book review the talented mr ripley

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Matt Damon and Jude Law in the 1999 film The Talented Mr Ripley.

Mr Ripley's great talent? Making us like a killer and his crimes

The Reading group verdict is in: Patricia Highsmith’s amoral protagonist in The Talented Mr Ripley offers a queasy kind of entertainment – and an armchair psychologist’s perfect case study

“I couldn’t make an interesting story out of some morons,” said Patricia Highsmith in 1981. She explained: “The murderers that one reads about in the newspaper are, half the time, mentally deficient in some way, or simply callous. There are young boys, for instance, who pretend to be delivering, or who may help an old lady carrying her groceries home, and then hit her on the head when she invites them in for tea and rob her. These are forever stupid people, but they exist. Many murderers are like that, and they don’t interest me enough to write a book about them.”

Ripley, however, is a different case. He, Highsmith says, is “reasonably intelligent” and, crucially, amoral. “I suppose I find it an interesting contrast to stereotyped morality, which is very frequently hypocritical and phony. I also think that to mock lip-service morality and to have a character amoral, such as Ripley, is entertaining. I think people are entertained by reading such stories.”

The fact that the Talented Mr Ripley has now been in print for 60 years proves that last point. But it’s a queasy, uneasy kind of entertainment. Ripley may not be a typically moronic murderer. But that doesn’t make him any less real or believable. In the comments about last week’s Reading group article, for instance, a contributor came in with a pathological diagnosis, as if Ripley were a genuine case study:

“He is a perfect example of the narcissistic personality disorder. Swinging between the poles of excessive self-criticism and grandiosity, easily to take offence and vicious in retaliation – all to make up for a lack of core self.”

You can find scores of similar attempts to define Ripley’s symptoms on the internet. Plenty of them are sincerely technical :

“We are subtly introduced to the two overriding themes of the antisocial personality disorder (still labelled by many professional authorities “psychopathy” and “sociopathy”): an overwhelming dysphoria and an even more overweening drive to assuage this angst by belonging.”

Some kind soul has even devised a treatment plan for Tom:

“I would perform an MRI, complete blood work … to rule out comorbidities, as well as run a toxicology screening, STD/HIV screening … and MMPI (personality test) to evaluate the extremities of his personality and discover if other fluctuations other than his ASPD [antisocial personality disorder] could be treated with medication or effective psychotherapeutic techniques.”

Of course, all this presupposes the possibility of catching Ripley. Easier said than done.

There is something more serious going on here, too. Ripley feels like a real threat. In 1949, when Highsmith was addressing the issue of how to present a true-to-life psychopath on the page, she wrote in a notebook: “The psychopath is an average man living more clearly than the world permits him.” After she had realised her vision in 1955, she made another note: “It felt like Ripley was writing it.”

The challenge and fascination of the novel lies between those two observations. Ripley feels real – but in living more clearly than the world permits, he is also able to play out some dangerously enticing fantasies.

In a previous article I suggested that there was a moral challenge in the fact that Highsmith has made Ripley both a likable character and a cold-blooded killer. I’m now having to refine my opinion. Quite a few people who commented below the line rightly pointed out that there’s a certain satisfaction to his crimes. Nilpferd said: “Any of us who have seen less talented, more stupid people get ahead of us in life probably experience a certain frisson of pleasure at the way Ripley recalibrates these inequalities.” And Justanoldfool wrote: “Yes, Tom is a likable character for all sorts of reasons, but as much as anything, we like him because he does what he wants – and gets away with it.”

Anthony Minghella, the director of the film of The Talented Mr Ripley, stressed the same thing when he wrote about the book in the Guardian :

“His actions are an extreme response to emotions all of us recognise: the sense that there is a better life being lived by somebody else, somewhere else, someone not trapped inside the hollow existence in which we find ourselves. It’s one of the things which makes us human. We’ve all been Tom Ripley, just as we’ve all known a Dickie Greenleaf, the man who has everything, whose attention makes us feel special. We’ve all basked in the sunshine of that attention and felt the chill of losing it.”

The books don’t just make us like a killer, they make us like his crimes. Writing in the Paris Review, her biographer Joan Schenkar says that Highsmith’s novels “suck [the] reader into their bottomless vortex of moral relativities, transferable guilts and unstable identities”.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, in the very next sentence, Schenkar suggests Highsmith herself was “more than a little on the psychopathic side”.

When the author was asked how close she felt to being a criminal, she replied :

“I can think of only one slight closeness, and that is that an imaginative writer is very freewheeling; he has to forget about his personal morals, especially if he is writing about criminals. He has to feel anything is possible. But I don’t understand why an artist should have any criminal tendencies. The artist may simply have an ability to understand …”

Even as she denied any moral ambiguity, however, she brought in bucket-loads :

“I get impatient with a certain hidebound morality. Some of the things one hears in church, and certain so-called laws that nobody practices. Nobody can practice them, and it is even sick to try … Murder, to me, is a mysterious thing. I feel I do not understand it, really. I try to imagine it, of course, but I think it is the worst crime. That is why I write so much about it; I am interested in guilt. I think there is nothing worse than murder, and that there is something mysterious about it, but that isn’t to say it is desirable for any reason. To me, in fact, it is the opposite of freedom, if one has any conscience at all.”

Naturally, as upstanding people we all agree that murder is the opposite of freedom. Even if we have a powerful counter-example in the shape of Tom Ripley …

Crime fiction
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Patricia Highsmith

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The Best Fiction Books » Crime Novels

The talented mr ripley, by patricia highsmith, recommendations from our site.

“It fascinates me that René Clément, the French film director, adapted this novel into a film called Plein Soleil (known as Purple Noon in the United States). In the story, Tom Ripley is sent from New York to Italy by the father of Dickie Greenleaf to bring Dickie back to the United States. As he ingratiates himself with his son, Tom Ripley adopts increasingly dangerous, amoral and murderous measures to reap the rewards of his lifestyle and finally, steal his inheritance. The novel starts in a gloomy Manhattan, where Ripley meets Dickie Greenleaf’s father. It’s not bright, it’s claustrophobic. And then we come to this Mediterranean world of plein soleil where in the movie everything is brightness—there’s a yacht, these lovely towns, and everybody is wearing lovely styles and costumes.” Read more...

The Best Book-to-Movie Adaptations

Peter Markham , Film Director

“It’s described as the godfather of the modern psychological thriller. Everyone who writes psychological thrillers must acknowledge Patricia Highsmith at some point…What appealed to me most about this book is that Tom Ripley is the ultimate sociopath, and yet we’re rooting for him.” Read more...

The Best Psychological Thrillers

J.S. Monroe , Thriller and Crime Writer

“It’s the first book I read where I was absolutely rooting for the villain, my entire emotional energy focused on willing him not to get caught. Even if you’ve seen the 1999 movie, the book is still worth reading. I love the rags-to-riches element, the settings: 1950s New York, the fictional Mongibello on the coast south of Naples, Venice. Highsmith wrote four more books featuring Tom Ripley, as well as other psychological thrillers.” Read more...

The Best Classic Crime Fiction

Sophie Roell , Journalist

“What I adore about the book is how brilliantly she explores the idea of moral grey areas and how the main character does things in a sort of neutral space—a psychopathic neutral space—and Highsmith writes this in a quite nonchalant way, while building this ongoing tension and horror. You sort of love Ripley, as the novel moves on, but you are also horrified by him. I just think that’s genius: when you can get me deeply caring about a character who I also find appalling and frightening.” Read more...

The Best Classic Thrillers

Lucy Atkins , Journalist

“I think Patricia Highsmith, at one stage, was much more appreciated in Europe than she was in America, even though she was American by birth. I think Ripley just set so many characters in motion because he was one of the first entirely amoral central figures, someone who commits appalling crimes and murders but you actually feel a kind of sympathy for. Well, if not a sympathy, you’re intrigued by the character. It’s also fascinating because he’s a kind of blank canvas. So in The Talented Mr Ripley – which was made into a movie not that long ago – he’s got this friend who he rather sucks up to called Dickie Greenleaf. When he murders Dickie and takes on his persona, it’s almost as if he becomes more real to himself as a person, because he’s being someone else. Which I think is fascinating – and goes back to actors and Charles Paris. This idea of the criminal who does it almost from lack of his own personality rather than the power of his personality. It’s a very interesting area, which has been explored a lot more since, but I think Patricia Highsmith was the first to do it.” Read more...

The Best Whodunnits

Simon Brett , Thriller and Crime Writer

Other books by Patricia Highsmith

Strangers on a train by patricia highsmith, our most recommended books, the hound of the baskervilles by sir arthur conan doyle, the talented mr ripley by patricia highsmith, the woman in white by wilkie collins, the moonstone by wilkie collins, magpie lane by lucy atkins, in cold blood by truman capote.

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Read the earliest reviews of The Talented Mr. Ripley , which turns 65 today.

The Talented Mr. Ripley —Patricia Highsmith’s iconic 1955 novel in which a struggling small-time con-man evolves into a full-blown psychopath—is widely considered to be one of the greatest psychological thrillers of all time (its stylish 1999 film adaptation is also a stone cold classic of the genre). It’s been read as a coming-of-age tale , a forerunner of the era of imposture , and a tale of sociopathy for our Instagram age .

Today, on the sixty-fifth anniversary of its publication, we look back on three of the earliest reviews of Highsmith’s deliciously twisted opus.

“An exciting rat-race with the principal rat in the title role is Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley .

Tom Ripley’s talent is for crime, and crime with variations is the melody played by the author. A more objectionable young man than Mr. Ripley could hardly be imagined. You certainly wouldn’t want to met him; but he is perfectly fascinating to read about.

Engaged by Dickie Greenleaf’s father to bring Dickie home from Paris, the talented Mr. R. follows his own instincts to make of the errand a protracted European holiday. The wiles with which he handles Dickie—and Dickie’s attractive girl—eventually involve him in a wild web of evasions and impostures and few murders have been more starkly cold-blooded or more chillingly described than those which arise out of his adventure.”

–Lockhart American, The Pittsburgh Press , December 4, 1955

“Patricia Highsmith is one of the most talented suspense writers this reviewer has encountered in some time.

The Talented Mr. Ripley is a fine way to make her acquaintance if her previous Strangers on a Train and The Blunderer were missed.

In stories of this genre, the most frequently lacking quality is character delineation. Miss Highsmith can boast it as one of her strong points. Her protagonist is weakling Tom Ripley, a self-pitying, self-seeking individual who shows horrifying elements of strength when murder is involved—a murder to provide him with a life of ease and a second to cover up the first.

