The Personal Librarian

“To be a Fleet was to be well educated (all of my aunts and uncles had gone to college) and hardworking (the women were all teachers and the men, all engineers). Fleets were understated in dress and presentation, connected to the community, mannerly in demeanor, and always dignified, no matter what treatment we encountered outside the bubble of our small world.”

Belle’s family is an elite one that exhibits Black respectability. Belle draws on the class and gender norms she learned about the Fleets via her mother, but the notion of this world as a bubble highlights that their freedom comes with boundaries due to the racist society in which they function.

“I would no longer be called Belle Marion Greener, proud daughter of Richard Greener, a lawyer, an advocate for equality, and a member of the talented tenth, and of Genevieve Fleet Greener, part of the elite Washington, DC, community of free people of color. No. Shortly thereafter, I accepted my mother’s decision as if it were my own and I became the white woman known as Belle da Costa Greene.”

With the departure of Richard Greener from her life, Genevieve transforms Belle from Black to white. The ease with which Belle slips from being Belle Greener to Belle da Costa Greene shows that the lines between Black and white can be breached by something as straightforward as a name change. On the other hand, the way Belle describes this change shows that she has an early awareness that there are losses. Becoming white makes her an outsider without the benefit of family and racial community as support.

“‘A real beauty.’ Again, he speaks as if he’s appraising artwork, and I’m not sure if the known philanderer is considering me as a woman or inspecting me as a librarian.”

This early encounter with J.P. shows that he sees her as an object from the beginning of their relationship. Belle, eager to establish herself, seems aware of what his gaze says about his attitude toward women, but she is at this point willing to tolerate this view. This scene captures the challenges women face as they attempt to navigate male-dominated and sexist arenas in professional settings.

“Never would I want them to know that my excitement has been tempered by anxiety. All day I had to quiet the voice inside my head filled with insecurities about my readiness for this task and my ability to work with a man as volatile and mercurial as Mr. Morgan. I don’t want to share my fears with them, as they’ve already plotted out how their lives might change based on the money I will be adding to our household. I must carry that burden of consternation alone.”

This passage shows that the toll of passing for white and working in a professional setting with a powerful man is hard to bear. Belle does bear it for the sake of her family’s financial security, but her mention of how they assume she up to the task shows both her resentment and fear over whether she can pull off her deception.

“The world I inhabit may not know that I am colored, but there will be some, like this woman, who will discover my secret, and I wish that, in some small way, my achievements will give them hope. As I watch her weave through the guests, seen yet unseen, without even a nod of acknowledgment, the taste of the fine sparkling wine in my mouth sours and I feel a sense of sadness, tinged with anger. Now I can think only about the serving hands that poured it. Those hands are cracked and swollen from heavy lifting and serving, while mine are covered in satin opera-length gloves. Why does she serve while I am served? Why is it that the relative whiteness of my skin has given me this chance at privilege?”

Belle senses that passing is a kind of racial betrayal of the tradition of Black excellence embodied by both the Greener and Fleet families. There are also class differences between Belle and the serving woman. Although Belle is passing as white, her beliefs about the relationship between her and this woman is one that reflects the belief of many Black elites—members of the Talented Tenth—who saw their success as leading the way for working class Black people who were not able to take advantage of the economic and social opportunities available to a small portion of Black society at the turn of the century. In this instance, in other words, Belle is still thinking like the daughter of Richard Greener.

“He chortles, and for the first time this evening, I feel at ease and have an epiphany. This is how I must behave in order to fit in. Mama has admonished me to be cautious and blend, but I realize now that she was wrong. In order to assimilate with this crowd, I must be bold, daring to hide my differences in plain sight.”

The longer Belle stays in J.P.’s world, the more she comes to understand that what her mother taught her about the importance of Black women conducting themselves with modesty and respectability is out of place with the mores of the white, affluent people among whom she now socializes. This moment at the Vanderbilt party is when she first realizes that she must adapt to fit in.

