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Patricia Highsmith

The Talented Mr. Ripley Paperback – June 17, 2008

by Patricia Highsmith (Author)

3,364 ratings

Book 1 of 5: Ripley

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An American classic and the inspiration for the motion picture starring Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow.

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.

Print length

288 pages
Language

English
Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date

June 17, 2008
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.7 x 8.3 inches
ISBN-10

0393332144
ISBN-13

978-0393332148
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Popular Highlights in this book

What are popular highlights?

If you wanted to be cheerful, or melancholic, or wistful, or thoughtful, or courteous, you simply had to act those things with every gesture.
Highlighted by 582 Kindle readers
His stories were good because he imagined them intensely, so intensely that he came to believe them.
Highlighted by 553 Kindle readers
Anticipation! It occurred to him that his anticipation was more pleasant to him than his experiencing.
Highlighted by 440 Kindle readers

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In the same way that Vince Gilligan made Breaking Bad's Walter White an awful person that I took a guilty pleasure in rooting for, Highsmith made the detestable Tom Ripley an intriguing character that I hoped would get away with his crimes."
― Mark Frauenfelder, BoingBoing

"[A] riveting story that examines identity, ambition, sexuality, and a few different forms of love."
― Chris Pavone, New York Times best-selling author of Two Nights in Lisbon

"The brilliance of Highsmith's conception of Tom Ripley was her ability to keep the heroic and demonic American dreamer in balance in the same protagonist―thus keeping us on his side well after his behavior becomes far more sociopathic than that of a con man like Gatsby."
― Frank Rich, New York Times Magazine

"[Highsmith] forces us to re-evaluate the lines between reason and madness, normal and abnormal, while goading us into sharing her treacherous hero's point of view."
― Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

"Mesmerizing...a Ripley novel is not to be safely recommended to the weak-minded or impressionable."
― Washington Post

"The most sinister and strangely alluring quintet the crime-fiction genre has ever produced."
― Mark Harris, Entertainment Weekly

"[Highsmith] has created a world of her own―a world claustrophobic and irrational which we enter each time with a sense of personal danger."
― Graham Greene

"[Tom Ripley] is as appalling a protagonist as any mystery writer has ever created."
― Newsday

"Murder, in Patricia Highsmith's hands, is made to occur almost as casually as the bumping of a fender or a bout of food poisoning. This downplaying of the dramatic... has been much praised, as has the ordinariness of the details with which she depicts the daily lives and mental processes of her psychopaths. Both undoubtedly contribute to the domestication of crime in her fiction, thereby implicating the reader further in the sordid fantasy that is being worked out."
― Robert Towers, New York Review of Books

"Savage in the way of Rabelais or Swift."
― Joyce Carol Oates, New York Review of Books

"For eliciting the menace that lurks in familiar surroundings, there's no one like Patricia Highsmith."
― Time

"Highsmith's subversive touch is in making the reader complicit with Ripley's cold logic."
― Daily Telegraph (UK)

About the Author

Patricia Highsmith (1921–1995) was the author of more than twenty novels, including Strangers on a Train, The Price of Salt and The Talented Mr. Ripley, as well as numerous short stories.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (June 17, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393332144
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393332148
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.3 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #34,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #726 in Psychological Fiction (Books)
- #1,333 in Psychological Thrillers (Books)
- #1,698 in Murder Thrillers

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Patricia Highsmith

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Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995) was the author of more than twenty novels, including Strangers on a Train, The Price of Salt and The Talented Mr. Ripley, as well as numerous short stories.

Customer reviews

5 star		61%
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3 star		10%
2 star		2%
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Teresa Freeman

Superb thriller

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 15, 2022

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It’s no surprise that Highsmith could construct a thriller. She has such a hold on human nature and internal emotions that the story is gripping from the start.
I haven’t seen the movie so was completely surprised by the plot. Ready for a good book club discussion !

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 25, 2022

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A slightly different beast than the film. Tom is a creature of nature. A pure sociopath. He seems to want to get caught sometimes as he pushes things to tell edge. The novel builds tension well and makes Tom a fascinating, but irredeemable character.

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DJ

Not Necessarily Believable, but a Good Read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 8, 2022

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“The Talented Mr. Ripley” is a good, quick read. Tom Ripley is a fascinating character, self-obsessed and utterly amoral. But, like many mystery/crime novels, the book is written in a kind of shorthand, with clues to both the plot and the participants dropped almost with “Look here!” signs. Further, various elements of the plot are just barely believable, leaving the reader willing to accept them within the context of the story, but more than a little skeptical about them on further consideration. None of this makes the story unenjoyable, it just makes it a bit more a fine piece of its genre than a great book.