The setting is Italy, a country the author obviously knows well. Ripley attaches himself to rich Dickie Greenleaf and grows to love the good life too well to give it up. Murder is his solution and he takes on the dead Greenleaf’s identity.

This leads to all sorts of dramatic complications which for suspense’s sake are better left untold. This reviewer, after turning over the final page, is looking forward to Miss Highsmith’s next effort with anticipation.”

–Jack Owens, The Fort Lauderdale News , October 30, 1955

“….is a young man of no means, and expensive tastes, and his nerveless, conscienceless progression is traced from the time when Tom Ripley is sent to Italy to retrieve an expatriate son, Dickie Greenleaf. Ripley attaches himself to Dickie, is annoyed by the adhesive Marge who is in love with Dickie and wary of Tom, and finally when Dickie’s friendship cools he kills him and assumes his identity. For several months he lives comfortably on Dickie’s income, but a former friend jeopardizes his new security, and he is forced to kill again. This time not only the police, but Marge and Dickie’s father are alerted; Tom is forced to assume his old identity but his resilient resourcefulness keeps him immune. The virtuosity here—more than anything else—will pin you to the page.”

–Kirkus Reviews , November 1, 1955

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Notes on the Culture

How ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’ Foretold Our Era of Grifting

On the eve of yet another screen adaptation, Patricia Highsmith’s mordant 1955 tale of calculated self-invention feels as relevant as ever.

By Megan O’Grady

THERE’S AN ART to imposture. It’s the how they did it, I think, rather than the self-evident why, that keeps us fascinated by tales of con artists and “visionaries,” the gurus and hucksters, schemers and dreamers, the online dating scammers — all of our 21st-century buccaneers of society, politics and commerce. From the small-time grifters like Anna Sorokin , who adopted the last name Delvey to masquerade in downtown New York circles as a European heiress for four years before she was convicted of second-degree grand larceny in 2019, to the murderous faux WASP “ Clark Rockefeller, ” as the serial impostor Christian Gerhartsreiter was known until his clubby life was upended by kidnapping charges in 2008, all impostors come equipped with a tall tale and a look to match. In Sorokin’s case, it seemed to be largely about the chunky Celine glasses, code for jolie-laide cool; in Gerhartsreiter’s, it was the Lacoste shirts and East Coast lockjaw copied from the millionaire character on “Gilligan’s Island.” The nose ring and “street” argot of Jessica Krug , a.k.a., Jess La Bombalera — the white professor of history and Africana studies whose career until a few months ago had rested in good part upon a racial identity that was not, in fact, her own — the black turtlenecks and baritone of Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes , accused of defrauding investors of millions with shoddy blood-testing technology, even the normcore terry-cloth sweatband and neuroleptic philosophizing of Nxivm’s Keith Raniere , the volleyball enthusiast who ran a self-actualization scheme that preyed upon the bodies and wallets of women: All have become metonyms of the actual offenses, clues to self-delusions.

In the digital age, such dedication to voice and costume might seem oddly retro, not to mention a bit campy — more Mrs. Doubtfire than Jay Gatsby. But in American letters, it’s the antihero of Patricia Highsmith ’s 1955 novel, “ The Talented Mr. Ripley ,” who sets the bar for imposture: Tom Ripley’s real-life counterparts seem to never quite measure up, though they are inevitably compared to him in the press — the very character is shorthand for the more epicurean or erudite of charlatans. That it is a literary character who has come to embody the grifter archetype seems right; self-authorship is, of course, all about creating a convincing character within the narrative structure of one’s own aspirational thinking. In each case, it seemed to be somewhere in this dedication to the coding — Holmes’s Steve Jobs impersonation; the embarrassing minstrelsy of Krug’s attempt at a Nuyorican get-up — that things went awry, the performance of authenticity tipping over into caricature. It’s less fun, of course, to think of why we give narcissists so much credit. Some might find themselves inspired to question what they, too, might be capable of, were they less inhibited by things like principles or truth, while others — those of us who suffer from impostor syndrome — might wonder how easily we might find ourselves slipping into a thrown-on persona, trading our finely honed self-skepticism for the cheapest version of hope. Con artists have a way of milking the hypocrisies of an age: How easily friendship and belonging can be bought, in Sorokin’s case, or how the light-skinned (in the case of Krug) and the one-percenters (in the case of Gerhartsreiter) tend to be given the benefit of the doubt. Like a good novel, a skilled impostor can be the lie that tells the truth.

Do we live in a golden age of fraud ? The con artist or snake-oil salesman, cornerstone of American culture long before Ripley, was memorialized in Herman Melville’s 1857 classic, “ The Confidence-Man ,” on which a charming fraud takes a series of guises on a steamboat trip, and it has taken on bewildering new dimensions in the 21st century. We are, after all, the culture that made big business of wishful thinking, major industries of advertising and self-help. The United States is the birthplace of Scientology, Don Draper and Donald Trump, Bernie Madoff and Enron, subprime mortgages, QAnon, flat-Earthism, birtherism, the anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers. American self-conception, that wobbly construct, has long depended on a good amount of delusional entitlement: the necessity to dream , to just do it! Many people have always known that the American dream was a hoax, or at least accessible mostly to a select (white) few; for everyone else, it’s all coming to the surface: that behind our foundation myths resided another, less-told history — one that involved swindling the Indigenous population out of land, centuries of enslavement of Black people and the largely invisible, unpaid labor of women. If the creation of a stable private self depends upon a coherent external reality, or at least a consensus view of it, maybe it’s no wonder that we’ve become confused about where our self-fashioning begins and ends. Now that personality has become a branding opportunity, should we assume that all identities are largely assumed?

When “The Talented Mr. Ripley” was first published, a villain who never gets his comeuppance was still rare and transgressive in American literature. Ripley became the vanguard for an unsettlingly relatable kind of con man, one who ensnared us in his worldview, who was as secretly cutting in his observations as we were, who challenged the presumptions of how not just his but all narratives should unfold. And while there has been no decade since the sunlit, ice-blooded novel’s publication that it hasn’t found a devoted audience, as well as new interpretations — including, most memorably, two films, René Clément’s “ Purple Noon ” (1960) and Anthony Minghella’s 1999 adaptation (a favorite quarantine watch for many) under the original title starring Matt Damon — it seems especially resonant in our current one. Ripley’s sense of life as a rigged game, and his view of the fraudulence of American privilege, feel built for this moment, as do his combustible embodiments of self-absorption, self-invention and self-hatred (a new version for television featuring Andrew Scott, the “hot priest” from “Fleabag,” is forthcoming from Showtime). One might argue that technology has made it harder to deceive people given that we’re all but a Google away, but technology has also made the natural human temptation to self-flatter, to metaphorically Photoshop ourselves into or out of existence all the more tempting for the chronic exaggerator, the serial confabulator, the natural overcompensator. It’s also helped everyone else’s big dreams — you can be anything, if you have the right clothes, hair, trainer, therapist and so on — feel achievable. More than ever, being successful in America seems to be not just about seeing how far one might color outside the lines but dependent upon it. And while some delusions of the self are less opportunistic and others feel more ingenuous, the tilt of reality to suit ourselves is nonetheless slippery. In an era in which we can alter reality to flatter us, in which factual knowledge has become a political opinion or something to algorithmically filter, it has become all too easy to believe our own lies.

“THE MAIN THING about impersonation,” Ripley muses midway through the novel, after having acquired some expertise in the field, “was to maintain the mood and temperament of the person one was impersonating.” Both the novel and Minghella’s chillingly decorative film begin with a case of misidentification: The nondescript Ripley is taken by the shipbuilding magnate Herbert Greenleaf for an Ivy League classmate of his wayward son, Richard, known as Dickie. Dispatched to a small Mediterranean town in southern Italy to retrieve him, Ripley is seduced by Greenleaf’s languorous life of martini lunches and afternoons on the beach. It’s hard to know which Ripley wants more: to sleep with Greenleaf or to be Greenleaf, who has a boat, a closet full of bespoke clothing and a beautiful signet ring — not to mention the kind of assurance of a man who believes he deserves what he has and will always have more. (What he doesn’t have is talent: In the novel, Greenleaf is the kind of amateur artist who paints sunsets in his girlfriend’s eyes; in the film, he’s a jazz aficionado.) Highsmith never overplays her hand in winning our sympathies for Ripley, but the ironic tension of the setup is clear enough. Who is really the fraud, the empty-headed playboy who gets by on connections and unearned income, or the unprivileged striver? Once Ripley bludgeons Greenleaf to death with an oar on a boating trip, covering his tracks and assuming his victim’s identity, the real mystery isn’t who committed the crime but why we can’t help rooting for him. Some readers might even go so far as to identify with Ripley, including those of us who grew up as code-switchers, or who have, metaphorically or otherwise, built new lives on foreign shores.

This is Highsmith’s brilliance as a novelist, her way of making us experience life as a tightening noose, making us complicit, effectively separating us from our humanity. In early reviews of the book — which was, until after her death in 1995 , generally received as genre entertainment rather than the mordant anatomization of American class that it is — the character was often described as a sociopath. But I think Highsmith’s flouting of ethical certainties, her disinterest in justice, read differently today. Ripley is many things — an unloved orphan who grew into a man believing he deserved better; a queer kid bullied for being “a sissy”; an aesthete sensitive to ugliness marooned within a pragmatic and sensually stunted culture (an arrangement of fruit in his first-class stateroom is enough to improve his mood) — but a criminal mastermind he is not. Ripley’s sexuality is far less ambiguous in the film: Minghella adds a bath scene in which a disrobed Greenleaf (Jude Law, in his prime) plays a game of chess with a clothed Ripley, who awkwardly asks if he can join him in the tub. In Minghella’s film, unlike the novel, the murder is a crime of passion, not premeditation, a passion that might be read not only as desire or obsession but as a form of queer rage, perhaps: a closeted man’s revenge against his own marginalization and the easy privilege of his straight peers. In the novel, Ripley is in the closet even to himself; queerness is kept at the level of insinuation on the part of Marge, Greenleaf’s casual girlfriend, who is envious of the boys’ nascent friendship. In later Ripley novels — Highsmith wrote four more — he acquires, unconvincingly, a wife. Highsmith is, of course, a writer, not a therapist, but her rendering of Ripley’s descent into murder suggests how identity occluded by society might fracture into pathology. But more striking to me now is that while Highsmith allows Ripley the freedom to kill in the novels that bear her name, she won’t allow him to come out even in his own thoughts. Ripley is poignant today because we know he never will embrace the truth of himself on any level. As Frank Bidart put it in his 2012 poem “ Queer ”: “Lie to yourself about this and you will / forever lie about everything.”

