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 Sappho Clark--beautiful, mysterious, Southern--arrives in Boston to earn her living as a stenographer. She lodges with the Smith family and immediately becomes a source of fascination to the them: Ma Smith is impressed by Sappho's financial independence; Dora Smith admires Sappho's quiet self-possession; and Will Smith, Dora's brother, falls madly in love with Sappho. But as Sappho enters the Smiths' community, it becomes clear that her beauty is a lure to bad actors, including someone who entertains dark suspicions about her past. . . 
 A murder mystery, the story of a friendship, and a romance set in Boston's thriving, politically active middle-class Black community, 
 Contending Forces is an unjustly forgotten American classic. 
 
Info autore 
Pauline E. Hopkins (1859–1930) was a Black novelist, journalist, playwright, historian, and editor. She is considered a pioneer in her use of the romantic novel to explore social and racial themes. Hopkins grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. 
  
Riassunto
Sappho Clark—beautiful, mysterious, Southern—arrives in Boston to earn her living as a stenographer. She lodges with the Smith family and immediately becomes a source of fascination to the them: Ma Smith is impressed by Sappho’s financial independence; Dora Smith admires Sappho’s quiet self-possession; and Will Smith, Dora’s brother, falls madly in love with Sappho. But as Sappho enters the Smiths’ community, it becomes clear that her beauty is a lure to bad actors, including someone who entertains dark suspicions about her past. . .
  
 A murder mystery, the story of a friendship, and a romance set in Boston’s thriving, politically active middle-class Black community, Contending Forces is an unjustly forgotten American classic.