What do you think?
Rate this book
Ripley #2
Ripley Under Ground
Der einzige Mensch, den er geliebt hat und der seinen Aufstieg hätte verhindern können, liegt bei San Remo auf dem Meeresgrund: Tom Ripley hat sich zum souveränen Verbrecher gemausert, der seinen Untaten das Flair französischer Lebensart zu verleihen weiß. Mit seiner Frau Héloise lebt er ein sorgenfreies Luxusleben bei Paris und handelt nebenbei mit berühmten Gemälden - nicht nur aus Liebhaberei. Als ein Kunstsammler die Gemälde als Fälschungen entlarvt, beginnt Ripley ein vampirisches Spiel mit anderen Existenzen, um seine schöne Welt - und seinen Kopf - zu retten.
368 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1970
867 people are currently reading
10588 people want to read
About the author
Patricia Highsmith
484 books4,988 followersPatricia Highsmith was an American novelist who is known mainly for her psychological crime thrillers which have led to more than two dozen film adaptations over the years.
She lived with her grandmother, mother and later step-father (her mother divorced her natural father six months before 'Patsy' was born and married Stanley Highsmith) in Fort Worth before moving with her parents to New York in 1927 but returned to live with her grandmother for a year in 1933. Returning to her parents in New York, she attended public schools in New York City and later graduated from Barnard College in 1942.
Shortly after graduation her short story 'The Heroine' was published in the Harper's Bazaar magazine and it was selected as one of the 22 best stories that appeared in American magazines in 1945 and it won the O Henry award for short stories in 1946. She continued to write short stories, many of them comic book stories, and regularly earned herself a weekly $55 pay-check. During this period of her life she lived variously in New York and Mexico.
Her first suspense novel 'Strangers on a Train' published in 1950 was an immediate success with public and critics alike. The novel has been adapted for the screen three times, most notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951.
In 1955 her anti-hero Tom Ripley appeared in the splendid 'The Talented Mr Ripley', a book that was awarded the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere as the best foreign mystery novel translated into French in 1957. This book, too, has been the subject of a number of film versions. Ripley appeared again in 'Ripley Under Ground' in 1970, in 'Ripley's Game' in 1974, 'The boy who Followed Ripley' in 1980 and in 'Ripley Under Water' in 1991.
Along with her acclaimed series about Ripley, she wrote 22 novels and eight short story collections plus many other short stories, often macabre, satirical or tinged with black humour. She also wrote one novel, non-mystery, under the name Claire Morgan , plus a work of non-fiction 'Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction' and a co-written book of children's verse, 'Miranda the Panda Is on the Veranda'.
She latterly lived in England and France and was more popular in England than in her native United States. Her novel 'Deep Water', 1957, was called by the Sunday Times one of the "most brilliant analyses of psychosis in America" and Julian Symons once wrote of her "Miss Highsmith is the writer who fuses character and plot most successfully ... the most important crime novelist at present in practice." In addition, Michael Dirda observed "Europeans honoured her as a psychological novelist, part of an existentialist tradition represented by her own favorite writers, in particular Dostoevsky, Conrad, Kafka, Gide, and Camus."
She died of leukemia in Locarno, Switzerland on 4 February 1995 and her last novel, 'Small g: a Summer Idyll', was published posthumously a month later.
Gerry Wolstenholme
July 2010
She lived with her grandmother, mother and later step-father (her mother divorced her natural father six months before 'Patsy' was born and married Stanley Highsmith) in Fort Worth before moving with her parents to New York in 1927 but returned to live with her grandmother for a year in 1933. Returning to her parents in New York, she attended public schools in New York City and later graduated from Barnard College in 1942.
Shortly after graduation her short story 'The Heroine' was published in the Harper's Bazaar magazine and it was selected as one of the 22 best stories that appeared in American magazines in 1945 and it won the O Henry award for short stories in 1946. She continued to write short stories, many of them comic book stories, and regularly earned herself a weekly $55 pay-check. During this period of her life she lived variously in New York and Mexico.
Her first suspense novel 'Strangers on a Train' published in 1950 was an immediate success with public and critics alike. The novel has been adapted for the screen three times, most notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951.
