Ripley Under Water

by Patricia Highsmith

Overview

"Ripley is an unmistakable descendant of Gatsby, that 'penniless young man without a past' who will stop at nothing." —Frank Rich

Now part of American film and literary lore, Tom Ripley, "a bisexual psychopath and art forger who murders without remorse when his comforts are threatened" (New York Times Book Review), was Patricia Highsmith's favorite creation. In these volumes, we find Ripley ensconced on a French estate with a wealthy wife, a world-class art collection, and a past to hide. In Ripley Under Ground (1970), an art forgery goes awry and Ripley is threatened with exposure; in The Boy Who Followed Ripley (1980), Highsmith explores Ripley's bizarrely paternal relationship with a troubled young runaway, whose abduction draws them into Berlin's seamy underworld; and in Ripley Under Water (1991), Ripley is confronted by a snooping American couple obsessed with the disappearance of an art collector who visited Ripley years before. More than any other American literary character, Ripley provides "a lens to peer into the sinister machinations of human behavior" (John Freeman, Pittsburgh Gazette).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393333190
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	09/17/2008
Series:	Mr. Ripley Series , #5
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	51,967
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Patricia Highsmith (1921–1995) was the author of more than twenty novels, including Strangers on a Train, The Price of Salt and The Talented Mr. Ripley, as well as numerous short stories.

Date of Birth:

January 19, 1921

Date of Death:

February 4, 1995

Place of Birth:

Fort Worth, Texas

Place of Death:

Locarno, Switzerland

Education:

B.A., Barnard College, 1942

Editorial Reviews

"If you are entering a troubling period in your life, read Highsmith. Her fictions are a field in which one’s anxieties can play, so use them to channel your concerns and worries. All will become quiescent and restful. Or perhaps not."

Compulsive Reader - Paul Kane

"Tom remains such a wickedly attractive figure that it's always a treat to pass a few hours in his company. After all, he's been called the most charismatic psychopath in modern literature."

New York Review of Books - Michael Dirda

This is the least good of the Ripley books, one in which the distinctly undramatic climax suggests that Patricia Highsmith is no longer much involved with her criminal creation. -- New York Times

Julian Symond

With the chilling, knife-edged subtlety that is her trademark, Highsmith ( Strangers on a Train ; Ripley's Game ) details the civilized life pursued by her sociopath hero Tom Ripley, who here makes his fifth appearance and his first in a dozen years. Now living in the French countryside with his wife, Heloise, Ripley is bothered by an obnoxious American couple who have rented a house nearby and who seem bent on exploring incidents in Ripley's past. With no apparent personal motive, David Pritchard and his wife Janice refer to an American art dealer named Murchison who mysteriously disappeared some years ago after visiting Ripley. Ripley, who had murdered Murchison to prevent the exposure of an art forgery scheme and then dumped his body in a nearby canal, grows increasingly anxious and angry as Pritchard continues to harass him and begins dredging the local canals. Highsmith leads up to her resolution as unsensationally and evenhandedly as she describes Ripley's ordinary days spent tending his dahlias, practicing Schubert on the harpsichord, relishing his meals and looking out tenderly for Heloise and their housekeeper. The perfect gentleman, he is civil, considerate, utterly well mannered--and deadly. Highsmith will make readers look closer at their neighbors, and at themselves. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Not many mysteries feature a murderer as a protagonist, but Highsmith's popular series featuring the cultivated psychopath Tom Ripley (e.g., The Talented Mr. Ripley, Audio Reviews, LJ 4/1/91) is an exception. In this sortie, Ripley is quietly enjoying his lovely home in the French countryside when it appears his past may be catching up with him. He receives a phone call ostensibly from someone he knows he murdered; and then there are those creepy new neighbors who have ties to some of Ripley's enemies. Well written and charming, this unabridged audiobook is likely to please public library patrons. One caveat: since this is a British production, narrator Geoffrey Matthews must spend much time affecting American accents for Ripley and his nemesis, which may turn off some listeners.-Reilly Reagan, Putnam Cty. Lib., Cookeville, Tenn.

Library Journal