The Talented Mr. Ripley

By: Patricia Highsmith

Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly

Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Since his debut in 1955, Tom Ripley has evolved into the ultimate bad boy sociopath, influencing countless novelists and filmmakers.

In this first novel, we are introduced to suave, handsome Tom Ripley: a young striver, newly arrived in the heady world of Manhattan in the 1950s. A product of a broken home, branded a "sissy" by his dismissive Aunt Dottie, Ripley becomes enamored of the moneyed world of his new friend, Dickie Greenleaf. This fondness turns obsessive when Ripley is sent to Italy to bring back his libertine pal, but he grows enraged by Dickie's ambivalent feelings for Marge, a charming American dilettante.

A dark reworking of Henry James's The Ambassadors, The Talented Mr. Ripley—immortalized in the 1998 film starring Matt Damon, Jude Law, and Gywneth Paltrow—is an unforgettable introduction to this debonair confidence man, whose talent for self-invention and calculated murder is chronicled in four subsequent novels.

©1955 Patricia Highsmith. Copyright renewed 1983 by Patricia Highsmith. (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"One of the great crime novels of the 20th century, Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley is a blend of the narrative subtlety of Henry James and the self-reflexive irony of Vladimir Nabokov. Like the best modernist fiction, Ripley works on two levels. First, it is the story of a young man, Tom Ripley, whose nihilistic tendencies lead him on a deadly passage across Europe. On another level, the novel is a commentary on fictionmaking and techniques of narrative persuasion. Like Humbert Humbert, Tom Ripley seduces readers into empathizing with him even as his actions defy all moral standards." (Amazon.com review)

"[Highsmith] has created a world of her own - a world claustrophobic and irrational which we enter each time with a sense of personal danger." (Graham Greene)

"One of our greatest modernist writers." (Gore Vidal)

Great audio mystery!

So pleased I decided to revisit Patricia Highsmith. Though I recalled bits of Ripley’s story, I still found myself listening after I’d parked my car!

The tension is almost unbearable!

Such a nerve-wracking but entertaining take of deceit set in a backdrop of American tourism in Europe. Creepy.

loved iy

cant believe that I only listened to it now. so excited to listen to the rest.

Setting the foundation for this series and others

I've read a lot of "criminal" protagonist novels but never about one that lives in the same reality as I do. Kevin Kenerly delivers a though provoking calm to the narrative. Looking forward to this series and other stories by Patricia Highsmith.

fun

sounds odd when talking about a sociopath but i really loved hearing this book years after reading. all the characters are so flawed and charming. for me, listening to the book was on par in terms of enjoyment as it was when i read it.

Good thriller

I loved the 90s movie and the new Netflix mini series drew me to read the book. Tom Ripley is a great character study. He comes off as a chameleon but he’s really a parasite.

Excellent story but fast narration

I like the story. It is even better than the film adaptation. But the narrator unnecessarily reads some parts very fast.

Entertaining story, nice prose and well performed!

This was much better than expected. Can't wait to read the rest of the series.

Excellent Story; Pitch Perfect Narration

This is an excellent story that’s been turned into at least three movie versions. Rarely is a psychopath able to get one’s sympathy (or at least a mix of sympathy and disdain) as Tom Ripley can. The narrator makes it an even better yarn.

A high-wire, high-risk, high-reward masterpiece

Highsmith is amazing. She alludes to Henry James, plays with a Nabokovian style, throws in James Cain's dialogue, and blends it all with a Camus-like modern existentialism. Face it, pretenders, The Talented Mr. Ripley is an amazing psychological crime novel. This is one of those books which should be used as evidence to highlight the case that some of the best literature of the 20th Century came out of genre fiction. The novel is high-wire, high-risk, high-reward masterpiece. It leaves me amazed the Cure didn't just write their existential anthem to Highsmith:

I can turn
And swim away
Or I can raise up my oar
Staring at a boat
Staring far ashore
Whichever I chose
It amounts to the same
Absolutely nothing.

I'm alive
I'm dead
I'm lying Tom Ripley
Killing a Signor.