Author biography
Highsmith [ˈhī-ˌsmith], Patricia, original name Mary Patricia Plangman [ˈplaŋ-mən] b. Jan. 19, 1921, Fort Worth, Tex., U.S.—died Feb. 4, 1995, Locarno, Switz.
American novelist and short-story writer who was best known for her psychological thrillers in which she delved into the nature of guilt, innocence, goodness, and evil.
Highsmith graduated from Barnard College in 1942. In 1950 she published Strangers on a Train, an intriguing story of two men, one ostensibly good and the other ostensibly evil, who undergo character reversals. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) was the first of several books featuring the adventures of a likeable murderer, Tom RIPLEY, who takes on the identities of his victims. Ripley also appears in Ripley Under Ground (1970), Ripley's Game (1974), The Boy Who Followed Ripley (1980), and Ripley Under Water (1991). Highsmith's collections of short stories include The Black House (1981) and Tales of Natural and Unnatural Catastrophes (1987).
In her Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction (1966; revised and enlarged 1981), Highsmith held that “art has nothing to do with morality, convention or moralizing.”
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Beautiful Shadow : the life of Patricia Highsmith -- is a full-length 2003 biography by Andrew Wilson
Talented Miss Highsmith -- is a 2009 full-length biography by Joan Schenkar
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Additional Biographical Information can be found at Contemporary Authors Online
Criticism, Reviews and more
Discussion questions
1. How does the time period effect the way the book was written?
2.How does The Talented Mr. Ripley make a comment on class?
3.In what way does the author explain Tom's development from petty criminal to cold blooded murder?
4.What does Patricia Highsmith want to teach us from Mr. Ripley sustaining a false identity and lying to his friends and to himself?
5.How is The American Dream presented in The Talented Mr Ripley?
6.Why did Mr Ripley deceive others and himself about his identity?
7.When he has dinner with the Greenleafs in New York, Tom promises them he will do everything he can to convince Dickie Greenleaf to return to the U.S. Does Tom keep his promise?
8. What are some of the factors that made Tom's childhood difficult? In your opinion, do they justify Tom's criminal acts as an adult?
9.Is Tom Ripley genuinely interested in other people, or does he just use them?
10.What is Tom Ripley's attitude towards men? Is he sexually attracted to women?
11. How are Dickie Greenleaf and Tom Ripley's relationships with Marge Sherwood different?
12. After Tom kills Freddie Miles and Dickie Greenleaf, is he wracked with guilt and remorse?
13. Why are Dickie Greenleaf's rings so important to Tom? Why does he keep them, even though he knows it is dangerous to have any of Dickie's possessions with him?
Interview with Patricia Highsmith
Plot Overview
Novels for Students presents a thorough outline of the plot and characters broken down by chapers. Essential reading for deep understanding of this title.
Patricia Highsmith on film
Other titles by Patricia Highsmith
Suave, agreeable, and completely amoral, Patricia Highsmith's hero, the inimitable Tom Ripley, stops at nothing--not even murder-- to accomplish his goals. In achieving for himself the opulent life that he was denied as a child, Ripley shows himself to be a master of illusion and manipulation and a disturbingly sympathetic combination of genius and psychopath. As Highsmith navigates the mesmerizing tangle of Ripley's deadly and sinister games, she turns the mystery genre inside out and takes us into the mind of a man utterly indifferent to evil.
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