A breathtaking dive into the mind of a sociopath, narrated by an actor who conveyed all the duplicity of his personality, to the point that you feel how he is a opaque to himself in a way, and aren't we all? Aren't we all in loathing of ourselves at some stage, willing to do everything to escape the boundaries of our socio-economic, personal, even interior identity?
In this sense, the literary ancestors of Tom Ripley are Mme Bovary, with her eternal, puerile dissatisfaction, and Mattia Pascal, with his futile attempt at escaping identity as a mean to conquer freedom.
However, mr Ripley leaves the parental nest quite early, ever the daring Young American White Male. His Bouvaristic pining for a life of luxury and affluence doesn't stop at second-hand enjoyments. He (or better his subconscious and his conscious rationalisations of murderous instincts) takes matters in his hands and becomes the protagonist of his fantasies in real life, no matter the price for others. Will he fall again into the throws of dissatisfaction that destroyed his literary mother? The novel leaves it to us to decide. Ok, yes, I know, there are sequels in which Ripley enjoys his wealth and position without qualms, but honestly, that guy is a pale ghost of the gloriously maladaptive social climber of the first novel.
In the light of the sequels, it is not surprising at all that this guy became the archetype of the charming psychopathic villain, although the role doesn't do the Ripley of this first novel any justice. The psychology here is too chiselled and alive, for a mono-dimensional Stavlo Blofeld in the making.

SMALL SPOILERS AHEAD

The only dated element is the facility with which a superficial disguise allows him not to be recognised by the same inspector under two different identities. Indeed, the movie with Matt Damon changed this detail, in an anxiety-driven scene where the feared meeting at the Venice police station is defused by the arrival of a different inspector than Ripley expected.

END OF SPOILER

This said, I am available to give this novel all the suspension of disbelief I am capable of. The portrait is too deliciously believable to condemn it because of secondary blunders like this, also because they don't influence the character's arc at all.
All in all, there is a lot that I am available to forgive Patricia Highsmith for, in the light of her superb characters. ( )

I came into the book with little or no expectations - I hadn't seen the movie adaptations, and the only thing I thought I knew about the book was that Ripley was a conman. While that was true, otherwise I was completely surprised. I got hints of Ripley's mental illness right away - how he became very uncomfortable with Dickie's father - and how could he not be affected in some way by how his Aunt Dottie treated him. I felt the same stress Tom did as he thought everything was closing in on him. Very well done. ( )

Reread after many years to check the differences between the book and the 2024 TV series—both excellent. Wondering what the reception of this utterly amoral book was in 1955; today we have cheerful psychopath heroes threaded through our culture so this isn't such a novelty. I'm taking half a star off for the terrible cover, which so misrepresents the tone of the book (mannered, precise, elegant, very concerned with beautiful things). ( )

Clever plotting for the amoral and misanthropic Tom Ripley to manoeuvre amidst the high class, or at least rich, expat society of well-to-do Americans in Italy. Finding themselves, living well and dabbling in culture, they maintain an enviable lifestyle that Highsmith depicts in memorable detail. Tom does envy them - he’s brimful with resentments - but he finds a way in, thanks to his “talents”, and likewise to the author’s skill in intricate, but not quite veering into the ludicrous, plotting. The 1999 film (by Anthony Minghella) is very good, in some ways better than the book, but this is still well worth a read. ( )

The Mysterious Yearning Secretive Sad Lonely Troubled Confused Loving Musical Gifted Intelligent Beautiful Tender Sensitive Haunted Passionate Talented Mr. Ripley*
Review of the Audible Studios audiobook edition (January 24, 2012) narrated by Kevin Kenerly, of the original Coward McCann hardcover (November 30, 1955).

This was the end of Dickie Greenleaf, he knew. He hated becoming Thomas Ripley again, hated being nobody, hated putting on his old set of habits again, and feeling that people looked down on him and were bored with him unless he put on an act for them like a clown, feeling incompetent and incapable of doing anything with himself except entertaining people for minutes at a time. He hated going back to himself...

This was a re-read in anticipation of the 2024 TV mini-series adaptation coming to Netflix in April 2024. I've read this book several times in my pre-reviewing days and of course a lot of the suspense is lost on a re-read, especially that of the first time, when you don't know if Tom Ripley will actually be able to pull off the impersonation and assumption of the life of Dickie Greenleaf. The young grifter has only done small time mail fraud and petty theft in the past when he suddenly lands an opportunity to try to convince a rich man's son to return home to America to take over the family business. Landing in Italy, he begins to covet his target's lifestyle and finally acts on his impulses.

See cover at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/13/The_Talented_Mr._Ripley_Cover.jpg
The front cover of the original Coward McCann hardcover (1955). Image sourced from Wikipedia.

Despite her breakthrough success with Strangers on a Train (1950) and her queer-positive The Price of Salt, or Carol (1952), Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley has always been my favourite of her books. The insidious way she turns your initial adverse reactions to the character into a gradual increasing wish for the sociopath's success in his deceptions is masterful. It of course helps that his victims are not all that sympathetic to begin with.

Footnote
* Some of the promos for the 1999 film version flashed / scrolled through this extended title towards the end of the trailer, an example of which you can see here.

Soundtrack
It is not something out of the book, but the infectious performance of "Tu Vuò Fa' L'Americano" (You're Acting All American) from the 1999 film adaptation is a delight. See an edited version of the 1999 film segment here and see an original 1959 performance of the song here. Both videos include the Italian lyrics and an English translation in the description texts.

Trivia and Links
The latest adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley will be the Ripley TV series on Netflix starring Andrew Scott as Tom Ripley. The early teaser trailer does not give any details about the plot, so it is hard to say how faithful it will be to the original. Pro-tip: Note the John Malkovich cameo at 0:24 "I like the name". Malkovich himself played Tom Ripley in Ripley's Game (2002) which adapted Ripley's Game (Ripley #3 - 1974).

See poster at https://cdn01.justjared.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/ripley-trailer/ripley-tea...
Promotional poster for the 2024 TV mini-series adaptation.

The previous adaptations are too numerous to list here, but you can see them listed at Wikipedia. ( )