The Talented Mr. Ripley was published by Coward-McCann, New York, in December 1955, in a first printing of approximately 5,000 copies priced at $3.50. The novel introduced Tom Ripley, who would become Highsmith’s most enduring creation — the subject of five novels spanning four decades. Ripley is a psychopath, a murderer, and a con artist, and Highsmith makes the reader root for him. The moral vertigo this produces is the novel’s defining achievement.
The Novel
Tom Ripley is a young man in New York, scraping by on petty cons and small frauds. Herbert Greenleaf, a wealthy shipbuilder, hires Tom to travel to Italy and persuade his son Dickie to come home and join the family business. Tom arrives in the fictional town of Mongibello on the Italian coast and insinuates himself into Dickie’s golden life: the sun, the boats, the casual wealth, the beautiful girlfriend Marge.
Tom falls in love with Dickie — or with Dickie’s life; Highsmith keeps the distinction deliberately ambiguous. When Dickie tires of him and tries to distance himself, Tom murders him on a boat near San Remo, dumps the body in the sea, and assumes Dickie’s identity. He forges letters, moves to Rome, lives on Dickie’s income, and successfully impersonates him for months. When Dickie’s friend Freddie Miles becomes suspicious, Tom murders him too. The police investigate. Tom evades detection. He inherits Dickie’s trust fund. He gets away with everything.
The novel’s central scandal is that the reader wants Tom to succeed. Highsmith achieves this through a remarkable narrative strategy: she places the reader inside Tom’s consciousness, shares his anxieties, and makes his survival feel like the reader’s survival. By the time Tom kills Dickie, the reader has invested so completely in Tom’s perspective that the murder feels not like a crime but like a necessity.
The Ripley Series
Highsmith returned to Ripley in four sequels: Ripley Under Ground (1970), Ripley’s Game (1974), The Boy Who Followed Ripley (1980), and Ripley Under Water (1991). In each, Ripley is older, wealthier, more settled — living in a French villa called Belle Ombre, married to a socialite named Heloise — and still capable of murder when his comfort is threatened. The sequels darken the comedy: Ripley becomes less charming and more chilling as his impunity accumulates.
Collecting The Talented Mr. Ripley
First edition (1955, Coward-McCann): Approximately 5,000 copies, $3.50.
Identification points:
- Coward-McCann imprint
- First printing stated
- Red cloth binding
- Dust jacket with Italian coastal scene
Approximate market values:
- Fine/Fine in dust jacket: $8,000–$25,000
- Near Fine/Very Good jacket: $4,000–$12,000
- Signed first edition: $15,000–$40,000+
- Without jacket: $400–$1,200
Value trajectory: Excellent appreciation, driven by the 1999 Minghella film (Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow) and by Highsmith’s broader critical rehabilitation. The novel is now canonical — taught in literature departments, studied by scholars of crime fiction and of queer literature. Signed copies are rare and extremely valuable. The Coward-McCann first edition is scarce in any condition; fine copies in jacket are trophy items.
Is Tom Ripley Gay?
The question has preoccupied critics since 1955. Tom’s feelings for Dickie have an erotic intensity that is unmistakable, and the murder can be read as the act of a rejected lover. Highsmith, who was herself a lesbian (she published The Price of Salt pseudonymously in 1952), resisted the label — she said Tom was “not gay” but “has a component of homosexuality in him.” The Minghella film makes Tom’s desire for Dickie explicit; Highsmith’s novel keeps it at the level of implication. The ambiguity is part of the novel’s power: Tom’s desire is unfixable, directed less at Dickie’s body than at Dickie’s entire existence.