What feels ruthless today, then, isn’t the character but the context: the pretense of American liberty and meritocracy. In a world increasingly divided into Greenleafs and Ripleys, surely there are more than a few of us who have wished to wield a figurative oar at those who fail upward, buoyed by Daddy’s money, tax loopholes and prep-school connections. It should be noted that, as universal and quintessentially American as the book is, it is not complicated by race (that story has been told, too, albeit from a white perspective, in John Guare’s 1990 play, “ Six Degrees of Separation ”). Still, it’s hard not to read “Ripley” now and see it as a damning portrait of white male privilege, showing us how a white male is presumed credible, that he can slip beneath any wire and is always taken at his word. Jared Kushner is Dickie Greenleaf, buying his way into Harvard, but he is also Tom Ripley: He gets away with it because of how he looks. How, then, should we think about an author at once so cleareyed about the social mores of the time and yet so mired in them? If we now can embrace Ripley, what about his author, whose queer villains, written with compassion tinged with disgust, were largely stand-ins for herself? (While Highsmith wasn’t ashamed of her own sexuality, she resisted being known as a “lesbian author” and preferred to write about men, just as she preferred the company of men — except, of course, in bed.) Finally, if we “get” Ripley now, do we have social progress to thank, or is it because “sociopathy” simply looks an awful lot like getting by in contemporary America?

Highsmith’s atmospheric unease — her keen sense of the depths concealed by pleasing surfaces — has made her irresistible for film directors, but Ripley’s interiority has always been difficult to pull off onscreen. Many skilled actors have tried, including Alain Delon and John Malkovich in 1960 and 2002, respectively, playing the character in a more silken vein than the earnest Damon, who seemed credibly working-class, neither smooth nor especially clever. It’s far easier, of course, to be drawn in by Ripley in the book, where he remains as featureless as a Waldorf doll. This may also be why our contemporary frauds seem to pale in comparison to the real thing: It’s not because Ripley’s so audacious but because he’s on such intimate terms with us; the connoisseur of imposture has become the connoisseur’s impostor. Even the thriller writer Dan Mallory (a.k.a., A.J. Finn), who sought pity from publishing-industry colleagues and admissions committees by inventing tragic illnesses and deaths, abandoned a doctoral thesis at Oxford on Highsmith’s novels in the aughts, as if sensing he wasn’t quite up to the task. Ripley was a murderer, but he had a code; “he doesn’t kill unless he has to,” as the author put it.

Ripley oscillates between obsession and repulsion when it comes to other people but believes unwaveringly in the transcendence found in good style — the best food, clothes and interiors. (The real romance, in Highsmith, is always with the finer things in life.) Both the novel and Minghella’s film turn on a scene in which Greenleaf catches Ripley trying on his clothes and mannerisms. After assuming Greenleaf’s identity, he decorates a palazzo in Venice for himself, hiring a pair of servants who “knew the difference between a Bloody Mary and a crême de menthe frappe.” Ripley likes to spend whole “evenings looking at his clothes — his clothes and Dickie’s — and feeling Dickie’s rings between his palms and running his fingers over the antelope suitcase he had bought at Gucci’s [sic]. He loved possessions, not masses of them, but a select few. … They gave a man self-respect.” The art of imposture isn’t only about getting the forged signatures on the letters and bank checks right; it’s about the mood, the tone, the attitude, much as a novelist creates a fictional character. (In a later Ripley book he becomes an art forger.) The most heartbreaking moment in the novel is when he’s forced to put on his own shabby coat and return to himself. It isn’t Dickie Greenleaf, but Tom Ripley, he’d wanted to leave at the bottom of the sea.

ONE WAY TO escape from the person you are is, of course, to become the others in your imagination: Just ask any fiction writer. “Impersonation, the substitution of one identity for another, the forgery of personality and the fluidity of character, were all native states for Patricia Highsmith,” wrote Joan Schenkar in her 2009 biography of the author, “ The Talented Miss Highsmith ,” which traces the furnishings of Highsmith’s imagination to her childhood reading (Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mysteries and the Freudian analyst Karl Menninger’s case histories) and to her relationship with her narcissistic, competitive mother, an artist who, according to biographers, liked to joke that she’d tried to abort Highsmith by drinking turpentine. Highsmith’s parents divorced before she was born, in Fort Worth, Texas; she took the name of her stepfather, Stanley Highsmith, and grew up in Texas and in New York City. At 24, the Barnard College graduate was earning her living by writing scripts for comic books, with their secret identities and clothes with special powers. She was also keeping a diary, in which she noted, “There is an ever more acute difference — and an intolerableness — between my inner self, which I know is the real me, and various faces of the outside world.” At 27, she underwent psychoanalysis, and her doctor suggested that she join group therapy with some “married women who are latent homosexuals.” She remarked in her notebook, “Perhaps I shall amuse myself by seducing a couple of them.” Like Alfred Hitchcock, who adapted her first novel, “ Strangers on a Train ,” for his 1951 noir, she had a thing for elegant blondes.

Fiction became a way to bridge the distance between those public and private selves; living abroad, too, seemed to grant her a sense of clarity and liberation while affirming her separateness. Just before writing the first “Ripley” novel, Highsmith read the French historian Alexis de Tocqueville’s “ Democracy in America ” (1835-40), trying to gain perspective on her own countrymen and women, refining her understanding of hypocrisy and perversity at the heart of American identity. Like Ripley — and like Henry James, whose 1903 novel, “The Ambassadors,” in which an American man in Paris finds himself awakening to the charms of another way of being, is a model for the first “Ripley” novel — Highsmith preferred to live in Europe, residing for many years in England and France before eventually settling in Switzerland. “No book,” she said, “was easier for me to write, and I often had the feeling Ripley was writing it and I was merely typing.”

If our sympathy for Ripley has deepened over time, so, perhaps, has our ambivalence about his author, though her literary star has, quite rightly, only risen in the decades since her death. One of the stranger details in Highsmith’s biography is the fact that she went through a phase in which she carried her pet snails with her to dinner parties in a large handbag (her 1957 novel, “ Deep Water, ” soon to be a film starring Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas, features a scene in which snails crawl over the murderer’s hands, stately and sinister). Among Highsmith’s most unpleasant traits was her propensity, in later years, to pen anti-Semitic and anti-Israel letters to newspapers under fake names. After her death (of aplastic anemia and lung cancer), Otto Penzler, a former publisher, referred to Highsmith as “a mean, cruel, hard, unlovable, unloving human being,” while acknowledging the brilliance of her fiction. Her circle of European women friends must have found something more tender in a person who seemed to be both longing for affection and closed off to it. (That she left her multimillion-dollar estate to Yaddo, the artist retreat in upstate New York where she wrote “Strangers on a Train,” seems to have gone some distance in redeeming her on this side of the pond.)

The novelist Graham Greene called Highsmith “the poet of apprehension,” but she was also our great chronicler, at a time of peak social conformity, of American secret selves. One wonders what she would have made of our era of proud self-declaration. Her sole love story, the 1952 novel “ The Price of Salt ,” which was made into Todd Haynes’s 2015 film, “ Carol ,” was written under a pseudonym, Claire Morgan; it was, for decades, one of very few American lesbian novels with a happy ending, and therefore wildly popular. It’s also Highsmith’s only novel that believes in love, though — crucially — Therese and Carol’s happy ending depends upon the latter acquiring a large apartment for them on the Upper East Side. Carol, a beautiful suburban housewife in mink inspired by a customer Highsmith once locked eyes with in the toy department at Bloomingdale’s, where she briefly worked one Christmas in her late 20s, is another kind of escape artist, one who gives up her own child for a chance at a life less thwarted. Like the “Ripley” novels, “The Price of Salt” is a form of horror story. But it’s also, I think, a survival manual. In the 1990 edition, retitled “Carol” and published under her own name, Highsmith seemed to shed her prickly distance to the world, writing movingly in her afterword of a time when “gay bars were a dark door somewhere in Manhattan,” when you got off the subway at a different station so as not to arouse suspicion. This, of course, has largely changed now. Today, “identity” feels a bit like a paradox, either celebrated as if it were entirely knowable and indisputable, or else the potential subject of an ambitious makeover. What hasn’t changed, I think, is the dodge: the fear that someone might see us for who we really are.

An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of a novelist; he was Graham Greene, not Green.

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How The Talented Mr. Ripley Differs From The Book

" The Talented Mr. Ripley ," the psychological thriller starring Matt Damon as the titular Tom Ripley and directed by Anthony Minghella, has maintained its popularity since being released in 1999. It also contains some of the most memorable performances that three of its most prominent actors — Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow — have ever given.

The film follows a young man named Tom Ripley, who, after being mistaken for a Princeton alum and an acquaintance of Dickie Greenleaf (Law), is hired by Dickie's father, shipping magnate Herbert (James Rebhorn), to seek out Dickie in Italy and persuade him to return to the United States. After meeting Dickie, along with Dickie's girlfriend Marge Sherwood (Paltrow), Tom quickly becomes enamored with Dickie's lavish lifestyle. Tom becomes obsessed not only with Dickie's life, but with Dickie himself, ultimately resulting in Tom murdering Dickie when Dickie tries to part ways with Tom. Tom then decides to take over Dickie's life, determined to do whatever it takes to keep up the false identity. Dickie's murder soon ends up leading Tom to commit more murders to cover his tracks and save himself, up until the film's ending , in which Tom is all alone, knowing that he'll always be outrunning his actions.

The film is based on the 1955 novel of the same name by acclaimed American writer Patricia Highsmith. "The Talented Mr. Ripley" is generally regarded as being a well-executed book-to-movie adaptation, but of course, some changes had to be made to fit the medium. So, in what ways does the film incarnation of "The Talented Mr. Ripley" differ from the book?

Tom of the book is already a criminal

In 2019, The Ringer dived deep into the world of "The Talented Mr. Ripley," analyzing both the novel and the film in a longform piece celebrating the 20th anniversary of the film's release. In the piece, writer Haley Mlotek points out that the Tom Ripley that readers meet in the novel is different from the Tom Ripley that viewers meet when he appears in the film. In the novel, Mlotek writes, Tom is "already a petty criminal" with a history of scamming and conning. Namely, he often poses as an Internal Revenue Services worker and calls freelancers to tell them that they underpaid their taxes, whereupon he has them send the owed "taxes" directly to him.

Yet, in the film, Tom has not quite entered the world of crime and manipulation. As Mlotek wrote, "He's simply filling in as a piano accompanist for a friend, wearing a borrowed Princeton jacket before running to make his shift as a bathroom attendant at a lavish performance space. When the audience leaves and before the janitor catches him, he plays the piano on the stage, indulging his fantasy of being watched."

