Patricia Highsmith was known as “The Poet of Apprehension” for her many thrillers, including Strangers on a Train and the Tom Ripley novels. The Classic Book Discussion Group will introduce themselves to her most famous character later this month when they read and discuss The Talented Mr. Ripley.
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BOOK DESCRIPTION
It’s here, in the first volume of Patricia Highsmith’s five-book Ripley series, that we are introduced to the suave Tom Ripley, a young striver seeking to leave behind his past as an orphan bullied for being a “sissy.” Newly arrived in the heady world of Manhattan, 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, and Ripley begins a deadly game.
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Copies of The Talented Mr. Ripley can be picked up from the Book Discussion Shelf on our first floor, and it’s also available digitally as an ebook through Libby/Overdrive.
An in-person discussion of The Talented Mr. Ripley will be held at the library on Thursday, July 24, at 3:00 PM. No registration is required to attend.
Published on July 9, 2025.
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