"The Talented Mr. Ripley" by Patricia Highsmith

The Talented Mr. Ripley introduces one of the most enduring characters in crime fiction: Tom Ripley, a narcissist and opportunist, he seeks wealth, success and respect – and will do anything to achieve his goals. His creator was the American author Patricia Highsmith, described as the “poet of apprehension” by British writer Graham Greene. Highsmith became famous for her psychological crime novels, which started with Strangers on a Train (1950).

DISTANT DREAM

Tom Ripley, twenty-five, is introduced as a small-time conman. Once an aspiring actor, he has lost his way in life. Success and happiness are a distant dream. However, when wealthy owner of a shipbuilding company Herbert Greenleaf asks for his help in persuading his son, Dickie, to come home, Tom senses an opportunity:

- “‘I don’t suppose you could possibly get a leave of absence from your present job, could you?’ 
Tom’s heart took a sudden leap. He put on an expression of reflection. It was a possibility. Something in him had smelt it out and leapt at it even before his brain. Present job: nil. He might have to leave town soon, anyway. He wanted to leave New York. 
‘I might,’ he said carefully…”

“Supongo que le resultaría imposible lograr un permiso allí donde trabaja actualmente, ¿verdad?
De pronto, el corazón de Tom dio un brinco. Fingió estar sumido en profundas reflexiones. Era una posibilidad. Por alguna razón, aun sin ser consciente de ello, lo había presentido. Su empleo actual y nada eran la misma cosa. Además, era muy probable que de todos modos tuviera que marcharse de la ciudad al cabo de poco tiempo. Necesitaba esfumarse de Nueva York.
–Tal vez– dijo sin comprometerse”.

LIFE OF LEISURE

In Italy, Tom finds young Dickie Greenleaf living a life of leisure. The novel fizzes with sexual tension as Tom works to win Dickie’s friendship and approval, fearing rejection, knowing that Dickie’s girlfriend, Marge, dislikes him. Returning from a failed trip to Cannes, Tom is in despair, fantasising:

- “Tom stared at Dickie’s closed eyelids. A crazy emotion of hate, of affection, of impatience and frustration was swelling in him, hampering his breathing. He wanted to kill Dickie. It was not the first time he had thought of it.”

“Clavó su mirada en los párpados de Dickie, sintiendo que en su interior hervía una mezcla de odio, afecto, impaciencia y frustración, impidiéndole respirar libremente. Sintió deseos de matar a Dickie. No era la primera vez que pensaba en ello”. 

impersonator

On a boat trip together, Tom brutally murders Dickie. He assumes his identity, using Dickie’s money and status as his own. He just needs to stay one step ahead of the police, and persuade Dickie’s friends and family of his innocence. Can he do it? “Risks were what made the whole thing fun,” thinks Tom, as he dresses in Dickie’s clothes, talks like him, walks like him, becomes Dickie, body and soul:  

-“It gave his existence a peculiar, delicious atmosphere of purity, like that, Tom thought, which a fine actor probably feels when he plays an important role on a stage with the conviction that the role he is playing could not be played better by anyone else. He was himself and yet not himself […] Now, from the moment when he got out of bed and went to brush his teeth, he was Dickie…”

“...ello sumergía su existencia en una atmósfera peculiar y deliciosa de pureza, igual que la que probablemente sentiría un gran actor al salir al escenario a interpretar un papel importante con la convicción de que nadie podía interpretarlo mejor que él. Era él mismo y, sin embargo, no lo era [...] Desde que se levantaba y entraba a cepillarse los dientes en el baño, él era Dickie”.

NO JUSTICE

Highsmith chose the title for her thriller carefully, noting that “it felt like Ripley was writing it.” This might explain how Tom manages to commit murder and fraud, and gets away with it. There is no justice, no remorse from Tom. And yet, somehow, we want him to escape, to succeed in life. That is the real achievement, and mystery, of this classic crime novel:  

- “Did the world always mete out just deserts? Had the world meted his out to him? He considered that he had been lucky beyond reason in escaping detection for two murders, lucky from the time he had assumed Dickie’s identity.”

“El mundo no siempre daba a cada cual su merecido. Él mismo era un buen ejemplo de ello. Se consideraba afortunado hasta extremos inimaginables por haber escapado sano y salvo pese a haber cometido dos asesinatos, afortunado desde el momento de adoptar la identidad de Dickie hasta entonces”.

Born in Texas and raised in New York, Highsmith moved to Europe in the early 1960s, eventually settling in Switzerland, where she died in 1995. During a career of almost five decades, she wrote some twenty novels and numerous short stories.

The character of Tom Ripley appeared in another four novels, which came to be known as the ‘Ripliad’. They ended in 1994 with Ripley Under Water, the fifth in the series. In 1960, the French director René Clément was the first to put Ripley on the screen. His film Plein Soleil was loosely based on Highsmith’s novel, with Alain Delon playing Ripley. In 1999, Anthony Minghella directed the Oscar-nominated film adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley. It starred Matt Damon as Ripley and Jude Law as Greenleaf.