Tom has some evolving to do before he becomes the type of person who can take over the life of someone he has just murdered. Rather, he begins merely as the type of person who can pretend to be a different version of himself than he is — someone who went to Princeton and was friends with Dickie Greenleaf. This way, viewers get to watch as Tom becomes obsessed with Dickie, then with keeping up the charade of pretending to be Dickie.

Tom is more of a sociopath in the book

In the film, there is palpable sexual chemistry between Tom and Dickie, which Tom even points out to Dickie just before he murders him, claiming that Dickie is only trying to cut ties with Tom because he is afraid of the feelings they share for one another. One could make a case that Tom genuinely does love Dickie, and later, Peter (Jack Davenport) ... and that he only kills both of them because he ultimately loves himself — specifically, the new version of himself that exists in the midst of luxury — more. The same argument likely could not be made for the Tom that exists within Highsmith's novel.

In an analysis for Off the Shelf , Leslie Kendall Dye writes that if you've only seen the movie, then you "haven't met the Tom Ripley that Patricia Highsmith dreamed up." Highsmith's Ripley is a straightforward sociopath "who both lies and murders in cold blood." Dye continues, "When his resentment boils, he quietly rearranges reality." On the other hand, Dye explains, the film is about a man who desperately wants to belong, wants to love, and "murders — at least the first time — in a moment of passion."

It's pretty easy to imply why writer-director Anthony Minghella made this key change — it's much easier to watch Tom murder a string of characters when we, as viewers, have already sympathized with him. Many people can relate to the desire to find where you belong, but a far fewer number can relate to murdering in cold blood.

All in all, for those who find Tom Ripley to be an utterly compelling character, there are two versions of him to interpret: book Tom and movie Tom.

Netflix's 'Ripley' makes some key changes from Patricia Highsmith's 'The Talented Mr Ripley.' Here's how the series and novel differ.

"Ripley" is based on Patricia Highsmith's classic crime drama "The Talented Mr Ripley."
Some details such as the time period and the characters' ages have been changed for the series.
Warning: Major spoilers ahead for all eight episodes of "Ripley."

Netflix's " Ripley " is an incredibly faithful adaptation of the novel "The Talented Mr Ripley" by acclaimed US author Patricia Highsmith, arguably hewing closest to the source material out of all the versions of the classic crime drama committed to screen.

Written and directed by Steven Zaillian, renowned as the screenwriter behind "The Irishman," "Schindler's List," and "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," the series follows Tom Ripley ( Andrew Scott ), a grifter making a dishonest living for himself in New York. That is until he's hired by wealthy shipping magnate Herbert Greenleaf to travel to Italy to try to convince his wayward son, Dickie (Johnny Flynn), to return to America to pursue a respectable career.

Tom's acceptance of the job is the first step in a dark, complex journey involving deceit, fraud, and murder, which audiences see unfold in meticulous detail across the eight episodes of the limited series.

Given its runtime — previous film adaptations have all been around the two-hour mark — Zaillian relishes the opportunity to remain close to the heart of the story.

However, some changes have inevitably been made to make the story better fit Zaillian's vision.

Here are the major differences between the book and the show. A word of warning, though: there are major spoilers ahead for "Ripley," and Highsmith's novel on which it is based, below.

The show's time setting is changed from the 1950s to the early 1960s.

A title card at the beginning of episode one tells audiences that the series takes place in 1961 — six years after Highsmith's novel was set.

It's likely not been lost on audiences that Zaillian and Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Elswit takes a lot of cues from the noir cinema of the 1960s, including the work of Alfred Hitchcock and Italian auteur Federico Fellini.

It perhaps explains why the series' timeline has shifted a few years.

The characters at the center of the story have been aged up to suit better the actors playing them.

In the book, both Tom, Dickie, and Marge (Dakota Fanning) are supposed to be in their early 20s. Tom is 25 years old, while Dickie and Marge's exact ages are not disclosed.

While the ages of the characters are not overtly referenced in the series, it's clear that we're to believe that the central trio are in their 30s, given the age of the cast: Scott is 47, Flynn is 41, and Fanning is 30.

The characterization of Freddie Miles is markedly different in the adaptation.

Highsmith describes Freddie Miles (Eliot Sumner) as an overweight, carrot-red-haired American dressed in a "loud sports shirt" when he is first introduced in the book. Tom instantly dislikes his appearance and soon finds his personality grating.

While Tom in the series finds Freddie equally odious, in the Netflix adaptation, Freddie has a drastically different characterization; he's English and portrayed as more restrained but showing more contempt toward our titular grafter.

The relationship between Dickie and Marge is more ambiguous in the book.

When Marge is questioned by the Italian police in "Ripley," she has a very simple definition of her relationship with Dickie. "I'm his girlfriend," she tells Inspector Ravini (Maurizio Lombardi).

It is a marked change from the book in which Dickie and Marge's relationship hovers somewhere between friendship and romance but isn't clearly defined. If anything, Marge is lovesick over Dickie, while Dickie is blissfully unaware of her feelings.

The book also has much more overt queer undertones, for readers can understand why Marge sees Tom as a rival for Dickie's affections.

In the novel, when she suspects that the two men are more than just friends, the deeply religious Marge is disgusted and angry at Dickie for leading her on.

Reeves Minot's character does not appear until the second Ripley novel.

The eighth and final episode of "Ripley" features John Malkovich, who previously played Tom Ripley in the 2002 movie "Ripley's Game," making a cameo. He plays Reeves Minot, a con artist with whom Tom forms a friendship.

However, this scene does not appear in the book, as fans of the Ripley novels — or "Ripliads," as they're often called — will know. Reeves first appears in the second novel, "Ripley Under Ground," which Highsmith published 15 years after "The Talented Mr Ripley."

In "Ripley," Reeves helps Tom acquire a new identity by providing him with a fake passport. However, in the novel, that's because of an entirely different caper that Tom becomes involved in.

The series ends with Tom getting away with his crimes, but for a different reason.

Another significant change between the novel and the new Netflix adaptation is how Tom ends up acquiring Dickie's assets and inheritance, allowing him to continue living a life of unbridled luxury in Europe.

In the book, Tom forges a final, undated will from Dickie that the Greenleafs unquestioningly accept as real, believing that he and Tom had grown to be close, dependable friends in Dickie's' final weeks.

Perhaps considering this ending too unrealistic, Zaillian's series ends with Tom managing to figure out how to transfer almost all of Dickie's trust fund and possessions in his name without being detected, including a priceless Picasso.

Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member.

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Quarantine Book Club: Why The Talented Mr. Ripley novel and movie are the perfect escapist combination

The 1955 novel was adapted into a 1999 film with Jude Law and Matt Damon, and soon it'll be a Showtime series with Andrew Scott.

Omar writes, reports, and eats almonds for EW. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @OhMySanchez for Spongebob memes with a splash of NBA talk.

In this current climate, being an ally for inclusion is at its utmost importance. For me, that has meant evaluating how much of an ally for all groups I have been (and how I can improve). It's also Pride Month, so I've been delving into LGBTQ+ film history with documentaries like 1980's Paris Is Burning and 2014's T he Case Against 8 , both absolutely captivating looks at how far we've come in the last half-century, and how far we have to go. And recently on Twitter, I stumbled across a 25-second clip from The Talented Mr. Ripley — the movie borne out of the 1955 Patricia Highsmith novel, part of a canon that touched on LGBTQ+ themes (the author herself was openly gay).

In the clip, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman pulls off what can only be described as one of the greatest character introductions in history (see below), and it led me down a rabbit hole. Matt Damon , Hoffman, AND Jude Law at their peaks? I had to go straight to the source.

There's one scene in the film, especially, that stands out to me. It involves Ripley (Damon) playing chess with Dickie (Law), while Dickie is taking a bath. Naturally, Dickie is completely naked but doesn't hesitate to get out of the tub with Ripley right in front of him. The level of intimacy you need with someone to join them bath-side, especially without a clear sexual history, is enviable. Who wouldn't want to feel that free? Dickie feeds off Ripley's desire of him, while Ripley feeds off Dickie's radiant, wealthy, IDGAF status.

That led me to read the source material, Patricia Highsmith's now-classic novel. The sexual tension between Dickie and Ripley is less clear in the book, although there are hints swirling throughout their relationship that it's more than friendship. But Highsmith's novel focuses on Ripley nursing a different kind of lust: one for social and physical wealth. What struck me while reading the book was the craftsmanship of Ripley's constant forays into fantasy. Here's someone who we immediately recognize as a scammer: He's using the name of George McAlpin, parading as a member of the IRS, asking the rich and oblivious for tax money sent back to an office address that's actually Tom's bare-bones apartment. Tom is a chameleon who needs others to fill the emptiness inside him (oh, and his bank account).

The book made my heart pound, but also turned it ice cold whenever Tom took another defeat. Highsmith gives us pages upon pages of dramatic story lines, many of them made up entirely in Tom's own head. His daydreams intensify as he gets closer and closer to Dickie — there's a moment that sees him obsessing over a refrigerator that Dickie and his girlfriend Marge have recently purchased, when Highsmith writes, "The huge white form of the refrigerator sprang out of the corner at him. He had wanted a drink, with ice in it. Now he didn't want to touch the thing." She adds, "Tom realized suddenly why he hated the refrigerator so much. It meant that Dickie was staying put."

I found myself thinking that Ripley himself would make an excellent filmmaker — Tom is always fantasizing about the future. He fantasizes about his death. He fantasizes about traveling to Spain, France, Greece with first-class ease. Ripley builds a drama in his own head as if a movie of his life was playing right alongside him. I could physically see him yearning for that idealistic version of his life. The panoramic details of Mongibello, Italy, its cafes and nightlife, make the novel all the more escapist during a quarantine.

Next up in the Ripley pop culture universe is a Showtime series starring Andrew Scott — his taking on the role of Tom Ripley is a luxury for a TV fan, given his history as the sexy 'Hot Priest' in Phoebe Waller Bridge's Fleabag. Will Showtime do the story justice? It remains to be seen, but I'm optimistic. The Talented Mr. Ripley shines as a story alone, but with a little movie (and TV) magic, its all the more palpable and gripping.

The Talented Mr. Ripley

Patricia highsmith, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Talented Mr. Ripley: Introduction

Talented mr. ripley: plot summary, talented mr. ripley: detailed summary & analysis, talented mr. ripley: themes, talented mr. ripley: quotes, talented mr. ripley: characters, talented mr. ripley: symbols, talented mr. ripley: theme wheel, brief biography of patricia highsmith.