“Auction-goers have clear preferences. Some seek out seats in the front row to be seen or in the rear so their bids can only be seen by the auctioneer. Those more interested in displaying their finances and their power choose the center. I know precisely where to be. I wait until most of the crowd has settled into their chairs, and then I walk down the aisle. Once I am certain all eyes are upon me—not difficult, given that I’m the only woman in the room—I take the last seat on the aisle in the very center row.”

As Belle becomes more comfortable among the elites, she begins to exert greater control over how she fashions her public persona. In this chapter, she uses a bright scarf and occupies a central seat to announce to this world that she is a force to be reckoned with. These power moves mark a shift in Belle’s approach to how she passes. This is one of the first times that she uses hypervisibility instead of invisibility to address the limitations of the typical social spaces available for women.

“By appealing to her stated commitment to women’s interests—while subtly hinting at the whispers about her own life—I have boxed her in. How can she persist in her persecution of me at the same time she publicly espouses support for women, especially given that she now knows I’m aware she has secrets of her own?”

When confronted with rumors about her racial heritage, Belle uses several strategies to disarm her accusers. In this passage, she appeals to the shared experience of womanhood to force Elsie de Wolfe, one of Anne’s partners, to back off. That strategy fails repeatedly, reflecting that despite their ardent support for women’s rights, women like Anne an Elsie do not see Belle as a part of this sisterhood. Their politics are limited by their attitudes about race and class, in other words.

“It is my name that is carved above this library’s doors, not yours. And I never want to have to remind you of that again.”

This clash with J.P. is one of the moments when Belle is forced to recognize that her autonomy and ability to have professional success are entirely dependent on J.P.’s whims. Belle is shaken by this encounter because it reminds her that women can only go as far as powerful (white) men like J.P. allow them.

“‘I’ve come to believe that the best path to success is by embracing my gender, Mama. Flaunting it even’—those words make Mama flinch—’rather than trying to hide. Then once I have their focus, I demonstrate my skills and knowledge. […] They see the shade of my skin no matter what I’m wearing. And strange as it might sound, dressing boldly is like hiding in plain sight. Because no one can imagine that a colored girl would be so brazen.’”

Belle reverses the usual relationship between her and her mother by instructing Genevieve in how to pass among affluent white people. Her strategy as hiding in plain sight depends not on the respectable Black norms to which Genevieve subscribes, but to a bold femininity more in keeping with the new, modern women that dominate in New York society at the time. Belle’s ability to articulate this strategy shows that she uses clothing as an important part of her self-fashioning.

“We begin walking again, our arms still linked together, and I wonder about Mr. Berenson’s words, what his phrase ‘a great equalizer’ tells me about him. He’d mentioned his childhood days at the Boston Public Library—a clear hint at the lower economic station of his family—and perhaps the financial situation to which he’d been born preys upon him amid such lavishness. I can certainly relate to his sentiment about being an outsider.”

This egalitarian notion of art, espoused in the midst of a room full of the ultra-rich, reflects that both Bernard and Belle’s belief that their status as outsiders will allow them to change how people see the function art. The passage also highlights the lure of Bernard for Belle, which is that he is also passing for something that he is not.

“You’re all around the city, attending all the balls and soirees, but you’re also conducting serious business in the art world. You’re living a life of equality, and that’s what we’re fighting for. Whether it’s in your work—like you—or in your personal life—like my mother, who’s chosen not to conform to the traditional constraints of marriage.”

Although Belle is by now practiced at exercising control over her self-representation, this encounter shows that her performance assumes meanings for others that Belle may not have thought about. For these young women, Belle embodies the new woman because she rejects traditional gender norms. Having women like Rachel and Belle’s college friends cast her as the modern woman causes Belle to change her own perception of who she is. These shifts help mark the impact of the suffragist movement as an important sociohistorical context for the novel.

“Perhaps Bernard’s unique marriage could allow me to experience the man I desperately want to know better, without the danger that he’ll expect more from me than I can give. Don’t I deserve to experience the same emotions and grand passion as other women? Perhaps with Bernard, I might be able to have a taste of the type of romantic relationship most women take for granted.”

