Ripley’s Game was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1974 and is widely regarded as the finest of the five Ripley novels — tighter and more ruthlessly constructed than its predecessors, with a plot mechanism so elegant that it approaches the condition of a chess problem. It is the novel in which Highsmith most clearly demonstrates that Tom Ripley’s evil is not primarily about violence but about the corruption of others.
The Novel
The premise is diabolically simple. At a party, Jonathan Trevanny — an English picture framer living in the French village of Villeperce — makes a mildly disparaging remark about Tom Ripley. Tom, who never forgets a slight, devises his revenge not through direct confrontation but through a far more characteristic method: he will corrupt Jonathan morally, drawing him into a world of crime from which there is no return.
Tom learns that Jonathan has been diagnosed with a terminal blood disease. He also learns that Reeves Minot, a shady American fence, needs someone to carry out two Mafia hits in Hamburg and Munich. Tom suggests Jonathan for the job — reasoning that a dying man might accept the contract to provide for his wife and son after his death.
The brilliance of Highsmith’s construction is that Tom never directly approaches Jonathan. He works through intermediaries, suggestions, planted doubts. Jonathan arrives at the decision to kill apparently of his own volition — but the reader understands that every step has been engineered by Tom. It is manipulation as an art form.
Once Jonathan commits his first murder, the novel shifts register. The two men are drawn into a reluctant alliance, and something approaching friendship develops between them — Tom helping Jonathan dispose of bodies, cover tracks, and survive the Mafia’s retaliation. This friendship is the novel’s most disturbing element, because it demonstrates how complicity creates intimacy.
Moral Architecture
Ripley’s Game is Highsmith’s most sophisticated exploration of how evil propagates itself. Tom does not kill anyone in this novel (until the climactic confrontation). His role is more terrible than that — he is the tempter, the corrupter, the voice that whispers “you could do this” to a man who would never have imagined himself capable of murder.
Jonathan’s transformation from a gentle craftsman into a killer is rendered with excruciating psychological realism. Highsmith understands that the first transgression is the hardest, and that afterward a kind of momentum takes over. Jonathan’s horror at what he has done never entirely fades, but it coexists with a new sense of power and capability that is intoxicating.
The novel also complicates the reader’s relationship with Tom. In The Talented Mr. Ripley, Tom kills to survive. In Ripley Under Ground, he kills to protect his comfortable life. In Ripley’s Game, he corrupts for entertainment — because a man insulted him at a party. The escalation is chilling precisely because it is so disproportionate.
Publication History
The first edition was published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, in 1974. First printings are identified by:
- Knopf imprint and Borzoi Books colophon on title page
- “First Edition” stated on copyright page
- Complete number line on copyright page
- Price of $5.95 on dust jacket front flap
- Orange cloth binding with blind stamping
The UK edition was published by Heinemann (London, 1974), appearing nearly simultaneously with the American edition.
Adaptations
The novel has been adapted twice for film:
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Der amerikanische Freund (The American Friend, 1977), directed by Wim Wenders, starring Dennis Hopper as Ripley and Bruno Ganz as Jonathan. Wenders’s film transforms the material into something more existential and melancholic than Highsmith’s cool, clinical original, but it is widely regarded as a masterpiece in its own right.
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Ripley’s Game (2002), directed by Liliana Cavani, starring John Malkovich as Ripley and Dougray Scott as Jonathan. Malkovich’s performance captures Tom’s detached amusement more accurately than most screen Ripleys.
Collecting Ripley’s Game
First edition (Knopf, 1974): Fine copies in dust jacket bring $300–$700. The Knopf first edition is cleanly produced and relatively findable compared to the earlier Ripley titles, as Highsmith’s American reputation had grown by 1974.
UK first edition (Heinemann, 1974): $150–$350 for fine copies.
Signed copies: Scarce but somewhat more obtainable than signed copies of the first two Ripley novels, as Highsmith made occasional appearances in Europe during the 1970s. Signed firsts bring $1,000–$3,000.
The American Friend tie-in editions from 1977 are common and not particularly collected.
Ripley’s Game is considered the critical peak of the Ripley sequence by many readers and scholars, and fine first editions hold their value well within the Highsmith market. The complete run of five Ripley firsts in fine condition is the blue-chip Highsmith set.