Foxes of Harrow

''The Foxes of Harrow'' chronicles the rise and fall of Stephen Fox, an audacious Irish gambler in mid-19th-century Louisiana. Arriving in New Orleans in 1825 with almost nothing, Fox uses his skills as a card shark to amass a fortune, eventually building Harrow, one of the state's most magnificent slave plantations. Stephen Fox, an illegitimate son of a noble Irish family, manipulates his way into New Orleans' high society. He wins his initial wealth through gambling and eventually marries Odalie Arceneaux, a cold, aristocratic Creole woman, to secure his social standing. The story follows the "e;tumult and heartbreak"e; of Stephen's personal life, including his complex relationships with three women: his wife Odalie, her sister Aurore, and his Black mistress Desiree. Spanning from 1825 to the end of the Civil War, the novel depicts the gradual decay of the Fox family's empire as the social order of the antebellum South collapses under the weight of the war and the abolition of slavery.