The dust jacket of Fred Chappell's novel The Gaudy Place (1973) proclaims him "one of the most gifted of the younger North Carolina writers," a designation which tends to underrate his achievements. While it is true that his four novels have attracted little critical attention in this country and that only The Gaudy Place has entered a second edition, Chappell's work has won reviewers' praise and the respect of fellow writers, among them George Garrett, R. H. W. Dillard, and Reynolds Price. Perhaps an even more important gauge of Chappell's significance is the strength of his international reputation: It Is Time, Lord (1963) and The Inkling (1965) were published in England to rave reviews, and in France translations of It Is Time, Lord and Dagon (1968) by Maurice-Edgar Coindreau and of The Inkling by Claude Levy brought Chappell both critical and commercial success. The warmth of his French reception recalls that of...