In the first Ripley novel, we are introduced to the suave confidence man whose talent for murder and self-invention is chronicled in this and the four subsequent Ripley novels.

ABOUT THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY (1955)
Since his debut in 1955, Tom Ripley has evolved into the ultimate bad boy sociopath. Here, in the first Ripley novel, we are introduced to suave Tom Ripley, a young striver, newly arrived in the heady world of Manhattan. A product of a broken home, branded a “sissy” by his dismissive Aunt Dottie, Tom Ripley meets a wealthy industrialist who hires him to bring his playboy son, Dickie Greenleaf, back from gallivanting in Italy. Soon Ripley’s fascination with Dickie’s debonair lifestyle turns obsessive as he finds himself enraged by Dickie’s ambivalent affections for Marge, a charming American dilettante. A dark reworking of Henry James’s The Ambassadors, The Talented Mr. Ripley serves as an unforgettable introduction to this smooth confidence man, whose talent for murder and self-invention is chronicled in this and four subsequent Ripley novels.

THE FIRST SENTENCE
“Tom glanced behind him and saw the man coming out of the Green Cage, heading his way.” Keep reading The Talented Mr. Ripley.

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Michael Dirda, New York Review of Books, July 2009

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