In 1955 her anti-hero Tom Ripley appeared in the splendid 'The Talented Mr Ripley', a book that was awarded the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere as the best foreign mystery novel translated into French in 1957. This book, too, has been the subject of a number of film versions. Ripley appeared again in 'Ripley Under Ground' in 1970, in 'Ripley's Game' in 1974, 'The boy who Followed Ripley' in 1980 and in 'Ripley Under Water' in 1991.
Along with her acclaimed series about Ripley, she wrote 22 novels and eight short story collections plus many other short stories, often macabre, satirical or tinged with black humour. She also wrote one novel, non-mystery, under the name Claire Morgan , plus a work of non-fiction 'Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction' and a co-written book of children's verse, 'Miranda the Panda Is on the Veranda'.
She latterly lived in England and France and was more popular in England than in her native United States. Her novel 'Deep Water', 1957, was called by the Sunday Times one of the "most brilliant analyses of psychosis in America" and Julian Symons once wrote of her "Miss Highsmith is the writer who fuses character and plot most successfully ... the most important crime novelist at present in practice." In addition, Michael Dirda observed "Europeans honoured her as a psychological novelist, part of an existentialist tradition represented by her own favorite writers, in particular Dostoevsky, Conrad, Kafka, Gide, and Camus."
She died of leukemia in Locarno, Switzerland on 4 February 1995 and her last novel, 'Small g: a Summer Idyll', was published posthumously a month later.
Gerry Wolstenholme
July 2010
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,111 reviews
April 26, 2024
“[Tom Ripley] had certainly overstayed his welcome at Dickie’s in Mongibello in his callow youth…Tom had come from America, or rather had been sent by Dickie’s father, Herbert Greenleaf, to bring Dickie back home. It had been a classic situation. Dickie hadn’t wanted to go back to the United States. And Tom’s naivete at that time, was something that now made him cringe. The things he had had to learn! And then – well, Tom Ripley had stayed in Europe. He had learned a bit. After all he had some money – Dickie’s…”
- Patricia Highsmith, Ripley Under Ground
In the 1860s, the author Horatio Alger wrote a number of successful young adult novels – most famously Ragged Dick – about impoverished lads rising from the moral and economic bankruptcy of the streets to achieve bourgeoise respectability. This up-by-the-bootstraps ideal has since become woven into the fabric of American belief, the idea that any ambitious person, through a combination of clean living and hard work, can achieve financial and social success.
It occurred to me, as I was reading Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley Under Ground, that protagonist Tom Ripley is sort of a funhouse mirror version of one of Alger’s scrappy strivers. Like Alger’s most famous character, Ripley is an orphan intent on remaking himself in a new, better image. He is cheerful in the face of adversity, and zealously focused on achieving his goals.
Of course, there the comparisons end. While Ragged Dick utilized honest employment and the occasional good deed for wealthy men to better his position, Ripley’s methods are a bit more – well, let’s say they’re a bit more dubious.
It is that dubiousness – this unflinching willingness to do whatever it takes – that makes Ripley so much more interesting than Alger’s creations, and one of the great inventions in all of fiction.
***
When I finished The Talented Mr. Ripley, the first in Highsmith’s Ripley series, I was entirely satisfied. I did not feel the need for more. The story was perfectly self-contained, and though it left loose threads, it felt natural, since the novel itself dwells confidently in ambiguities. I had only two reasons for picking up Ripley Under Ground, the second entry: first, I had already purchased it, while under the influence of wine; and second, Ripley is an utterly fascinating character, a man who you can’t help loving, despite his methods. He’s a bad dude who needs to be stopped, yet I was cheering for him every dreadful step of the way.
Though it is the sequel to The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley Under Ground is not a direct follow-up. Instead, it picks up around six years after the events of the prior book. I found this a little disorienting, since a lot has changed, and Highsmith essentially begins the novel in media res, with the plot already in motion.
In brief, Tom is living in France, in a lovely home in the countryside. He is also neck deep in a complex art forging scheme, the details of which are only gradually revealed. A nosy American is threatening to expose the fraud, and though Tom is not really in it for the money – it’s more about the laughs – he gears up to protect himself and his friends. As if that wasn’t enough, a cousin of Dickie Greenleaf soon comes a calling.
More importantly, Tom’s married!
Yes, the man whose sexuality was so acutely studied in The Talented Mr. Ripley has married a French pharmaceutical heiress named Heloise. Highsmith, perhaps tweaking the audience, still toys with our ability to label Tom with regard to his orientation. In her carefully calibrated – that is, vague – description of how he came to be joined in matrimony, she provides fodder for debate.