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Another disappointing classic mystery novel

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 14, 2020

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If you check out just about any list of classic mystery novels, you’re likely to come across The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith (1921-95). And it’s easy to understand why. When it was published in 1955, it must have created a sensation. Kirkus published a brief spoiler review of the book on November 30, 1955, noting “The virtuosity here—more than anything else—will pin you to the page.” In other words, the reviewer may have hated the book but admired Ms. Highsmith’s writerly talents. Which neatly sums up my own feelings about it.

It’s not terribly complicated why I didn’t enjoy this book. In a word, Tom Ripley is a creep. A sociopath. He’s a masterful liar, a con man, a social climber, a deeply repressed homosexual, and, as you will not be surprised to learn, a murderer. A serial murderer, in fact. I prefer reading books about people I can respect.

A classic mystery novel about a creep

So, okay, here’s the story in a nutshell. Tom is approached by Mr. Greenleaf, a wealthy shipbuilder who believes Tom is one of his son’s best friends. The son, Richard (Dickie) Greenleaf, styles himself as a painter and has moved to an Italian village. Mr. Greenleaf wants Tom to bring him home, presumably so he can go to work in the boat-building business, and he’s willing to pay the cost for Tom to travel and camp out there for a time. Since Tom is poor and has no fixed address, he looks on this as a terrific opportunity.

Spoiler alert: here’s what happens

Once in Italy, Tom skillfully embeds himself in Dickie’s life. The only problem is Marge Sherwood, another American expat who lives in the village and is in love with Dickie. Marge suspects Tom of inappropriate motives; in fact, she believes he’s gay and is trying to steal Dickie from her. So, that’s the setup.

It’s not long before Tom finds a way to murder Dickie, hide the body, and impersonate him brilliantly enough to start living off of Dickie’s trust fund. And when a friend of Dickie’s threatens to expose the scheme, Tom murders him, too. Somehow, then, he manages to convince the Italian police, Marge, Mr. Greenleaf, and an American private detective that it was Dickie who probably committed the second murder and then killed himself in remorse. In other words, the creep gets away with it all. It’s all very clever, and very disturbing.

Sorry, Ms. Highsmith. Classic mystery novel or not, that’s not my kind of story.

10 people found this helpful

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Daniel Gamboa

The Talented Ms. Highsmith

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 5, 2016

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I doubt that I will ever like another antiheroe as much as Tom Ripley. Maybe Dorian Gray? Almost.

Tom Ripley is sent to Europe by Mr. Greenleaf to bring his son, "Dickie", back to the United States. Tom is a nobody who is bedazzled by Dickie's rich and bohemian lifestyle once he meets him in Southern Italy. Tom becomes Dickie's friend, and everything seems fine until Tom decides he wants to be more than his friend.

As in the "Picture of Dorian Gray", you will not learn life lessons or come out as a better person from reading "The Talented Mr. Ripley", and that is why I like him: he is a real character, like there are so many among us, who also deserves to be the star of books. Why is he one of my favorite characters in literature?

“I can’t make up my mind whether I like men or women,” he jokes, “so I’m thinking of giving them both up.”

“They were not friends. They didn't know each other. It struck Tom like a horrible truth, true for all time, true for the people he had known in the past and for those he would know in the future: each had stood and would stand before him, and he would know time and time again that he would never know them, and the worst was that there would always be the illusion, for a time, that he did know them, and that he and they were completely in harmony and alike. For an instant the wordless shock of his realization seemed more than he could bear.”

"He loved possessions, not masses of them, but a select few that he did not part with. They gave a man self-respect. Not ostentation but quality, and the love that cherished the quality. Possessions reminded him that he existed, and made him enjoy his existence. It was as simple as that. And wasn't that worth something? He existed. Not many people in the world knew how to, even if they had the money. It really didn't take money, masses of money, it took a certain security."

“He remembered that right after that, he had stolen a loaf of bread from a delicatessen counter and had taken it home and devoured it, feeling that the world owed a loaf of bread to him, and more.”

“If you wanted to be cheerful, or melancholic, or wistful , or thoughtful, or courteous, you simply had to act those things with every gesture.”

In addition to this wonderful character, Patricia Highsmith's skills as a writer are to be highlighted. Tom's joy about the anticipation of having his dreams come true and his apprehension about the possibility of such dreams being shattered are a delight to read. I could not help siding with him the entire time, despite the fact that he is anything but a role model.

I do have an issue with the credibility of the plot at times. Perhaps, the guilibility of the characters in this novel reflects that of people's at a certain place and time - rich Americans and the Italian police of 1955 Italy - but sometimes the plot surpasses the line of reality and reason. In addition, I wish that Dickie and Marge had been developed a bit more in depth, considering the important role they play in justifying some of Tom's actions, because Tom's attitude towards them can seem gratuitous.