Historical Context of The Talented Mr. Ripley

Other books related to the talented mr. ripley.

Full Title: The Talented Mr. Ripley
When Written: 1953
Where Written: Lenox, MA
When Published: 1955
Literary Period: Modernism; Realism
Genre: Fiction; psychological thriller; suspense; mystery; international crime
Setting: New York, NY; Italy; France; Greece
Climax: Tom Ripley murders his acquaintance Dickie Greenleaf off the coast of San Remo in order to adopt Dickie’s identity as his own.
Antagonist: Tom Ripley
Point of View: Third person narrative which closely tracks the thoughts and feelings of Tom Ripley

Extra Credit for The Talented Mr. Ripley

Ripleymania. With The Talented Mr. Ripley , Highsmith created a brand new kind of hero: the evil antihero. Ripley was such an iconoclastic novel with such a brand-new idea—what if the bad guy gets away with it?—that it captivated readers the world over and inspired a series of sequels, known by fans as “the Ripliad.” Highsmith’s Ripley novels have been adapted into movies starring Alain Delon, Dennis Hopper, Matt Damon, and John Malkovich (to name a few) as the face of the murderous Mr. Ripley. Ripley continues to inspire the way we think about “heroes” today— Kill Bill, Breaking Bad, Dexter , and even Suicide Squad are some television shows and movies that feature protagonists whose morals are, in a Ripley-esque way, dubious.

The Generous Ms. Highsmith. After her death in 1995, Patricia Highsmith bequeathed her entire estate to the Yaddo artists’ colony in upstate New York, where she completed work on a draft of Strangers on a Train in 1948. The colony is renowned for supporting the work of celebrated writers, such as Truman Capote, David Foster Wallace, and John Cheever.

ADMIN AREA MY BOOKSHELF MY DASHBOARD MY PROFILE SIGN OUT SIGN IN

THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY

by Patricia Highsmith ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 30, 1955

....is a young man of no means, and expensive tastes, and his nerveless, conscienceless progression is traced from the time when Tom Ripley is sent to Italy to retrieve an expatriate son, Dickie Greenleaf. Ripley attaches himself to Dickie, is annoyed by the adhesive Marge who is in love with Dickie and wary of Tom, and finally when Dickie's friendship cools he kills him and assumes his identity. For several months he lives comfortably on Dickie's income, but a former friend jeopardizes his new security, and he is forced to kill again. This time not only the police- but Marge and Dickie's father are alerted; Tom is forced to assume his old identity but his resilient resourcefulness keeps him immune. The virtuosity here- more than anything else-will pin you to the page.

Pub Date: Nov. 30, 1955

ISBN: 0393332144

Page Count: 292

Publisher: Coward-McCann

Review Posted Online: April 3, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1955

MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE

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PATRICIA HIGHSMITH'S DIARIES AND NOTEBOOKS

BOOK REVIEW

by Patricia Highsmith ; edited by Anna von Planta

by Patricia Highsmith

More About This Book

Appreciations: Patricia Highsmith’s Mr. Ripley Hits Sixty

PERSPECTIVES

Netflix’s ‘Ripley’: A Talented Criminal in Slo-Mo

BOOK TO SCREEN

by C.J. Box ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 28, 2015

A suspenseful, professional-grade north country procedural whose heroine, a deft mix of compassion and attitude, would be...

Box takes another break from his highly successful Joe Pickett series ( Stone Cold , 2014, etc.) for a stand-alone about a police detective, a developmentally delayed boy, and a package everyone in North Dakota wants to grab.

Cassandra Dewell can’t leave Montana’s Lewis and Clark County fast enough for her new job as chief investigator for Jon Kirkbride, sheriff of Bakken County. She leaves behind no memories worth keeping: her husband is dead, her boss has made no bones about disliking her, and she’s looking forward to new responsibilities and the higher salary underwritten by North Dakota’s sudden oil boom. But Bakken County has its own issues. For one thing, it’s cold—a whole lot colder than the coldest weather Cassie’s ever imagined. For another, the job she turns out to have been hired for—leading an investigation her new boss doesn’t feel he can entrust to his own force—makes her queasy. The biggest problem, though, is one she doesn’t know about until it slaps her in the face. A fatal car accident that was anything but accidental has jarred loose a stash of methamphetamines and cash that’s become the center of a battle between the Sons of Freedom, Bakken County’s traditional drug sellers, and MS-13, the Salvadorian upstarts who are muscling in on their territory. It’s a setup that leaves scant room for law enforcement officers or for Kyle Westergaard, the 12-year-old paperboy damaged since birth by fetal alcohol syndrome, who’s walked away from the wreck with a prize all too many people would kill for.

Pub Date: July 28, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-312-58321-7

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Minotaur

Review Posted Online: April 21, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2015

GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | MYSTERY & DETECTIVE

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by C.J. Box

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

New York Times Bestseller

by J.A. Jance ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 2, 2019

Proficient but eminently predictable. Amid all the time shifts and embedded backstories, the most surprising feature is how...

A convicted killer’s list of five people he wants dead runs the gamut from the wife he’s already had murdered to franchise heroine Ali Reynolds.

Back in the day, women came from all over to consult Santa Clarita fertility specialist Dr. Edward Gilchrist. Many of them left his care happily pregnant, never dreaming that the father of the babies they carried was none other than the physician himself, who donated his own sperm rather than that of the handsome, athletic, disease-free men pictured in his scrapbook. When Alexandra Munsey’s son, Evan, is laid low by the kidney disease he’s inherited from his biological father and she returns to Gilchrist in search of the donor’s medical records, the roof begins to fall in on him. By the time it’s done falling, he’s serving a life sentence in Folsom Prison for commissioning the death of his wife, Dawn, the former nurse and sometime egg donor who’d turned on him. With nothing left to lose, Gilchrist tattoos himself with the initials of five people he blames for his fall: Dawn; Leo Manuel Aurelio, the hit man he’d hired to dispose of her; Kaitlyn Todd, the nurse/receptionist who took Dawn’s place; Alex Munsey, whose search for records upset his apple cart; and Ali Reynolds, the TV reporter who’d helped put Alex in touch with the dozen other women who formed the Progeny Project because their children looked just like hers. No matter that Ali’s been out of both California and the news business for years; Gilchrist and his enablers know that revenge can’t possibly be served too cold. Wonder how far down that list they’ll get before Ali, aided once more by Frigg, the methodical but loose-cannon AI first introduced in Duel to the Death (2018), turns on them?

Pub Date: April 2, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-5011-5101-9

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019

More by J.A. Jance

by J.A. Jance

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Villains usually last through only one crime novel, while heroes are good for a whole series. That's a great inconvenience for their authors, because villains are usually more colorful than heroes. Patricia Highsmith's novels about Tom Ripley are the exception, a series of books about a man who is irredeemably bad, and yet charming, intelligent and thoughtful about the price he pays for his amoral lifestyle.

The Talented Mr. Ripley, her first Ripley novel, published in 1955, shows Ripley in the process of inventing himself and finding his life's work. He was a poor man who wanted to be a rich man, an unknown man who wanted not to be famous but simply to be someone else. Some men are envious of other men's cars, or wives, or fortunes. Ripley coveted their identities.

The novel shows him annexing the life and identity of a man named Greenleaf. It was filmed in 1960 by Rene Clement as " Purple Noon ," with Alain Delon as Ripley, and now it has been filmed again by Anthony Minghella (" The English Patient "), with Matt Damon in the title role. One of the pleasures of the two adaptations is that the plots are sufficiently different that you can watch one without knowing how the other turns out--or even what happens along the way. That despite the fact that they both revolve around Ripley's decision that he can be Greenleaf as well as, or better than, Greenleaf can be himself.

"Purple Noon" begins with the two men already friends. "The Talented Mr. Ripley," adapted by Minghella, has a better idea: Ripley is an opportunist who stumbles onto an opening into Greenleaf's life, and takes it. He borrows a Princeton blazer to play the piano at a rooftop party in Manhattan and a rich couple assume he must have known their son Dickie at Princeton. He agrees.

The Greenleafs are concerned about Dickie ( Jude Law ), who has decamped to the decadence of Europe and shows no sign of coming home. They offer Tom Ripley a deal: They'll finance his own trip to Europe and pay him $1,000 if he returns with their son. Cut to a beach in Italy, where Dickie suns with Marge Sherwood ( Gwyneth Paltrow ), and the original deception turns evil.

Remember that Ripley is already impersonating someone--Dickie's old Princeton friend. That works with Dickie ("I've completely forgotten him," he tells Marge), but eventually he wonders if anything Tom tells him is the truth. Ripley, at this point still developing the skills that will carry him through several more adventures, instinctively knows that the best way to lie is to admit to lying, and to tell the truth whenever convenient.

When Dickie asks him what his talents are, he replies, "Forging signatures, telling lies and impersonating almost anyone." Quite true. And then he does a chilling impersonation of Mr. Greenleaf asking him to bring Dickie back to the United States. "I feel like he's here," Dickie says, as Tom does his father's voice.

By confessing his mission, Tom disarms Dickie and is soon accepted into his circle, which also includes an epicurean friend named Freddie Miles ( Philip Seymour Hoffman ). Also moving through Europe at about the same time is a rich girl named Meredith Logue ( Cate Blanchett ), who believes things about Tom that Dickie must not be allowed to know. But I am growing vague, and must grow vaguer, because the whole point of the movie is to show Tom Ripley learning to use subterfuge, improvisation and lightning-fast thinking under pressure to become Dickie Greenleaf.

Highsmith wrote The Talented Mr. Ripley five years after writing " Strangers on a Train " which Hitchcock made into a film he sometimes called his favorite. The two stories are similar. Strangers is about a man who meets another man and offers to trade crimes with him: I'll kill the person you hate, and you kill the person I hate, and since neither one of us has any connection with our victim or any motive for killing him, we'll never be caught. Talented has Dickie blamed for the drowning death of a local woman and Ripley "trading" that death as a cover-up for another.

Hitchcock's film subtly suggested a homosexual feeling in the instigator, and Tom Ripley also seems to have feelings for Dickie Greenleaf--although narcissism and sexuality are so mixed up in his mind that Ripley almost seems to want to become Greenleaf so that he can love himself (both Ripley movies have a scene of Ripley dressed in Dickie's clothes and posing in a mirror). This undercurrent is wisely never brought up to the level of conscious action because so many of Tom Ripley's complicated needs and desires are deeply buried; he finds out what he wants to do by doing it.