The shift from seeing herself as a white-passing women to seeing herself as the embodiment of the modern woman emboldens Belle to violate one more norm of respectability, which is that sex outside of marriage is frowned upon. Belle, already feeling a sense of loss that marriage and motherhood and marriage are not for her, sees the potential of having a relationship with Bernard as a way out this potential loss. Love, in other words, need not be linked with marriage and sexual reproduction. Belle’s realization in this regard is a liberated one for a woman of the period.

“Gossip about my outrageous comments or my tipsy flirting or my increasingly expensive, brightly colored scarves distracts them from rumormongering about the one thing that matters—the color of my skin. But speaking fearlessly does not yield the intimacy of connection, which is what I seek. In fact, I begin to feel like a circus performer, trotted out for the entertainment of the audience and expected to deliver a heightened act every time. Society wishes to adopt me into their ranks, not as an equal but almost as a pet, like the artists they sponsor and occasionally invite out.”

The toll of pretending—of hiding in plain sight—wears on Belle. Her articulation of this psychological toll and the idea of passing as a kind of performance are both conventions of the passing narrative, especially 20th-century ones with female protagonists. Belle’s belief that these affluent people see her as a pet links her struggles to the one of patronage, the fraught relationships that existed between Black artists and white patrons. Although Belle has so far managed to escape the racial part of that equation, she still must contend with class dynamics, it seems.

“Did you like the miniature portrait of myself I sent to you? I know it’s no Giotto but I hope it helps you imagine me in Greenwich Village last evening at a pub with old school friends, sipping beer and yammering away about the way they’re working to shift our society. They challenge me to stretch and to become the best woman possible, to use my unique position for a larger purpose. I want to be that woman for myself, and I want to be that woman for you.”

Belle’s creation of art to communicate with Bernard shows that she has tight control over her representation, while the description of what happens during the evenings in Greenwich shows that this presentation is increasingly focused on women’s liberation. That she sees this self-fashioning into a more liberated woman as something she does in part for Bernard shows that she still is dependent on others to motivate her shifts in identity.

“Not that I’m concerned, of course. Because no matter who you see or what you do, you are my personal librarian. You must always remember that you belong to me.”

J.P.’s blunt statement of ownership comes as he warns Belle not to see Bernard during her trip to Europe. His attempt to assert control over what he sees as an improper personal (or even sexual) relationship shows how much he dominates the power dynamic in their relationship. Belle’s lack of power is such that she uses a lie by omission to avoid a confrontation or a rupture with J.P. His feeling that he has the right to make demands about what Belle does outside of work shows one of the challenges that even highly accomplished professional women like Belle must confront.

“I feel power surge through me. How many women have the opportunity to exercise their intellectual prowess and financial dominance—even if it derives from another—over a man? And the bigger question, one never far from my thoughts, is how many colored women have this chance? The sensation is exhilarating for so many reasons. And addictive.”

The other side of the relationship with J.P. is that Belle is able to exercise influence that her class, race, and gender would ordinarily foreclose. Belle is self-aware enough to recognize that she only has power by proximity, but the notion of this power as “addictive” shows that she is willing to accept impositions like J.P. demanding that she not see Bernard in order to stay in proximity to that power. Her inability to have power in her own right reflects the limits of Belle’s strategies to overcome race, class, and gender oppression by passing.

“The truth is, there is no place for me to go. As an unmarried colored woman, I would never be hired as a librarian or an art expert anywhere in America, and without Mr. Morgan’s recommendation—which he would never provide if he found out I was pregnant by Bernard or anyone else—no one would hire me in Europe. With a child, I have no place and no one. Only Bernard’s acceptance and support could have changed that, and he hasn’t even bothered to come to the bathroom door to check on me.”

