Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10216 in Books
• Published on: 1999-08-05
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
One of the great crime novels of the 20th century, Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley is a blend of the narrative subtlety of Henry James and the self- reflexive irony of Vladimir Nabokov. Like the best modernist fiction, Ripley works on two levels. First, it is the story of a young man, Tom Ripley, whose nihilistic tendencies lead him through a deadly passage across Europe. On another level, the novel is a commentary on fiction making and techniques of narrative persuasion. Like Humbert Humbert, Tom Ripley seduces readers to empathise with him even as his actions defy all moral standards.

The novel begins with a play on James's The Ambassadors. Tom Ripley is chosen by the wealthy Herbert Greenleaf to retrieve Greenleaf's son, Dickie, from his overlong sojourn in Italy. Dickie, it seems, is held captive both by the Mediterranean climate and the attractions of his female companion, but Mr. Greenleaf needs him back in New York to help with the family business. With an allowance and a new purpose, Tom leaves behind his dismal city apartment to begin his career as a return escort. But Tom, too, is captivated by Italy. He is also taken with the life and looks of Dickie Greenleaf. He insinuates himself into Dickie's world and soon finds that his passion for a lifestyle of wealth and sophistication transcends all moral compunction. Tom will become Dickie Greenleaf--at all costs.

Unlike many modernist "experiments", The Talented Mr. Ripley is eminently readable and is driven by a gripping chase narrative that chronicles each of Tom's calculated manoeuvres of self-preservation. Highsmith was in peak form with this novel, and her ability to enter the mind of a sociopath and view the world through his disturbingly amoral eyes is a model that has spawned such latter-day serial killers as Hannibal Lechter.-- Patrick O'Kelley

Synopsis
Ripley wanted out. Wanted money, success - the good life. Was willing to kill for it...He is struggling to stay one step ahead of his creditors when a chance acquaintance offers him a free trip to Europe. When his new-found happiness is threatened, his response is as swift as it is shocking.

Customer Reviews

What a nasty character
At the time I originally wrote this review I'd not seen the 1999 film starring Matt Damon as Ripley. Now I've seen it and I much prefer the novel which was originally published in 1955.

Tom Ripley is a hanger-on. He desperately wants to be accepted into society, but loathes the people he aims to emulate. This makes him interesting; you can't be sympathetic but you do want to find out how he gets out of the spider's webs of lies and deceit he creates for himself.

He gets a job to go to Italy to persuade a wealthy American's son to give up his hedonistic lifestyle painting on the Riviera and return to his sick mother in the USA. Ripley attaches himself to Dickie Greenleaf like a limpet, alienating Dickie's friends and local ex-pat Marge in particular. But Ripley enjoys this new lifestyle so much, he takes it one step further, wanting to become Dickie Greenleaf...

Patricia Highsmith has created an amoral monster in Tom Ripley and the layers of intrigue never let you down. The writing flows beautifully with no padding so you just have to keep reading.

As for the film ... The look was fabulous, but I wasn't convinced by Matt Damon as Ripley. Ultimately though, I thought that the whole sexuality issue just muddied the plot; if Greenleaf had been a woman, Ripley would have done whatever he had to to achieve his ends!

classy detective fiction
Patricia Highsmith's first book in the Mr Ripley series sets the talented young man in Italy, at the request of Dickie Greenleaf's father. Ripley is charged with convincing Dickie to return home, closer to his ailing mother and closer to his father's boat building business. However Mr Greenleaf senior does not really understand Mr Ripley, he is a the young insurance executive but a man lost in New York, looking for any opening or scam. So when Ripley arrives in the small town of Mongibello and finds Dickie living an easy life surrounded by wealth and leisure he decides he might just stay a while. He befriends Dickie at first, but a conflict with Dickie's close friend Marge causes his alliance with Dickie to fall apart and Ripley soon comes to despise Dickie the person. But not, significantly, the image of Dickie - Dickie the icon. I'm sure I won't be giving too much away if I reveal that Ripley murders Dickie and impersonates him with relish across Italy and France, always trying to keep ahead of the police and the private investigator Mr Greenleaf senior has hired.

I read the book in a single, sharply focussed burst and felt the warm glow of satisfaction - still thinking about how immaculately the book was executed for days afterward. Indeed it's a tribute to Partritia Highsmith's insight, research and efficient prose that we feel a real part of Ripley's crimes and impersonations. Although he's a murderer, thief and scheming fraudster, never are we not routing for his escape and enduring freedom. Not an easy feat since I can hardly list a single positive trait in Ripley's character.

There are a few loose ends here. Ripley seems to be a totally sexless young man, perhaps the subtext is that he's homosexual. Marge suggests it and Ripley is highly offended by the suggestion. This is the closest we get even of the remotest sexual expression shown by Ripley. He seems to get all his kicks in impersonations and crime. I will add that this is the first in a series, so perhaps I'll soon find new depths in Ripley's character. It certainly has left me wanting more and I would recommend The Talented Mr Ripley to anybody.

Completely hooked
Having seen the film and blubbed incoherently, I thought I really ought to read the book. I finished it in two days, on and off, and found it to be a far better thriller. The film introduces a number of characters (Meredith) that do not feature in the book, and gives over to a relationship between Ripley and Peter.

The book was simply great - stop reading this and read the book.