⋙ Libro Free Talented MR Ripley Patricia Highsmith 9780099282877 Books

Talented MR Ripley Patricia Highsmith 9780099282877 Books

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Talented MR Ripley Patricia Highsmith 9780099282877 Books

Henry James's famous and difficult 1903 novel, "The Ambassadors" tells the story of Lambert Strether who travels to Europe at the behest of his fiance to persuade her son from a former marriage, Chad, to return to the United States. The climactic scene of "The Ambassadors" takes place in a small rowboat in the middle of a lake with the famous admonition to "Live all you can. It's a mistake not to."

Patricia Highsmith's 1955 novel, "The Talented Mr. Ripley" adopts many of James' themes in a modernist, noir story. The protagonist of the story, a young man in his mid-20's named Tom Ripley travels to Italy at the behest of a wealthy businessman, Greenleaf, to persuade his son Dickie Greenleaf to return from Mongibello,Italy to assume what the elder Greenleaf believes to be a life of responsibility in working for the family firm. Dickie has dreams of becoming a painter. With some reason, Dickie's father believes his son has little talent.

Thus far the story closely resembles its model in James, and Highsmith makes several references to the book of her predecessor. Dickey's life of leisure in Italy is somewhat appealingly described, although the young people are wealthy, and self-centered. The reader can sympathize with Dickie's desire to make his own way in life rather than return to the life his father envisions.

The parallels between the novels soon end, however, as Highsmith takes her own direction. Tom Ripley, the protagonist, and Greenleaf's "Ambassador" is a rootless, shifty young man who had known Dickie only casually some years before Greenleaf finds Tom in a bar and persuades him to undertake the mission. Tom is living in a run-down New York City apartment and working a fraudulent scheme posing as an I.R.S. agent collecting underpaid taxes. Tom has dreams of better things for himself, and seizes the unexpected opportunity to travel to Italy on an expense account and turn around his own life.

Tom finds Dickie and his girlfriend Marge. The two young men become friends, at first, as Tom reveals that he is acting on behalf of Dickie's father. The young woman complicates the situation. She loves Dickie, but he is cool towards her. Marge and Tom become jealous of the other. There is more than a hint of latent homosexuality in both young men. After a lengthy stage-setting interlude Tom brutally murders Dickie on a small rented boat in the middle of a lake. (This makes a sharply ironic twist on the climactic moment in "The Ambassadors".) Tom then assumes Dickie's identity and soon commits another murder of an American friend in fear that his cover is about to be blown.

The story develops as Tom assumes the identity of Dickie Greenleaf before passing back to Tom Ripley again. The story builds in tension as Tom attempts to evade the Italian police, Marge, Mr. Greenleaf, and a private detective. Dickie Greenleaf (in the person of Tom) is suspected of the two murders, and when Tom switches back to himself, he is in serious danger of being found out. Tom/Dickie is clever and becomes increasingly suave and urbane. He learns to keep his head. For all his brutality and psychopathic character, I was almost rooting for Tom at times. Violence in this book wears a light veneer.

This is a distinctively American noir novel set primarily in Italy. The European setting gives the book a cosmopolitan feel. The story of double identity and uncertain sexual orientation give the book a modernist tone. The book is the first of a series of novels by Highsmith involving Tom Ripley. The character has also inspired a series of movies. This was my first exposure to Highsmith or to Ripley. I read the book as part of an exploration of American noir. With its setting and suavity, the book has an individual character and shows the flexibility of American noir writing. The novel is available in a single edition or as part of a Library of America volume Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s: The Killer Inside Me / The Talented Mr. Ripley / Pick-up / Down There / The Real Cool Killers (Library of America) (Vol 2) devoted to American noir of the 1950s.

Robin Friedman


Tags : Talented MR Ripley [Patricia Highsmith] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Tom Ripley is struggling to stay one step ahead of his creditors and the law, when an unexpected acquaintance offers him a free trip to Europe and a chance to start over. Ripley wants money,Patricia Highsmith,Talented MR Ripley,VintageEbury (a Division of Random,0099282879,Classic fiction,Fiction - General,Mystery & Detective - General,Thrillers,MysterySuspense

