“Ripley’s Reviews” is an ongoing series where I will review every book in Patricia Highsmith’s “Ripley” Series, as well as multiple screen adaptations of the novels. I will post my reviews on the first Thursday of the month, and delve into the twisted mind of one Tom Ripley and all the various interpretations that he has come to life within.
I remember when I was a teenager my family took a trip to California to visit relatives for Spring Break. It was around the time that the film “The Talented Mr. Ripley” had come out, and while I hadn’t seen it yet, the concept intrigued me enough that I got myself a copy of the book specifically for that trip. I have memories of reading it on the beach whilst staying in a house that our families had rented in the small tourist town of Capitola, and how enthralled I was by the story of a man slowly usurping another man’s identity and the murder and intrigue that went along with it. Recently, Netflix put together a new adaptation of the original novel called “Ripley”, which stars Andrew Scott as the sociopathic chameleon, and when that dropped I had an idea: not only was I going to revisit the original story, I was also going to read the whole series. AND watch as many adaptations as I could find. Thus, the “Ripley’s Reviews” series came to be.
Patricia Highsmith: The Creator
Patricia Highsmith is the author of the “Tom Ripley” series, whose works have been adapted over the years with not only “The Talented Mr. Ripley” and all of those forays, but also with the movie “Carol” which is based on her book “The Price of Salt”, and “Strangers on a Train”, one of Alfred Hitchco*ck’s earlier films. She was born in Texas in 1921, was abandoned by her mother and stepfather to live with her grandmother, and went to Barnard College, which was also when she started submitting her stories to various publications. She struggled with alcoholism, self loathing (as she was a queer woman living with internalized hom*ophobia), and wasn’t exactly known as a genial or well liked person. But she was highly regarded as a very talented writer, and with the successes of “Strangers on a Train” and “The Price of Salt” she made her mark in the writing world. And then in 1955 she wrote “The Talented Mr. Ripley”, which became her arguably most well known work, as well as a character that had unsettling parallels to her own psyche. Her whole point was to make her readers root for a villain, and thus Tom Ripley was born.
Tom Ripley: The Impact
Tom Ripley is the main character in Highsmith’s “Tom Ripley” series, which she liked to call “The Ripliad”. His first appearance was in the aforementioned first book in the series “The Talented Mr. Ripley”, and was followed with four more books: “Ripley Underground”, “Ripley’s Game”, “The Boy Who Followed Ripley”, and “Ripley Under Water”. Tom Ripley is a con artist, who can seamlessly insert himself into unsuspecting people’s lives and slowly take them over. The first book in the series, and the most well known by the public, has Ripley starting his ‘adventures’ when he is hired by the wealthy Herbert Greenleaf to retrieve his cad of a son Dickie from an extended holiday in Italy, as Tom and Dickie once ran in a similar circle.
Once there, Tom becomes obsessed not only with Dickie, but also with the life of opulence and privilege he is living. Tom Ripley is a devious antihero who does despicable acts, but is one of those characters that is so fascinating to follow BECAUSE of how despicable they are. Recent character sensations who fit this mold are absolutely Joe Goldberg from “You” (both series by Caroline Kepnes and Netflix show), as well as Oliver from “Saltburn”, who obsess, covet, and kill all while the audience feels scandalized and enthralled. His impact on the Thriller genre is huge, and he was also one of those characters that felt completely real and in control of the narrative to the woman who created him.
Adaptations: Ripley and Beyond
“Ripley” is the newest adaptation of “The Talented Mr. Ripley”, but Andrew Scott is obviously not the first to step into the shoes of this malicious yet ever so intriguing imposter murderer. Matt Damon played him in 1999, which is very well known. But the adaptations don’t start there. In 1960 the French director René Clément made the film “Plein Soleil” (“Purple Noon” in English), starring Alain Delon as Ripley. And even more interesting to me, DENNIS HOPPER of all people played him in the 1977 film “The American Friend” which adapts the third book in the series “Ripley’s Game” for the screen. Which was then adapted again in 2002 starring John Malkovich as Ripley. It will be entirely dependent on how many of these films I can actually find, but I intend to watch and review as many of them as possible, as well as the Netflix series.
I am quite excited to jump back into the world of Tom Ripley and to go fully into the series instead of stopping at the first. My review for “The Talented Mr. Ripley” will go up in a week from now, and I invite you all to follow me on this journey into the stories of one of the most enduring thriller villains, and antiheroes, of the genre. I hope that you will join me as I jump into what will surely be a strange, disturbing, but really fun adventure as I go into the many worlds of Tom Ripley! -KATE
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