The Talented Mr. Ripley

Books | Fiction / Thrillers / Psychological

3.7

(347)

Patricia Highsmith

An American classic and the inspiration for the Emmy Award-winning 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.

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More Details:

Author

Patricia Highsmith

Pages

288

Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

Published Date

2008-06-17

ISBN

039334472X 9780393344721

Ratings

Google: 4

Community ReviewsSee all

"An excellent one-two punch — reading the book at the same time I watch the Netflix series Ripley. An outsider ingratiates himself into a small group in Italy and, in response to a series of actions and challenges, ends up disposing of two people and assuming the identity of one. The book is internal monologue of the main character in all his guises; the movie dispenses with narration and instead uses Andrew Scott’s expressions, silence and actions to convey atmosphere, emotion, distaste and nervousness. I liked the novel because I watched the series."

Diane Morello

"I wish I read it before watching the movie. Both the film and the book are fantastic, but believe me when I say... you want to read this one first. "

Jackson Hall

"Finally finished! I had high expectations for this book and in particular for the character, Tom Ripley, but he and the plot were so bland. Not sure what's considered a spoiler but I'll put it all behind a spoiler tag. <spoiler> This moved so slow, especially everything before Tom kills Dickie. Which this is where I really was disappointed in Tom. All this time I thought he was this suave, charismatic psychopath, but really he kinda sucked at things. Both killings he seemed rather ineffectual at and overall he seemed to have just gotten lucky that everyone else was clueless. How no one suspected him is beyond me. I found post-Dickie's murder compelling in the sense that I kept thinking he HAS to get caught meanwhile knowing he doesn't. But he never struck me as clever or smooth--just surrounded by idiots. </spoiler>"