Matt Damon is bland and ordinary as Ripley, and then takes on the vivid coloration of others--even a jazz singer. Jude Law makes Dickie almost deserving of his fate because of the way he adopts new friends and then discards them. Gwyneth Paltrow's role is tricky: Yes, Dickie is her boyfriend, but he's cold and treats her badly, and there are times when she would intuit the dread secret if she weren't so distracted by the way she already resents Dickie.

The movie is an intelligent a thriller as you'll see this year. It is also insidious in the way it leads us to identify with Tom Ripley. He is the protagonist, we see everything through his eyes, and Dickie is not especially lovable; that means we are a co-conspirator in situations where it seems inconceivable that Tom's deception will not be discovered. He's a monster, but we want him to get away with it. There is one sequence in the film involving an apartment, a landlady, the police and a friend who knows the real Dickie that depends on such meticulous timing and improvisation that if you made it speedier, you'd have the Marx Brothers.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

Rated R For Violence, Language and Brief Nudity

140 minutes

Jack Davenport as Peter Smith-Kingsley

Cate Blanchett as Meredith Logue

Matt Damon as Tom Ripley

Jude Law as Dickie Greenleaf

Gwyneth Paltrow as Marge Sherwood

Philip Seymour Hoffman as Freddie Miles

Based On The Novel by

Patricia Highsmith

Written and Directed by

Anthony Minghella

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The Talented Mr. Ripley Paperback – September 1, 1992

Purchase options and add-ons.

Book 1 of 5 Ripley
Print length 304 pages
Language English
Publisher Vintage
Publication date September 1, 1992
Dimensions 5.25 x 0.75 x 8 inches
ISBN-10 0679742298
ISBN-13 978-0679742296
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com review.

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 maneuvers 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 Lecter. --Patrick O'Kelley

From the Inside Flap

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage (September 1, 1992)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0679742298
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679742296
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.75 x 8 inches
#3,801 in TV, Movie & Game Tie-In Fiction
#83,374 in Mysteries (Books)

About the author

Patricia highsmith.

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.

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Books | Biblioracle: Netflix’s ‘Ripley’ does justice to…

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Books | biblioracle: netflix’s ‘ripley’ does justice to patricia highsmith’s book.

Andrew Scott stars as Tom Ripley in "Ripley." (Netflix)

The show’s source material, “The Talented Mr. Ripley” by Patricia Highsmith, is one of my desert island books. The novel is a sui generis portrayal of a character without apparent conscience, but whom we nonetheless feel great attachment to. Other writers have been trying and failing to write Ripley-esque novels for generations.

Previous adaptations of “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” such as the 1999 film starring Matt Damon as the titular character, have not necessarily been terrible, but they also have failed to truly capture the essence of the indelible character Highsmith put into the world.

“Ripley,” written and directed by Steven Zaillian, and starring Andrew Scott, demolished my skepticism. It is a stunning success in terms of transferring the spirit and impact of the book to the screen.

The chief challenge of filming Ripley’s story is that the novel is narrated by Ripley himself, giving readers insights into the mind and behaviors of a man who cares little for others. In his 1999 review of “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” Roger Ebert calls Damon’s Ripley a “monster,” which is true in the external sense, but is not how Ripley is experienced in the novels when events are rendered through Ripley’s point of view.

With the interiority of the novel form removed, providing the audience a deep understanding of Ripley is a monumental task.

One clear advantage over a two-hour movie is that “Ripley” the series unfolds over eight episodes, giving us a chance to establish greater intimacy with the character. There are numerous scenes where we’re asked to watch Ripley alone on the screen, and the stunning black and white cinematography and Zaillian’s painter-like framing of each scene prove immersive.

The atmosphere of the visuals and the extended time that’s allowed for unfolding Ripley’s trajectory draw us into a foreign and stylized world. We follow Tom Ripley from his rat-infested New York apartment, as he gets by on petty schemes, to Italy, where he hooks up with the trust fund dilettante Dickie Greenleaf, ostensibly to persuade him to return to the U.S. at the behest of Dickie’s father.

Tom quickly sees an opportunity in ingratiating himself with Dickie while claiming to Dickie’s father that he’s working for Dickie’s return. After years of knowing in the abstract that money is the key to life, Ripley sees up close what kind of life money allows for, and he will not be returning to his previous impoverished existence.

The combination of script and Scott’s performance results in the same effect as Highsmith’s first-person narration in the novel. We understand where this so-called “monster” is coming from, to the point where even his most terrible actions do not seem so monstrous.

Scott’s portrayal is an absolute marvel in its layering. Ripley the character is always performing for the people he’s interacting with, often awkwardly, even poorly at times early on as he is weird with Dickie and Dickie’s girlfriend Marge (Dakota Fanning).

But as Ripley familiarizes himself with the character he is becoming, he grows more and more comfortable in the milieu of the ultra-wealthy, and Scott’s performance grows with it. It is as if one mask is falling as another slips into place. Occasionally, sparked by the vestigial rage of his previous poverty, the mask slips — as in a scene where Ripley faces off with a police inspector — and the tension is delicious.

Many books are successfully adapted for the screen by altering the essence of the original to accommodate the different medium. In this case, Zaillian uses the unique properties of film to nail Highsmith’s original exactly.

John Warner is the author of “Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities.”

Twitter @biblioracle

Book recommendations from the Biblioracle

John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.

1. “The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell” by Robert Dugoni 2. “The Storm We Made” by Vanessa Chan 3. “An American Dreamer: Life in a Divided Country” by David Finkel 4. “Mad Honey” by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan 5. “The Little Liar” by Mitch Albom

— Tricia K., Oak Lawn

I think Tricia will be well-served by Gail Honeyman’s “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.”

1. “The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race” by Walter Isaacson 2. “Killing Crazy Horse” by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard 3. “Holmes, Marple, and Poe” by James Patterson 4. “Total Control” by David Baldacci 5. “Suspect” by Scott Turow

— Mike P., DeKalb

I think Mike will enjoy the long and involving journey through Larry McMurtry’s western epic, “Lonesome Dove.”

1. “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver 2. “When She Was Good” by Philip Roth 3. “The Stories of John Cheever” by John Cheever 4. “Solo Faces” by James Salter 5. “The Bee Sting” by Paul Murray

— Sean M., Chicago

Sean’s list is a job for Walker Percy’s indelible novel of the search for meaning, “The Moviegoer.”

Get a reading from the Biblioracle

Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to [email protected] .

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Netflix's 'Ripley' Really Takes Its Time — And That's Why It's So Damn Good

Slow and steady definitely wins the race.

Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Netflix's Ripley

The Big Picture

Ripley offers a straightforward adaptation of Highsmith's work, delving deeper into character backgrounds.
The slow pacing builds tension as we examine Tom Ripley's anxiety post-crime.
Shot in black and white, Ripley commits to its noir influences, with a focus on gradually revealing the character's development.

Patricia Highsmith ’s series of novels about the character of Tom Ripley are among the highest selling in literary history , and have had a significant influence on the sub-genre of con artist stories. Given their immense popularity, it's not surprising that the books have been adapted to the screen several times; while René Clément ’s 1960 noir Purple Noon was the first adaptation, Anthony Minghella ’s star-studded 1999 adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley , with Matt Damon , Jude Law , and Gwyneth Paltrow , earned several Academy Award nominations. The pressure was on for showrunner Steven Zaillian to ensure that his version of Ripley did something different. While it doesn’t change much of the narrative, Netflix’s Ripley stands out compared to other adaptations due to its incredibly slow pacing.

A grifter named Ripley living in New York during the 1960s is hired by a wealthy man to begin a complex life of deceit, fraud and murder.

Netflix's ‘Ripley’ Fleshes Out Its Characters With Great Detail

Ripley serves as a straightforward adaptation of the first installment in Highsmith’s series. While the characters’ ages are advanced by nearly two decades, the series does not make any notable changes to the story compared to previous adaptations. Andrew Scott ’s Tom Ripley is hired by Herbert Greenleaf ( Kenneth Lonergan ) to travel to Italy to convince his pretentious son Dickie ( Johnny Flynn ) to return home. Although it’s evident from the beginning that the enigmatic con man has malicious intentions, Ripley spends more time fleshing out the titular character's life prior to his mission . This allows the viewer to understand the strange way that Ripley perceives the world. Additionally, the excellent sound design helps make this an even more immersive experience.

Yes, both Purple Noon and The Talented Mr. Ripley were quick to show the devolution of the main characters’ relationship, but Ripley crafts a more complex depiction of Ripley’s dynamic with Dickie . Initially, Dickie is put off by Ripley’s aggressive behavior, yet slowly becomes charmed by his inventive spirit. Jude Law ’s depiction of Dickie was one of an ecstatic young man bursting with exuberance, but Flynn’s interpretation is that of a cynical, belligerent expatriate. Flynn has certainly shown his charming side in films like Emma , but Ripley gives him the chance to play an unlikable, privileged brat who has delusions about his own artistry. This makes the central tragedy more complicated, as Dickie is a character whose prospects for the future are entirely superficial.

Additionally, Ripley spends more time examining the unique dilemma that Dakota Fanning’s Marge Sherwood is in , as she has to bear witness to Ripley’s infiltration of Dickie’s life. Even though the series suggests that their relationship is not an entirely pleasant one, Marge nonetheless feels protective of Dickie, and fears that Ripley may have a corrupting influence on their lives. Marge’s ignorance of Ripley’s malicious intentions makes her a rather uninteresting character in The Talented Mr. Ripley , despite a strong performance by Gwyneth Paltrow . However, the extra runtime in Ripley allows Fanning to give a more confident and capable interpretation of Highsmith’s original character.

‘Ripley’ Uses Its Slow Pacing To Create Tension

While the eight episode length means that the action is spread more thinly, Ripley certainly does not pad its run time with superfluous content. Ripley creates a moody atmosphere and level of paranoia that makes the moments of violence hit with more impact . After watching Ripley slowly twist himself into a web of lies throughout the first two episodes, his murder of Dickie in the standout third episode, “III Sommerso," is riveting to watch. Zaillian takes the time to show the specifics of how Ripley plots the murder; he must ensure that there are no observers, hide the evidence of the boat, and survive nearly falling overboard. By getting into the minutia of his problem solving, Ripley allows Scott to delve into the character’s abilities .

'Ripley' Filming Locations: Where Was the Andrew Scott Series Shot?

Dickie’s murder is certainly the most memorable incident in the series, but Ripley does a great job at examining the character’s anxiety and paranoia in the aftermath of his crimes . Between feeding fake stories to Marge about Dickie’s location, avoiding the attention of Freddie Miles ( Elliot Sumner ), and escaping from the investigations by Inspector Pietro Ravini ( Maurizio Lombardi ), Ripley is constantly forced to change and reinvent the carefully constructed lie that he created. The extended running time shows that he has to live with this sad reality for the rest of his life; it provides the perfect groundwork for continuation should Zaillian ever decide to adapt Highsmith’s other books for a Ripley Season 2 .

