered a revolution in Black women’s writing, paving the way for Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Audre Lorde, and June Jordan in the 1970s. With this beautiful new edition of her debut novel, she finally takes her rightful place in the American literary canon.
Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
“Remarkable for its colorful characters, the cadence of its dialogue and its evocation of a still-lingering past.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Marshall brings to her characters . . . an instinctive understanding, a generosity and free humor that combine to form a style remarkable for its courage, its color, and its natural control.” —The New Yorker
“An unforgettable novel written with pride and anger, with rebellion and tears.” —New York Herald Tribune
“Passionate, compelling . . . an impressive accomplishment.” —Saturday Review
“[A] literary gem . . . Brown Girl, Brownstones is so affirming in its celebration of Caribbean culture that, reading it, I felt my lungs fill with my desire to create. . . . How many Black Caribbean girls, I wondered, had any idea that we could do this, that we could tell our own stories? . . . Paule Marshall brought Black Caribbean women to life in her books. . . . She did this with compassion and precision, masterfully capturing all the nuances of being Black, Caribbean, immigrant, woman. She did this, above all, with love. . . . In depicting a young girl carving out a place for herself in the world, Paule Marshall has carved out a place for herself in the literary canon.” —Nicole Dennis-Benn, from the Foreword
Paule Marshall is the author of Brown Girl, Brownstones, The Chosen Place, The Timeless People, Praisesong for the Widow, Soul Clap Hands and Sing, Reena and Other Stories, and Daughters. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, she is now Professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.
View titles by Paule Marshall
The beloved coming-of-age novel about a Brooklyn girlhood that heralded a renaissance in Black women’s literature more than sixty years ago, with a new foreword by Nicole Dennis-Benn, the bestselling author of Patsy and Here Comes the Sun
A Penguin Classic
Selina Boyce comes of age in 1940s Brooklyn as the daughter of two Barbadian immigrants—a father she adores and who dreams of nothing but his return to his homeland, and a mother she admires and who is determined to purchase their New York City brownstone. When her father comes into an unexpected inheritance, her parents’ opposing desires set in motion the family’s collapse and Selina’s own self-realization amid the warring ideals and identities of her Black Caribbean community. With Brown Girl, Brownstones, Paule Marshall pioneered a revolution in Black women’s writing, paving the way for Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Audre Lorde, and June Jordan in the 1970s. With this beautiful new edition of her debut novel, she finally takes her rightful place in the American literary canon.
Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Praise
“Remarkable for its colorful characters, the cadence of its dialogue and its evocation of a still-lingering past.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Marshall brings to her characters . . . an instinctive understanding, a generosity and free humor that combine to form a style remarkable for its courage, its color, and its natural control.” —The New Yorker
“An unforgettable novel written with pride and anger, with rebellion and tears.” —New York Herald Tribune
“Passionate, compelling . . . an impressive accomplishment.” —Saturday Review
“[A] literary gem . . . Brown Girl, Brownstones is so affirming in its celebration of Caribbean culture that, reading it, I felt my lungs fill with my desire to create. . . . How many Black Caribbean girls, I wondered, had any idea that we could do this, that we could tell our own stories? . . . Paule Marshall brought Black Caribbean women to life in her books. . . . She did this with compassion and precision, masterfully capturing all the nuances of being Black, Caribbean, immigrant, woman. She did this, above all, with love. . . . In depicting a young girl carving out a place for herself in the world, Paule Marshall has carved out a place for herself in the literary canon.” —Nicole Dennis-Benn, from the Foreword
Author
Paule Marshall is the author of Brown Girl, Brownstones, The Chosen Place, The Timeless People, Praisesong for the Widow, Soul Clap Hands and Sing, Reena and Other Stories, and Daughters. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, she is now Professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.
View titles by Paule Marshall
