FAIR AND TENDER LADIES by Lee Smith...

FAIR AND TENDER LADIES

by Lee Smith (G. P. Putnam’s Sons: $17.95, 336 pp.) A tour de force: A novel written with great love and respect for history, the language and the brave people who endure so much in the Appalachian mountains that intelligence triumphs absolutely.--Carolyn See

DICKENS: A BIOGRAPHY

by Fred Kaplan (William Morrow: $24.95; 592 pp.) Kaplan’s achievement is as rare, as wonderful, as the Dickens he brings to life. We are all the beneficiaries of this exceptional biography.--A. D. Hutter