‘Ripley’ Commits to Its Noir Influences

One of the most notable differences between Ripley and prior adaptations of the material is that Zaillian’s series is shot entirely in black and white by legendary cinematographer Robert Elswit . While it’s an aesthetic choice that succeeds in capturing the look and feel of the 1960s, Ripley bears much in common with classical films in the noir genre . Most noir films focus primarily on the gradual dissemination of information, using their protagonists' wit and attention to detail as a means of advancing the story. This is something that Ripley uses to its advantage; the series takes the time to show Scott’s version of the character gradually learning how to adopt his new persona.

The added material may have been a burden had the performances been lacking, but thankfully, Scott’s interpretation of Ripley marks another instance of him reinventing an iconic character . Ripley ’s methodical pacing gives the series the chance to focus on Scott’s internalized performance , as Ripley is not a character that is defined only by his most egregious actions. By slowly revealing how Ripley’s daily routine and mannerisms change based on his environment, Ripley somehow makes the character more enigmatic.

While many great miniseries simply feel like long movies , Ripley takes advantage of the episodic format . Each episode presents the character with a unique goal that he must accomplish, and exploring his larger arc through micro situations such as heaving rocks into a boat in order to sink it and cleaning up a bloody kill, serves as an inventive way to approach the material. Ripley may be slow, but it's so entertaining that it leaves viewers begging for more by the time that it concludes.

Ripley is available to watch on Netflix in the U.S.

Watch on Netflix

Review: Andrew Scott brings the chills in slow burn 'Ripley'

The new series stars Andrew Scott as Tom Ripley.

I've been putting off writing about "Ripley," the enthralling if not exasperating new series that's been generating hot debate. Oscar-winning writer-director Steven Zaillian (he wrote "Schindler's List") takes his time pulling you into the tale of Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott), the con artist who steals the identity of Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn), the trust-fund baby he later murders.

Sound familiar? That's the problem. The culprit is 1999's "The Talented Mr. Ripley," the best known of the five films based on Patricia Highsmith's 1955 novel of the same name.

Shot in Italy in glorious color and starring Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow oozing youth and sexuality, Anthony Minghella's film had a livewire vibe that kept audiences in thrall.

MORE: Review: Prepare to be wowed by 'Civil War,' the best and propulsively exciting movie of the year so far

"Ripley," also filmed in Italy but shot in the artful, black-and-white glare provided by master cinematographer Robert Elswit ("There Will Be Blood"), is a far more sinister affair. And Scott, charming as the "hot priest" in "Fleabag" and heartbreakingly lost in "All of Us Strangers," lets a chill invade his performance that holds Ripley at an emotional remove.

PHOTO: Dakota Fanning appears in a scene from the Netflix series "Ripley."

In short, this new "Ripley" is a slow burn that turns a two-hour movie into an eight-hour series, not to pad out a story but to invest it with a resonant power all its own. It comes close to achieving that goal even when the plodding pacing of the early episodes tries your patience.

PHOTO: Andrew Scott, as Tom Ripley, in "Ripley."

Having moved up the book's time period from the 1950s to the 1960s, Zaillian starts the show with Ripley living in squalor in Manhattan doing forgeries and identity thefts. He's strictly minor league until wealthy businessman Herbert Greenleaf ("Manchester By the Sea" creator Kenneth Lonergan underplaying beautifully) hires Ripley to track down his son Dickie in Italy.

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Andrew Scott, Dakota Fanning star in 'Ripley' official teaser: Watch here

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The goal is to persuade sonny boy to come home. But one look at the lush life that Dickie is living on the Amalfi coast with girlfriend Marge Sherwood (Dakota Fanning) and it's love at first sight for Ripley. Not necessarily for Dickie, though a sexual attraction is implied, but to be him.

Marge's resentment grows as Ripley worms his way into her life with Dickie. She knows Dickie is supremely untalented as a wannabe artist and sees through Ripley's flattery of his nonexistent skills. What is real is Ripley's obsession with Italian artist Caravaggio, a convicted murderer who was constantly on the run from the law—shades of Ripley's future.

MORE: Review: 'Franklin' proceeds with clunky determination and falls short

Equally suspicious is Freddie Miles, a school chum of Dickie's, played to the obnoxious hilt in the 1999 film by the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman. Here, the role is undertaken with sly, quiet conviction by the terrific Eliot Sumner.

Without going into spoiler details, Dickie and Freddie will both become victims of Ripley's deadly scheme to pass himself off as Dickie. Traveling through Naples, Rome and Venice, Ripley is stalked by Inspector Pietro Ravini (a sensationally canny Maurizio Lombardi) whose cat-and-mouse game with Ripley energizes the last episodes with vise-tightening suspense.

PHOTO: Johnny Flynn, left, and Dakota Fanning appear in a scene from the Netflix series "Ripley."

Equally as vigilant as the Inspector is Marge, a cards-to-the-vest character that Fanning plays with just the right notes of grit and guile. Still, in a series that prides itself in denying empathy to any of its characters, the shape-shifting Ripley takes the cake for most inhuman humans.

And that's the frustration of "Ripley."

For all its magnificent surfaces and mesmerizing writing, directing, and acting, this portrait of evil rotting in the sun feels cold to the touch, detaching us when it needs to draw us close.

What's the good of danger when you can't feel its heat?

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Obsessed with “Ripley”? Watch These Other Movies About the Irresistible Villain — and See Which Is Best!

Matt Dillon, John Malkovich and Dennis Hopper have each put his own special spin on the talented Patricia Highsmith psychopath

Netflix’s buzzy new hit Ripley will have you hooked on a deliciously confusing sensation. You watch in horror as a psychopath—feral and sly and cold—bludgeons his victims to death. Then you anxiously root for him to evade the police and get clean away, time after time. If Hannibal Lecter or Norman Bates were watching, they might feel the same way.

That pull between repulsion and identification can only mean one thing: that this eight-episode series has sucked you into the sinister, weird and fundamentally inscrutable world of novelist Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995), whose greatest creation—the ruthless killer Tom Ripley—is played to mean, pinched perfection by Fleabag’s Andrew Scott .

Related: Ripley Review: Andrew Scott's Black and White Netflix Thriller Will Make You Forget Fleabag's 'Hot Priest'

Based on Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley , first published in 1955, Ripley is about a murderous American opportunist on the make in Italy, where he attaches himself in a parasitic, possibly homosexual fashion to a rich fellow expat, Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn). Unfortunately, what's good for Tom turns out to be very bad for Dickie—and yet Dickie, who's well-meaning if not terribly intelligent, is somehow less sympathetic than Tom.

This is part of Highsmith's brilliance: She's a master at putting abnormal, even aberrant psychology at the dead center of a narrative, so that a perspective that might seem warped, illogical or incomprehensible to a reader (or viewer) instead advances along a straight, undeviating line.

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"I often had the feeling Ripley was writing [the book]," Highsmith would recall in 1966, "and I was merely typing.”

Netflix's version, shot in grimly lustrous black and white, is close to flawless at capturing the original novel's sense of fascinated dread and enigmatic attraction, but Highsmith’s anti-hero has been well served by other adaptations that play on different tensions and angles.

On the page, Tom Ripley isn't an ambiguous character—not at all. On the screen, however, where he can be played by a range of magnetic (and clever) actors, he turns out to be an intriguingly versatile monster.

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

Director Anthony Minghella’s film is possibly the most entertaining and thoughtful adaptation of the novel. Matt Damon is a sympathetic young Ripley, inching his way onto the beach at Amalfi in a ludicrous little pair of chartreuse swim trunks; Jude Law (Oscar-nominated) makes a dazzlingly attractive Dickie, so gleaming and golden he might have been bathing in clarified butter; and Gwyneth Paltrow ratchets up film’s the suspense as Dickie's lover, Marge, slowly growing terrified as she begins to comprehend Ripley's character. (Cate Blanchett, in the small role of a gawky socialite, also figures in a decisive twist.)

Related: Jude Law Admits It Was 'Emotional' Watching New Ripley Series 25 Years After Starring in Movie: 'I'm Enjoying It'

But Minghella overplays the gay subtext, and ends up linking toxic homophobia with serial homicide: The film suggests that Ripley becomes a killer because society won’t allow him to live outside the closet. Highsmith, in fact, said that she didn’t think Ripley was gay, pointing out that in subsequent books—there are five in all—he’s married to a Frenchwoman. (In those novels, though, he seems to have become hardened against any sexual feeling at all.)

But Highsmith, who was herself gay, certainly threaded the original novel with homosexual tension, and she was fascinated by queer culture. “The homosexual," she wrote in her diaries, "is a higher type of man than other men. ” True!

Anyway, this film is the one to watch when you’re done with Netflix's Ripley .

Purple Noon / Plein Soleil (1960)

Directed by René Clément with a fine appreciation for the mordant humor implicit in The Talented Mr. Ripleys's ever-tightening noose of deceit and coincidence, Noon is probably the most sensual of any Highsmith adaptation.

The film is practically intoxicated by the Italian light and air, the blue skies and water and its Ripley is played by French star Alain Delon at his youthful peak: He’s so slender and handsome, with his exquisitely shaped nose and the smile of a fox seducing a row of hens, you can’t object too much if he decides to kill a few people.

(How did French cinema manage to produce two stars as gorgeous as Delon and Catherine Deneuve in the same generation?) Highsmith liked Delon's performance quite a lot but wasn’t crazy about the film’s tidy wrap-up.

Ripley's Game ( 2002)

Based on the third Ripley novel—the second one to feature the "mature" killer— Game stars John Malkovich, whose air of amused perversity and cold, condescending sophistication make him close to ideal in the role. This Ripley, who lives the high life on an Italian estate with a harpsichordist wife, is offended when a local art framer named Jonathan (Dougray Scott) insults him as being an American arriviste with bad taste.

In an odd but singularly cruel act of revenge, Ripley proposes to a mobster acquaintance (Ray Winstone) that he hire Jonathan to do a hit job in Berlin. Jonathan is dying of leukemia, after all, and probably needs the money. Poor Jonathan is soon in over his head, assigned to carry out a garroting execution in an express-train lavatory. This is a long, enjoyably gruesome sequence, with Ripley unexpectedly lending a hand and telling Jonathan: "Keep my watch, 'cause if it breaks, I'll kill everyone on this train."

