Patricia Highsmith
Story Stream
The Multiple Mr. Ripleys July 16, 2024
I’ve been doing a re-reading/re-watching of The Talented Mr. Ripley family1 (please don’t make me say “franchise”), taking my vicarious Italian summer from Venice2 to Mongibello and Rome. Italy’s never been that high on my travel list, but this early...
Life in the Shadows April 29, 2024
“He [Tom Ripley] will always get away with it,” said Patricia Highsmith in an interview once. Tom Ripley—Highsmith’s most famous character, and the main protagonist of five of her novels—is a man, whom readers both love and hate. Through Highsmith’s ...
'Ripley' and the Art of the Cruel April 26, 2024
Patricia Highsmith’s novels have a long history in Hollywood. Her debut, Strangers on a Train, was adapted in 1951 by Hitchcock into a remarkable thriller about corruption among the wealthy and the weaknesses of aspiring to success, with D.C. in the ...
Is Tom Ripley Gay? April 18, 2024
Is Tom Ripley gay? For nearly 70 years, the answer has bedeviled readers of Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 thriller The Talented Mr. Ripley, the story of a diffident but ambitious young man who slides into and then brutally ends the life of a wealthy Amer...
Tom Ripley Continues to Fascinate April 17, 2024
For a total psychopath, Tom Ripley is remarkably popular. As we near the 25th anniversary of the acclaimed Oscar-nominated big screen adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's most infamous creation, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Netflix has released a striking ...
'The Talented Mr. Ripley' Is a Perfect Striver Gothic April 09, 2024
First, the bad news: Netflix’s new show Ripley, based on Patricia Highsmith’s immortal novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, is a snooze.It’s shot beautifully. Under the auspices of showrunner Steven Zaillian (the screenwriter for the movie Schindler’s List...
We Are All Tom Ripley April 08, 2024
Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel The Talented Mr Ripley pickpockets the plot of Henry James’s The Ambassadors (1903) and turns it into a detective thriller set in the early years of the Cold War. Oblivious shipping magnate Herbert Greenleaf taps the e...
Netflix’s Moody Fresh Take on Patricia Highsmith April 05, 2024
It’s an ebullient and passionate world of religious and artistic fervor and when Matt Damon’s Tom Ripley begins to kill to secure his place in that world, he does so with the improvisational flair of the Blue Note jazz albums he studied to help him a...
The Dark Heart of Patricia Highsmith April 04, 2024
In late October 1951, the 31-year-old author Patricia Highsmith travelled to Positano on the Amalfi Coast, attempting to escape from the complications of her life and career in the US. Her second novel, lesbian romance The Price of Salt – later filme...
