The Foxes of Harrow [Hardcover]

Frank Yerby (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Dial; 12th edition (1959)
• ASIN: B002NHL5Y8
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the foxes of harrow, June 2, 2002

By 

Brenda DoHarris (Landover Hills, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: FOXES OF HARROW (The Delta Diamond library) (Paperback)

The first time I read this book I was fourteen years old-- forty-two years ago. Reading it then partly inspired me with a love of literature that led to my becoming a professor of literature and a novelist. Yerby never fails to seize the reader's imagination. Even though his works have sometimes been referred to as pulp fiction, he does essentially what is required of the writer-- he seizes the reader and takes him on a pleasurable, thrilling journey through the imagination. As a black reader, I never even guessed from his writing that Yerby was black. His writing, as in The Foxes of Harrow, is color blind-- refreshing in a world increasingly obsessed with race. This is a "must read" for those in the next generation.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From the Back Cover, November 28, 2004

By 

Debbie P. Moore "Got 2 Have It Collectibles" (Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: FOXES OF HARROW (The Delta Diamond library) (Paperback)

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.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Sex and Slavery in the South, April 13, 2009

By 

A. Woman (Greeneville, Tennessee USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Foxes of Harrow, 1st Edition (Hardcover)

Sex sells, and Frank Yerby gave it to his readers in droves. This steamy soap opera of a book, like other Yerby works, tells of a self made man who, in the end, is still a hostage to his hormones. The story begins with the adventures of the illegitimate Irish gambler, Stephen Fox. He's worked his way around Europe and America and has now settled near New Orleans. He schemes and gambles until he establishes himself as a wealthy planter, building the great hall of Harrow. But money doesn't buy happiness.

He marries local beauty Odalie, but she turns out to be frigid in bed. After years of going without he finally takes on a quadroon mistress, Desiree, whose voice is like a soft, golden gong. Did I mention her voice is like a soft, golden gong? Mr. Yerby mentions it several times. Eventually Odalie learns about Desiree and this causes even more conflict in the marriage. Both women turn up the heat in the competition over this man until there's an eventual tragic end.

The next part of the book takes up with Stephen's son, Etienne. With Etienne's cruelty to animals and his disregard for other people's feelings, he has the classic makings of a serial killer if given half a chance. He's a totally despicable person who may get what he deserves when he marries the half-wild Ceclie.

Then at last the Civil War breaks out just when the book looked like it was losing steam. Yet we kind of breeze through the war, just touching upon high points, and before you know it it's over. (The war AND the book.)

This is my second book by Yerby that I've read. I just can't come to care about any of his main characters because they're simply unlikable when they're not downright stupid. Yet it's the secondary characters who are more interesting. There's the venerable old slave woman Tante Caleen, and her grandson, Inch, who makes a daring bid for freedom. There's roly-poly neighbor Andre Le Blanc, who jumps into action to avenge his friend. Even the plight of golden gonged Desiree and her brother are as interesting, if not more interesting, than the sexscapades of the main characters.

It's still readable stuff that moves at a steady pace and is littered with tidbits of historical facts. Oh, and it has sex.