Despite these minor flaws, this is one of my favorite novels by the talented Ms. Highsmith, who is also one of my favorite writers.

50 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

It's a very interesting novel.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 16, 2022

Verified Purchase

It is a fascinating novel.

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Top reviews from other countries

Cornwallgurl

Brilliant – but only on its own!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 17, 2020

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Like most life-long reading addicts, I have a few authors who I’ve always known about, mean to read but somehow haven’t yet got around to. And then when you do, prompted by some radio broadcast, a memory or a recommendation, you ask yourself, “Why did it take me so long to get into reading this brilliant stuff?” (cf Mrs Gaskell & Edit Wharton in my case, but not yet Henry James or George Eliot). I have vague memories of the film, watched on TV some years after it was made, mainly because of the glorious Italian location shots to remind me of living in Italy. I enjoyed Dickie’s smart boat, and the stellar performances by Jude Law and Matt Damon, but not the irritating and now I’ve read the book, totally miscast, one by Gwyneth Paltrow (but then she always irritates me). I remember that Ripley killed Greenleaf and assumed his identity and a few dreamy shots of a Venetian Palazzo, and that was about it.

So, I was really enjoying the book and thinking how clever it was of the author to get us rooting for a psychopath – quite the reversal of a usual murder mystery. But then this wasn’t a mystery, really. Other than how he got away with it (largely aided by coincidence, some manic plot diversions, and as far as I could tell, by Ripley’s superhuman strength.) It was never explained to my satisfaction how he actually managed to physically do all the things he had to in order to get rid of his corpses. I quite liked the fact that the Italian police were not portrayed as incompetent dullards. I think this was meant to point up Ripley’s exceptional cleverness and planning skills, but still, you were left with the feeling that although no one could pin anything on him, he was not actually cleared of all suspicion.

Highsmith herself sounds like one of the most unpleasant people conceivable and it’s a disturbing thought that she felt that Ripley virtually wrote himself as some sort of outpouring of her inner psyche. She is now being taken up after a bit of a hiatus, as a poster girl for feminist/lesbian writers. Overall, despite having to suspend my disbelief occasionally, and feeling that she was writing a bit of a descriptive travelogue for less well-travelled Americans, I really enjoyed this. So much so, that I went straight on to the next book, the first chapter having been helpfully provided at the end of my Kindle version. I wish I hadn’t, as this is where it all ended in tears for me. However, that is technically not part of this review, and I give Mr Ripley & his Talents a solid 4 stars.

24 people found this helpful

Pijon Mustard

***DO NOT READ THE INTRODUCTION***

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 12, 2020

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***DO NOT READ THE INTRODUCTION***
The introduction by John Sutherland is packed with spoilers, not only about this book but about the whole Ripley series!
As for the book itself, a great read, couldn't put it down. Paints a wonderful picture of Europe and introduces a brilliant main character, amoral, selfish & wicked yet somehow sympathetic and strangely likeable.

19 people found this helpful

Vin

Not as good as expected

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 29, 2021

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For me there were just too many implausibles to help Riply get away with it. When he poses as his victim, Dickie Greenleaf, he meets some people who know Dickie and they are fooled; even though he makes himself look like Dickie, he wouldn't be able to fool anyone close up. I read another review which praised Highsmith for not portraying the Italian police as stupid. But their investigation is inept; there are just too many flaws in Ripley's act. Any half-decent detective would join the dots. When he is disposing of his second murder victim, several people see him carrying the body. He makes out he's carrying a drunk friend but after the body is discovered there is no investigation of the witnesses. It's not just the police; Dickie Greenleaf's father and the private detective he hires can't see the obvious deception. There are long sections which read like a travelogue. The end is wrapped up in a hurry with one final clumsy deception by Ripley which no one questions. Without the stupidity of the supporting cast this plot doesn't fly.

6 people found this helpful

Jade

Highsmith at the height of her talent - shame about the typos!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 17, 2020

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This is probably one of Highsmith's most impressive and tightly plotted works and the characters are some of her best and most developed.
However, the edition I purchased (Vintage 1999) contains a surprising amount of typos for such a highly-acclaimed book/author. I have no idea how this would be allowed to happen. It's a shame because the typos became distracting enough throughout the novel to hamper the experience of reading it.
It would be interesting to see if the typos are present in other editions!

9 people found this helpful

The William

Fascinating psychology

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 27, 2022

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First tried this book nearly 50 years ago and couldn't get on with it. Now, desperate for a well-written novel (and not yet another variation on Da Vinci Code), this seemed to fit the bill. Still tough to get into, but worth persevering with.
Ripley is not a sympathetic character. (None of the characters are.) He is completely self-absorbed, self-centred (to the point of solipsism), absolutely amoral, and quite odious. Remind you of anyone?

3 people found this helpful

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