The Talented Mr. Ripley.

HIGHSMITH, Patricia.

Item Number: 114532

New York: Coward-McCann, 1955.

First edition of the author’s first book in her acclaimed Ripley series. Octavo, original black cloth. Signed by Patricia Highsmith on the front free endpaper. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket that shows light shelfwear. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. An exceptional example, uncommon signed.

"Consistently named as one of a half-dozen greatest of all suspense writers, Highsmith also created a truly unique character in Ripley, who has remained his totally amoral, if charming, self through five novels" (100 Top Mystery Novels of All Time, 71). "The brilliance of Highsmith's conception of Tom Ripley was her ability to keep the heroic and demonic American dreamer in balance in the same protagonist—thus keeping us on his side well after his behavior becomes far more sociopathic than that of a con man like Gatsby" (Frank Rich, New York Times Magazine). Adapted to film in 1999 starring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law and Philip Seymour Hoffman.