Talented MR Ripley Patricia Highsmith 9780099282877 Books Reviews

This is a pretty enjoyable book.I decided to read after rewatching the 1999 movie recently when it was on HBO. I haven't read anything by Patricia Highsmith before, so I don't know if this is overall typical of her style but it is kind of an eccentric read - like reading a murder mystery totally from the POV of the criminal who is completely honest and unrepentant to the reader. It was a bit drier than the movie in tone and the other characters are much less fleshed out and only exist through Ripley's perspective on them. I don't want to give too many spoilers for those unfamiliar with the book and movie, but Tom Ripley is a very odd character and it is his POV throughout the story. At times sharply observant and other times careless, sometimes conscientious but other times coldly homicidal, Tom Ripley the con man both charms and creeps people out throughout the novel. The writing is deceptively simple and tells the story with a quickness in pace and clarity that is admirable. The novel moved quickly and kept me interested throughout, even though I knew a lot of what would happen based on the movie. I am not sure I would have liked it so much if I hadn't watched the movie first though, as part of the fun was comparing the differences between the two. I have a lot of thoughts on Tom's sexuality (or lack thereof?) and how it was portrayed in the book vs movie and how differently that might happen today if the book was written again, but that is too complicated and time-requiring for an book review.
I doubt that I will ever like another antiheroe as much as Tom Ripley. Maybe Dorian Gray? Almost.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Despite these minor flaws, this is one of my favorite novels by the talented Ms. Highsmith, who is also one of my favorite writers.
Henry James's famous and difficult 1903 novel, "The Ambassadors" tells the story of Lambert Strether who travels to Europe at the behest of his fiance to persuade her son from a former marriage, Chad, to return to the United States. The climactic scene of "The Ambassadors" takes place in a small rowboat in the middle of a lake with the famous admonition to "Live all you can. It's a mistake not to."

Patricia Highsmith's 1955 novel, "The Talented Mr. Ripley" adopts many of James' themes in a modernist, noir story. The protagonist of the story, a young man in his mid-20's named Tom Ripley travels to Italy at the behest of a wealthy businessman, Greenleaf, to persuade his son Dickie Greenleaf to return from Mongibello,Italy to assume what the elder Greenleaf believes to be a life of responsibility in working for the family firm. Dickie has dreams of becoming a painter. With some reason, Dickie's father believes his son has little talent.

Thus far the story closely resembles its model in James, and Highsmith makes several references to the book of her predecessor. Dickey's life of leisure in Italy is somewhat appealingly described, although the young people are wealthy, and self-centered. The reader can sympathize with Dickie's desire to make his own way in life rather than return to the life his father envisions.

The parallels between the novels soon end, however, as Highsmith takes her own direction. Tom Ripley, the protagonist, and Greenleaf's "Ambassador" is a rootless, shifty young man who had known Dickie only casually some years before Greenleaf finds Tom in a bar and persuades him to undertake the mission. Tom is living in a run-down New York City apartment and working a fraudulent scheme posing as an I.R.S. agent collecting underpaid taxes. Tom has dreams of better things for himself, and seizes the unexpected opportunity to travel to Italy on an expense account and turn around his own life.

Tom finds Dickie and his girlfriend Marge. The two young men become friends, at first, as Tom reveals that he is acting on behalf of Dickie's father. The young woman complicates the situation. She loves Dickie, but he is cool towards her. Marge and Tom become jealous of the other. There is more than a hint of latent homosexuality in both young men. After a lengthy stage-setting interlude Tom brutally murders Dickie on a small rented boat in the middle of a lake. (This makes a sharply ironic twist on the climactic moment in "The Ambassadors".) Tom then assumes Dickie's identity and soon commits another murder of an American friend in fear that his cover is about to be blown.

The story develops as Tom assumes the identity of Dickie Greenleaf before passing back to Tom Ripley again. The story builds in tension as Tom attempts to evade the Italian police, Marge, Mr. Greenleaf, and a private detective. Dickie Greenleaf (in the person of Tom) is suspected of the two murders, and when Tom switches back to himself, he is in serious danger of being found out. Tom/Dickie is clever and becomes increasingly suave and urbane. He learns to keep his head. For all his brutality and psychopathic character, I was almost rooting for Tom at times. Violence in this book wears a light veneer.

This is a distinctively American noir novel set primarily in Italy. The European setting gives the book a cosmopolitan feel. The story of double identity and uncertain sexual orientation give the book a modernist tone. The book is the first of a series of novels by Highsmith involving Tom Ripley. The character has also inspired a series of movies. This was my first exposure to Highsmith or to Ripley. I read the book as part of an exploration of American noir. With its setting and suavity, the book has an individual character and shows the flexibility of American noir writing. The novel is available in a single edition or as part of a Library of America volume Crime Novels American Noir of the 1950s The Killer Inside Me / The Talented Mr. Ripley / Pick-up / Down There / The Real Cool Killers (Library of America) (Vol 2) devoted to American noir of the 1950s.

Robin Friedman