The limitations of her strategies are finally driven home to Belle in a moment of vulnerability. This passage articulates the overlapping impact of Belle’s class, race, and gender on her ability to be the person she wants to be (a mother and professional in this case). She can’t be both, hence her acceptance of Bernard’s demand for the abortion. She also discovers that despite Bernard’s celebration of her success and identification with her on the basis of their shared outsider status, he sees her reproductive capabilities as a nuisance—a hard-headed view that does not line up with the sentimental language of love he uses in his letters. Belle begins to understand her own naivete in this moment.

“I am stunned into silence by my mother’s story. I feel grateful that she has shared this critical part of her past with me, but I realize that this has not been about sharing her interior life with an adult daughter; this is a mother’s cautionary tale. This isn’t about history; this is about the future and what my world will be if I dare to fly too close to the sun. Of all the ‘suggestions’ she’s issued to me, of all the warnings she’s given and I’ve lately resisted, this one registers.”

In this key moment, Belle comes to understand Genevieve’s decision to pass, even at the cost of great self-sacrifice. Although the trend in their relationship over the years has been that Belle understands more about the world in which she functions than does Genevieve, Genevieve serves a reminder about the wider sociohistorical context in which Belle operates, specifically the enduring threat of racial violence for Black people who violate racial norms. Passing is just such a violation. Belle’s conversation with her mother causes her to move past the more personal hurt of the abortion and to focus on maintaining her professional success.

“‘You cannot treat me like something you have bought and paid for.’ My voice quivers as I speak. ‘Like one of your manuscripts. Or—’ The rest of the words hover on the tip of my tongue, begging to be released. Or a slave, I think over and over. Yes, I have lived my adult life as a white woman, but when I lay my head down at night I am as colored as the first enslaved African men and women who landed in this country three hundred years ago. After all my father has done to fight for equality, after all my mother has given up to ensure that I had the best opportunities, I will not permit myself to be spoken to as if I am owned. Not by Mr. Morgan, not by anyone.”

J.P. finally crosses a line when he explicitly claims to own Belle. This is an emphatic rejection, one that comes despite all that is at risk if she rejects his efforts to control her and after many moments in which she accepted such claims. Her ability to stand up for herself is rooted in her identity as a Black woman who is the daughter of elite Black people and the descendent of enslaved women who survived sexual exploitation. This moment is important because it captures Belle’s sense that her grit comes from her hidden racial identity and family history, not her assumed whiteness or professional success.

“Don’t worry, Belle. I know how painful it is to be judged by a construct of society that doesn’t make sense and because of that, have to live with a painful secret. Neither of us has been able to live openly as our true selves, and I’m sorry for the role I played in threatening you with your hidden identity. I hope we can keep our secrets from this point on.”

Anne and Belle are finally able to make their peace after J.P. dies, but it takes Anne connecting her closeted gender identity to Belle’s passing for this accord to happen. Anne’s insight is that the stigmas around their respective identities stem from social constructs that see racial distinctions and heterosexuality as natural. This conversation between Anne and Belle is one of the few moments when these two very different women are able to bond, which shows the potential power in recognizing this truth about aspects of identity.

“As I try to jerk away from him, the Claridge’s doormen witness my distress, and race to my side. ‘Move away,’ they say, standing on either side of me. Together, they peel Bernard’s fingers off me, then hold him back while I hasten to the Rolls-Royce and climb inside. I do not glance back at the scene, and instead, I ask the driver to depart.”

Belle’s transformation from an outsider with an ambiguous racial and class identity is completed in this scene. The doormen and the waiting driver of the fancy car are all there to enforce her separation from Bernard because to all appearances, Belle is an affluent white woman.

“It is my homage to the two men who supported my climb to this peak, having their emblems sit side by side for the ages. Now, with this photograph, my official portrait will include the symbols of them both—Mr. Morgan’s lion-footed desk and Portrait of a Moor.”

In this passage, she instructs the reporter to represent her between two objects that represent both parts of her racial identity. Her ability to shape her legacy through the composition of the photograph shows that Belle now exercises a great degree of control over her self-fashioning and that she is at peace with continuing to hide in plain sight the Black part of that identity.