The Talented Mr. Ripley - Kindle edition by Highsmith, Patricia. Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

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Patricia Highsmith

The Talented Mr. Ripley Kindle Edition

by Patricia Highsmith (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.3 6,674 ratings

Book 1 of 5: Ripley

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An American classic and the inspiration for the new Netflix series.

It’s here, in the first volume of Patricia Highsmith’s five-book Ripley series, that we are introduced to the suave Tom Ripley, a young striver seeking to leave behind his past as an orphan bullied for being a “sissy.” Newly arrived in the heady world of Manhattan, Ripley meets a wealthy industrialist who hires him to bring his playboy son, Dickie Greenleaf, back from gallivanting in Italy. Soon Ripley’s fascination with Dickie’s debonair lifestyle turns obsessive as he finds himself enraged by Dickie’s ambivalent affections for Marge, a charming American dilettante, and Ripley begins a deadly game. “Sinister and strangely alluring” (Mark Harris, Entertainment Weekly) The Talented Mr. Ripley serves as an unforgettable introduction to this smooth confidence man, whose talent for self-invention is as unnerving—and unnervingly revealing of the American psyche—as ever.

Book 1 of 5

Ripley
Print length

276 pages
Language

English
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On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date

June 17, 2008
File size

610 KB
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4.3 out of 5

6,674 global ratings

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Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2024

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Patricia Highsmith is a woman before her time. Ripley is a sociopathic conman whose many modern incarnations are made into streaming documentary or docudrama specials.
Sure it’s a bit dated but it is a riveting story.

One person found this helpful

A suspenseful thriller (with hints of queerness) about the psychology of narcissism and the creation of an identity

Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2014

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In March 2014, a great group discussed "The Talented Mr. Ripley" by Patricia Highsmith at The LGBT Center in NYC. (Highsmith, a lesbian, also wrote "Strangers on a Train," which Alfred Hitchcock turned into a masterful movie that kept the gay subtext. There are interesting parallels between "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Strangers on a Train.")

Everyone liked this book a lot and some loved it, but most had a few quibbling reservations. Mostly, we were surprised at the empathy Highsmith could get us to feel toward a murderer. We all want to cheer for the underdog, but this seemed like an extreme accomplishment for the author.

Someone raised the question (especially after reading "The Charioteer" by Mary Renault a few months ago), why is it that women in the '50's could write about gay men so openly and so well? Is there any parallel to gay or straight men at any time writing so clearly about lesbians?

"The Talented Mr. Ripley" must be a period piece: Modern police practice (think of "CSI" or any "Law and Order" franchise or even "Columbo") would never allow Tom Ripley to get away with his paper-thin deceptions. So the fascination with the story comes from several other points.

Tom is clearly queer and Highsmith has interesting ways to signal his queerness and his life on the "down low" in 1955. Again, Highsmith writes openly and yet subtly about Tom's queerness, but those of use who have learned to read between the lines clearly recognize Tom as gay gay gay. We raised the question but never fully decided whether or not his first victim, Dickie (Dickie?!?) Greenleaf, was queer or Tom was jealous of Dickie, or he was a love-interest that needed to be moved out of the way for Tom to assume his rightful role.

The most interesting aspect of the novel is the adopting of a new identity. The psychology of Tom Ripley is fascinating. He's a narcissist but the reasons for it (such as being raised by a dragon-lady aunt) as well as his early con games and acting lessons that lead to his full-fledged sociopathology is something to follow carefully. Slowly he tests becoming another person before he quickly fills the role and then jumps back out of it, as required. There's also something very 1950's (and unhealthily) queer about Tom's attitudes toward women. Without the nearly perfect psychologizing, the book could merely be viewed as a tract on how sometimes evil does triumph over good.

There were a few reservations: At times the book can seem a bit plodding with unnecessary characters and red herring occurrences. Whether this is because authors of the period felt the need to give a full-length book, or the convention of psychological and suspenseful mysteries require them seemed unclear.

Ultimately, the book is about identity: how we form it in ourselves, and how a duplicitous character can bend it to become someone else. And, like all thrillers, how can luck play a major part in covering and uncovering a murderer.

15 people found this helpful

Mr Ripley is the crossroad between talent and good luck

Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2010

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One of the reasons I love reading old crime novels is because something like this could never happen in 2010. How beautiful is it to think that you could go from a hum-drum existence to a fantastic life with only good luck and a clever idea?

