Virago Modern Classics The Street

The Street is a powerful, character-driven novel set in New York City in the 1940s. It follows Lutie Johnson, a determined woman who leaves an unreliable husband in search of a fresh start for herself and her eight-year-old son, Bub. Living in a crumbling Harlem tenement, she faces violence, poverty, and racial dissonance as she strives to earn a respectable life. The story unfolds with the pace of a thriller while offering an unflinching portrait of injustice and hope. The book is notable as the first by a Black woman to sell over a million copies, and it has been reissued as part of the Virago Modern Classics with a Green Spine design. The prose is clear, the plot keeps turning, and the characters feel utterly believable, amplifying the enduring relevance of Lutie's struggle and resilience.

From its opening pages, the novel portrays how Lutie's determination is repeatedly tested by the pressures surrounding her. Her journey is marked by the sense that she is “too good-looking to be decent,” navigating predators and systemic barriers as she seeks a new life for herself and Bub.

This edition places The Street within the Virago Modern Classics line, inviting a new generation of readers to engage with a seminal work that resonates with contemporary conversations about race, class, and perseverance.

Kenmerken

• Set in Harlem, New York City in the 1940s
• Protagonist: Lutie Johnson, mother to Bub
• Struggle against poverty, violence, and racial dissonance
• Thriller-paced narrative with social realism
• First Black woman author to sell over a million copies
• Reissued in Virago Modern Classics Green Spine design