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Nella Larsen's 1928 novel Quicksand is regularly described as autobiographical. That characterization is apt-there are many parallels between the experiences of the novel's protagonist, Helga Crane, and those of Larsen-but it should not be taken to mean that all the people and events depicted in Quicksand are based on actual people and events. The novel is largely pure invention, and readers who neglect this fact and instead try to identify more and more real-life analogues thus risk