In this book Tom takes over the identiy of Dickie Greenleaf. We've all known a Dickie Greenleaf--someone who just takes everything he has for granted, never having to lift a finger. Most of us have also felt like Tom--someone who feels that they deserve better, tired of working hard and jealous of the Dickie Greenleafs of the world who live their life of leisure and beauty. The scenery of the grimy New York streets and the harsh realites of Tom's family of origin contrasts sharply with the politeness and ease of the Greenleafs and the beauty and freedom of Europe. And Dickie. That's why this novel works-- there are alot more Toms then Dickies.

Highsmith shows us through Tom's ancedotes and thoughts how pitful he is inside and how he hungers for love and acceptance. There is no question that Tom is a textbook sociopath, but because you UNDERSTAND why he does the things he does, you really want him to get away with it. We never really get inside Dickie's head. We just see him through the eyes of Tom so we don't care too much for him. We see him as Tom sees him--a means to an end. Every time Tom almost gets caught in his treachery Highsmith creates this terrible anxiety in the book and you can really feel the anxiety Tom feels and you don't want him to get caught. You want him to get away with the horrible things he's done. For some reason, Highsmith's character is able to manipulate us into believeing that what's he's done is okay. The ends jusify the means. You feel like Tom deserves and can appreciate what Dickie has in a way Dickie doesn't. It's a strange feeling to side with the bad guy but you do.

I have not seen the movie and I'm really glad I read this book first. Even though there are five books in the series, and you go into this book KNOWING he's going to get away with it she still has you holding your breath until the last few pages of the book. Read this book!

This book is good and I would recommened it to anyone. Easy and fast read because it's intresting.

11 people found this helpful

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sandeepa

Possibly a pirated copy

Reviewed in India on September 18, 2023

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I am around 40 pages into the book and that is very fast for me. Beyond this I need not comment on the classic.
The copy I received has poor quality paper. The cover feels like wrapping paper with ink coming off from words at many places. Possibly a pirates copy. Didn't return because it cam at a good discount and I needed to start reading immediately.

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Napollya

CAPOLAVORO

Reviewed in Italy on July 6, 2023

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Uno dei migliori Thriller di sempre.

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R. Marie

Très bonne intrigue

Reviewed in France on February 11, 2023

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Après avoir vue le film il y a quelques années j'étais curieuse de lire le lire. Il faut oublier le film car le livre n'est pas tout a fait le même . J'ai quand même beaucoup apprécié le livre. Cela me donne envie de lire le reste de la série.

One person found this helpful

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Everton Gomes dos Santos

Delicioso

Reviewed in Brazil on January 7, 2020

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Um livro intrigante. Com uma história surpreendente. Rápido e bem divertido!

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CillianTheReader

Macabre Classic! Best way to describe it.

Reviewed in Germany on December 5, 2020

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Patricia Highsmith is one of my favorite authors of all, together with Graham Greene and Jeffrey Archer. But the Ripley-novels at the beginning were - unexpectedly - not quite my real favorites of her. I found them boring in some way because Tom Ripley allways seems to get away with everything he does, with no consequences for him what so ever. But in this time I haven't read the first one - the original - yet. And, having done so, I kind of started to see what makes it so special. The novel is groundbreaking in so much more ways than just telling a crime-story from the view of the murderer! It analyses the personality of a broken soul, its uncontrolable requires and their bad outcome. Besides I was surprised to get so many hints of homosexuality, which I never would have expected in a novel so highly appreciated by modern literature! All that makes it really worth reading in my eyes, to everyone.

But no novel would be complete without good characters. And Tom Ripley is, from every point of view, an interesting and ambivalent person whose requires are ... kind of understandible but also scary in their results. And it definitely isn't just a killer-diary or something - the building of the suspence is its true worth! It allways left me in an uneasy feeling and the wish, never to be in a situation like his. So it may sound strange, but: the moments, in which nothing happens, are definitely the best in the whole novel! The tension is remarkable and lasts over so many pages. The murders are just the electrical discharge and the trouble they make build the actual tension of the novel.

I highly recommend this book, like I do all Patricia-Highsmith-novels! It's a Classic in a macabre way and Tom Ripley an icon of modern thrillers.

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