The Foxes of Harrow

I swiped my stepmother's copy of Vixens from 1947 when I was just a kid in the 70's and remembered almost the entire manuscript, it stuck in my mind so. Especially where Denise, Laird's real love, not his wife, on his wedding night, sadly told him, that she knew his wife was mad, then proceeded to stand in for her, with the classic line, "everyman deserves a wedding night". Laird was the hero, Hugh,the villian, Sabrina's Laird's sterotyped nuttier than a fruitcake spoiled southern belle post war, & to me, Denise is the all time REAL WOMAN IN BOOKS. Foxes of Harrow was just as mesmerizing and complicated. I just noticed something too. There is an Etienne Fox, Stephen Harrow's son in Foxes name. He too was a sick, cowardly dirty white sheeted redneck. I wonder if Yerby had Vixens in mind when he did Foxes of Harrow? [...]My father, a loyal KKK sicko, blew a fuse and humilated me in elementary school for being assigned to do a report on Dr.Martin Luther King. I was all for it, and he refused to let me do it, because of Dr. King's race. BUT HE BOUGHT MY STEPMOTHER YERBY'S BOOKS, NEVER KNOWING THAT YERBY WAS BLACK, and around 20 years ago, my school book that I was to reference for Dr. King, somehow turned up in his home. Strange things happen in the name of justice. I think Oprah should discover Mr.Yerby's outstanding history and especially as most black writers had a very hard time getting contracts back then. Foxes of Harrow, however, sold for a grand price of $3 & Vixens the same in hardcover, for a whopping 75 cents in paperback, plus, he was a book club's pick on several occasions. I think that is magnificent history that should be wider known and told that he could acheive all that in a time, when that when it just didn't happen. Try some of his other books, like the Girl from Storyville, A Woman called Fancy, etc. You'll love them and see why he succeeded so well.

This is the man: Stephen Fox - born out of wedlock, banished from his homeland. He came to the New World ragged and starving, with just one possession, a thing he could not sell, his pride! His body, his mind, his soul, burned with one overriding ambition, one day he would be a gentleman! And these are the women who knew his passions: Odalie - the pearl of the South, rich and beautiful, desired by man men but won by Stephen. She loved her husband with all her heart but could not love him with her body. Desiree - the lovely, tempestuous quadroon. She was a virgin when she came to him, just sixteen years old; she was his mistress from then on. Her vibrant body was everything a man could ever long for, but her love brought death and decay. Aurore - his wife's sister. She loved Stephen from a distance, always faithful to a love she couldn't know, waiting for a chance to share his life. This is the tremendous best seller about one of the greatest plantations of the Old South - the man who built it, the women he loved, the glory and decadence of a passionate age.

I read this book several years ago along with quite a few of his other books.I've never been disappointed.The books are written in good form and the characters have extreme depth.My grandmother has this book in her library and I am now working on completing my collection.

I first read this book in 1962. Today, I can remember the characters as if I had read the book yesterday. A beautiful love story written in a gentler time. A story that will tear at your heart and conscience. Very moving!