The American Friend (1977)

One of the best films to come out of the movement known as the New German Cinema, Friend is another adaptation of Ripley’s Game. It's set largely in Hamburg, with a cowboy-hatted Dennis Hopper as a Ripley who sounds like a Beat Poet and Bruno Ganz (with his sad, romantic mustache) as the reluctant hitman.

Directed by Wim Wenders, Friend has a political edge that emphasizes Ripley’s American otherness—and his danger: He’s a corrosively powerful force promising prosperity and friendship but delivering death instead. Well, you’re free to ponder that interpretation—or not, because it's more likely you'll be swept along by the suspense. Highsmith, perhaps not surprisingly, wasn’t wild about Hopper’s hipster-devil performance.

Strangers on a Train (1951)

This Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece isn’t a Ripley film, but it’s a classic exercise in Ripleyan themes—identity obsession/appropriation, homoeroticism and violence as the irrational yet tactical solution to what might otherwise be insurmountable obstacles. Robert Walker is the silken but psychotic Bruno, who suggests to tennis player Guy (Farley Granger) that they swap murders—Bruno will kill Guy’s troublesome ex-lover, and Guy will kill Bruno’s rich, hostile father.

A closing note: Highsmith doesn't seem to have been over the moon about any of the Ripley adaptations that were released in her lifetime, but she also accepted that she had no control over directors, stars or studios. Her own personal favorite film was Gone With the Wind, starring Vivien Leigh as the Talented Scarlett O’Hara.

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Netflix Andrew Scott in Netflix's 'Ripley'

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What to Watch

‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’ (1999)

The best thing I watched in April 2024 was Ripley , writer/director Steve Zaillian’s stark, eerie, and throughly enveloping series adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel The Talented Mr. Ripley . Zaillian’s decision to film the series entirely in black-and-white is, as the kids say, a choice — a choice I applauded, but one that also left me wanting to see cities like Rome and Venice in their full, sun-dappled splendor. So I turned to Anthony Minghella’s 1999 film adaptation The Talented Mr. Ripley , which tells the same basic story in quite a different manner — and not just because it was filmed in color. In its favor, everyone here looks young and impossibly gorgeous in contrast to Netflix’s Ripley ; to wit, Matt Damon was 29 when the movie was released but barely looks 25, whereas Andrew Scott is a more world-weary 47 (but still super duper handsome, don’t get it twisted). To its detriment, this movie version features infinitely more jazz. Both are very worthy of your time, though, and now I’m looking forward to watching cinema’s other Ripley adaptations .

Where to Stream:

The talented mr. ripley, more recommendations, our guide to the best movies and tv shows streaming online, updated daily..

Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Google Play
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The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
The Talented Mr Ripley
Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith, Hardcover, 9780349006963
The Talented Mr. Ripley (Paperback)
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The Talented Mr. Ripley wiki, synopsis, reviews, watch and download

COMMENTS

The Talented Mr. Ripley (Ripley, #1)
January 20, 2022. (Book 495 from 1001 books) - The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith. The Talented Mr. Ripley is a 1955 psychological thriller novel by Patricia Highsmith. This novel introduced the character of Tom Ripley, who returns in four subsequent novels known collectively as the Ripliad.
Mr Ripley's great talent? Making us like a killer and his crimes
Making us like a killer and his crimes. The Reading group verdict is in: Patricia Highsmith's amoral protagonist in The Talented Mr Ripley offers a queasy kind of entertainment - and an ...
In 'The Talented Mr. Ripley,' a Shape-Shifting Protagonist Who's Up to
This essay is part of T's Book Club, a series of articles and events dedicated to classic works of American literature.Click here to R.S.V.P. to a virtual conversation about "The Talented Mr ...
THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY
RIPLEY | Kirkus Reviews. THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY. ....is a young man of no means, and expensive tastes, and his nerveless, conscienceless progression is traced from the time when Tom Ripley is sent to Italy to retrieve an expatriate son, Dickie Greenleaf. Ripley attaches himself to Dickie, is annoyed by the adhesive Marge who is in love with ...
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith (1956)
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith is a 1956 novel introducing Thomas Ripley, the sociopathic anti-hero who went on be the central character of four subsequent books. The five novels came to be known as "the Ripliad." The first installment was followed by Ripley Under Ground, Ripley's Game, The Boy Who Followed Ripley, and Ripley Under Water.
The Talented Mr Ripley
J.S. Monroe, Thriller and Crime Writer. "What I adore about the book is how brilliantly she explores the idea of moral grey areas and how the main character does things in a sort of neutral space—a psychopathic neutral space—and Highsmith writes this in a quite nonchalant way, while building this ongoing tension and horror.
Read the earliest reviews of The Talented Mr. Ripley, which turns 65
The Talented Mr. Ripley—Patricia Highsmith's iconic 1955 novel in which a struggling small-time con-man evolves into a full-blown psychopath—is widely considered to be one of the greatest psychological thrillers of all time (its stylish 1999 film adaptation is also a stone cold classic of the genre).It's been read as a coming-of-age tale, a forerunner of the era of imposture, and a ...
The Talented Mr. Ripley
The Talented Mr. Ripley is a 1955 psychological thriller novel by Patricia Highsmith.The novel introduced the character of Tom Ripley, who returns in four subsequent novels.It has been adapted numerous times for screen, including Purple Noon (1960) starring Alain Delon, The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) starring Matt Damon, and Ripley starring Andrew Scott (2024).
How 'The Talented Mr. Ripley' Foretold Our Era of Grifting
When "The Talented Mr. Ripley" was first published, a villain who never gets his comeuppance was still rare and transgressive in American literature. ... In early reviews of the book — which ...
The Talented Mr. Ripley
The Talented Mr. Ripley. Paperback - June 17, 2008. by Patricia Highsmith (Author) 4.3 6,817 ratings. Book 1 of 5: Ripley. See all formats and editions. 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 ...
Amazon.com: Customer reviews: The Talented Mr. Ripley
The 1999 movie version of "The Talented Mr. Ripley" helped restore her most famous novel to the spotlight, despite the uneven quality of the film itself. This 1955 book remains Highsmith's most stunning work, and it ranks high among classic noir literature and psychological studies.
'Ripley' vs. 'The Talented Mr. Ripley': The tiny change that makes a
In some ways, Ripley is ruthlessly aligned to Patricia Highsmith's beloved 1955 novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley.Writer/director Steven Zaillian uses the breadth of eight episodes to dive into the ...
How The Talented Mr. Ripley Differs From The Book
"The Talented Mr. Ripley," the psychological thriller starring Matt Damon as the titular Tom Ripley and directed by Anthony Minghella, has maintained its popularity since being released in 1999.
'Ripley': Netflix Show Vs. 'Talented Mr Ripley' Book Differences
Netflix's "Ripley" is an incredibly faithful adaptation of the novel "The Talented Mr Ripley" by acclaimed US author Patricia Highsmith, arguably hewing closest to the source material out of all ...
Quarantine Book Club: The Talented Mr. Ripley is the perfect escape
The Talented Mr. Ripley. novel and movie are the perfect escapist combination. The 1955 novel was adapted into a 1999 film with Jude Law and Matt Damon, and soon it'll be a Showtime series with ...
The Talented Mr. Ripley Study Guide
Patricia Highsmith was born in Texas and was raised between there and New York City. She is known the world over for her oft-adapted psychological thrillers and crime novels, one of the most famous of which is The Talented Mr. Ripley.A graduate of Barnard College, Highsmith began to gain recognition for her short stories in the early 1940s, and, in 1950, published her first novel, Strangers on ...
THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY
Ripley attaches himself to Dickie, is annoyed by the adhesive Marge who is in love with Dickie and wary of Tom, and finally when Dickie's friendship cools he kills him and assumes his identity. For several months he lives comfortably on Dickie's income, but a former friend jeopardizes his new security, and he is forced to kill again. ...
The Talented Mr. Ripley movie review (1999)
The Talented Mr. Ripley. Villains usually last through only one crime novel, while heroes are good for a whole series. That's a great inconvenience for their authors, because villains are usually more colorful than heroes. Patricia Highsmith's novels about Tom Ripley are the exception, a series of books about a man who is irredeemably bad, and ...
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Video Sponsored by Ridge Wallet: https://www.ridge.com/BETTERTHANFOODUse Code "BETTERTHANFOOD" for 10% off your orderBUY HERE:https://amzn.to/3IZlJBHSUPPORT ...
The Talented Mr. Ripley: Highsmith, Patricia ...
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 on a deadly passage across Europe.
Biblioracle on Netflix's 'Ripley' adaptation
I started the new Netflix series "Ripley" as a decided skeptic. The show's source material, "The Talented Mr. Ripley" by Patricia Highsmith, is one of my desert island books. The novel ...
Jude Law gives honest verdict on Netflix's The Talented Mr Ripley
The Talented Mr Ripley was released to rave reviews.It landed five Oscar nominations at the 2000 Academy Awards, including a Best Supporting Actor nod for Law. Ripley, too, which is streaming on ...
Netflix's 'Ripley' Really Takes Its Time
Yes, both Purple Noon and The Talented Mr. Ripley were quick to show the devolution of the main characters' relationship, but Ripley crafts a more complex depiction of Ripley's dynamic with ...
Review: Andrew Scott brings the chills in slow burn 'Ripley'
The culprit is 1999's "The Talented Mr. Ripley," the best known of the five films based on Patricia Highsmith's 1955 novel of the same name. ... Having moved up the book's time period from the ...
Obsessed with "Ripley"? Watch These Other Movies About the ...
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999). Director Anthony Minghella's film is possibly the most entertaining and thoughtful adaptation of the novel. Matt Damon is a sympathetic young Ripley, inching his ...
'The Talented Mr. Ripley' (1999)
The best thing I watched in April 2024 was Ripley, writer/director Steve Zaillian's stark, eerie, and throughly enveloping series adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's 1955 novel The Talented Mr ...

Mr Ripley's great talent? Making us like a killer and his crimes

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How The Talented Mr. Ripley Differs From The Book

Tom of the book is already a criminal

Tom is more of a sociopath in the book

Netflix's 'Ripley' makes some key changes from Patricia Highsmith's 'The Talented Mr Ripley.' Here's how the series and novel differ.

The show's time setting is changed from the 1950s to the early 1960s.

The characters at the center of the story have been aged up to suit better the actors playing them.

The characterization of Freddie Miles is markedly different in the adaptation.

The relationship between Dickie and Marge is more ambiguous in the book.

Reeves Minot's character does not appear until the second Ripley novel.

The series ends with Tom getting away with his crimes, but for a different reason.

Quarantine Book Club: Why The Talented Mr. Ripley novel and movie are the perfect escapist combination

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