Selected Stories of Patrica Highsmith
by Patricia Highsmith
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In a cruel twist of irony, Texas-born Patricia Highsmith is only now, six years after her death, being recognized for her inestimable genius in her native land. With the savage humor of Evelyn Waugh and the macabre sensibility of Edgar Allan Poe, she brought a distinct twentieth-century acuity to her prolific body of noir fiction. Called "the poet of apprehension" by Graham Greene, Highsmith was unrivaled in capturing the ways in which our seemingly benign neighbors can become the show more psychopaths next door. Now, five of her classic short story collections are combined in a single volume, The selected stories of Patricia Highsmith, with a foreword by Graham Greene. show lessTags
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Of use to me only for the first section, a collection of stories about 'murderous' animals, including a rat, camel, elephant, dog, cat, and perhaps a tapeworm of some sort. Oddly, the animals seem to share her prejudices, all which are multiple and at best embarrassing: against Italians, 'natives,' and so forth.
Otherwise, I just don't get the fascination w/ her. If John Cheever--or Kingsley Amis-had a stupider younger sibling who thought a fascination w/ violence and mere cleverness substituted for insight, this is what would be produced. Better fictional explorations of evil (or demonic evil, i.e., evil w/out a goal) can be found in Pär Lagerkvist's The Dwarf, and a better exploration of obsession and misanthropy can be found in Evan show more S. Connell's Diary of a Rapist. show less
Otherwise, I just don't get the fascination w/ her. If John Cheever--or Kingsley Amis-had a stupider younger sibling who thought a fascination w/ violence and mere cleverness substituted for insight, this is what would be produced. Better fictional explorations of evil (or demonic evil, i.e., evil w/out a goal) can be found in Pär Lagerkvist's The Dwarf, and a better exploration of obsession and misanthropy can be found in Evan show more S. Connell's Diary of a Rapist. show less
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301+ Works 32,929 Members
Patricia Highsmith wrote twenty-one novels including "Strangers on a Train" & the "Ripley" series. She died in 1995 in Switzerland, where she resided much of her life. (Publisher Provided) Patricia Highsmith (January 19, 1921 -- February 4, 1995) was an American novelist and short story writer, most widely known for her psychological thrillers, show more which led to more than two dozen film adaptations. She was born in Fort Worth, Texas. Highsmith grew up with her maternal grandmother in Astoria, Queens, and attended Barnard College. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train (1950), was adapted for stage and screen numerous times, notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951. In addition to her acclaimed series about murderer Tom Ripley, which was made into a film in 1955, she wrote many short stories, often macabre, satirical or tinged with black humor. Highsmith liked to examine the ways in which people can get to the point where they are capable of murder, as well as who they become after they have committed a crime. In carefully constructed stories and novels, she integrated this scrutiny of the human psyche into complex plots that often took unexpected twists. In Strangers on a Train, architect Guy Haines meets Charles Bruno on a train. Bruno conceives a plan to have Haines kill Bruno's father, while Bruno will kill Haines's wife. The effect that this plan has on Haines is the focus of the story. Highsmith's awards include: O. Henry Award for best publication of first story, for "The Heroine" in Harper's Bazaar (1946), Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, for The Talented Mr. Ripley (1957), and the Dagger Award -- Category Best Foreign Novel, for The Two Faces of January from the Crime Writers' Association of Great Britain (1964). Highsmith died of aplastic anemia and cancer in Locarno, Switzerland, at age 74. Her last novel, Small G: A Summer Idyll, was published one month after her death in 1995. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Canonical title
- Selected Stories of Patrica Highsmith
- Alternate titles
- Selected Stories of Patrica Highsmith
- Original publication date
- 2001
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- 361
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- 87,189
- Reviews
- 1
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- (4.09)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 2
- ASINs
- 2