For me, Tom’s sex life is not nearly as interesting as his everyday interactions with Heloise, because she gives us another access point with which to view and judge Tom Ripley. Despite whatever reservations Tom might have between the sheets, he seems to genuinely like Heloise, even depend on her. There is also the possibility that Tom – a seeming stone-sociopath – might even love her. Beyond that, Highsmith tantalizes with the prospect that Heloise might be Tom’s perfect mate, in a very specific way.
I liked Ripley Under Ground very much. It was exceptionally fast-paced, twisty, and occasionally gave me sweaty palms. Highsmith, who spent much of her life abroad, has a keen sense of place, and after a year in coronavirus-induced hiding, it was extremely pleasant to go on a vacation of sorts, following Tom as he travels about France, London, and Austria. There were times I felt like I was with him, sitting at a sidewalk café, drinking coffee out of a dainty cup, an unopened book of poems resting next to me, plotting the destruction of my enemies without my pulse every missing a beat.
That said, this was not as good as The Talented Mr. Ripley. Though I never got lost, the byzantine nature of the proceedings, as well as Tom’s reactions to certain events, really strained credulity. Tom’s ability to succeed often felt less a function of his skills, and more a function of English and French police inspectors being as credulous and unassuming as small children. Furthermore, Ripley Under Ground repeats a lot of the prior novel’s tricks. Tom has a nasty habit of responding to most of life’s roadblocks with a blunt aggressiveness that gets wearisome. His decision to attack every Gordian knot with Occam’s freshly-sharpened razor gets predictable. Instead of having Tom adapt his responses, Highsmith instead doubles down on gruesomeness. This leads to a grim scene of evidence disposal that is narrated with such an even-keeled tone that it took me a minute to realize how genuinely funny – in a sick way – Highsmith can be.
***
The reality that Ripley Under Ground does not reach its predecessor’s lofty heights is not really a criticism. The Talented Mr. Ripley, after all, is an acknowledged classic of the thriller genre. Even if Ripley Under Ground feels a bit repetitive, it is still the work of a master.
When I found out there were five books in the Ripley saga, I wondered where Highsmith would take the tale long term. Now I’m starting to see. In terms of storytelling, books one and two share the same beats. As a character study, however, Tom Ripley continues to evolve. Though I’m not sure I’ll ever plow to the very end (having heard that the final two titles feel like the cashing of a paycheck), I am intrigued to see Tom as he ages. I look at this series as the investigation into the heart of a very particular man, a nightmare of an American expatriate, just living the dream.
- Patricia Highsmith, Ripley Under Ground
In the 1860s, the author Horatio Alger wrote a number of successful young adult novels – most famously Ragged Dick – about impoverished lads rising from the moral and economic bankruptcy of the streets to achieve bourgeoise respectability. This up-by-the-bootstraps ideal has since become woven into the fabric of American belief, the idea that any ambitious person, through a combination of clean living and hard work, can achieve financial and social success.
It occurred to me, as I was reading Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley Under Ground, that protagonist Tom Ripley is sort of a funhouse mirror version of one of Alger’s scrappy strivers. Like Alger’s most famous character, Ripley is an orphan intent on remaking himself in a new, better image. He is cheerful in the face of adversity, and zealously focused on achieving his goals.
Of course, there the comparisons end. While Ragged Dick utilized honest employment and the occasional good deed for wealthy men to better his position, Ripley’s methods are a bit more – well, let’s say they’re a bit more dubious.
It is that dubiousness – this unflinching willingness to do whatever it takes – that makes Ripley so much more interesting than Alger’s creations, and one of the great inventions in all of fiction.
***
When I finished The Talented Mr. Ripley, the first in Highsmith’s Ripley series, I was entirely satisfied. I did not feel the need for more. The story was perfectly self-contained, and though it left loose threads, it felt natural, since the novel itself dwells confidently in ambiguities. I had only two reasons for picking up Ripley Under Ground, the second entry: first, I had already purchased it, while under the influence of wine; and second, Ripley is an utterly fascinating character, a man who you can’t help loving, despite his methods. He’s a bad dude who needs to be stopped, yet I was cheering for him every dreadful step of the way.
Though it is the sequel to The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley Under Ground is not a direct follow-up. Instead, it picks up around six years after the events of the prior book. I found this a little disorienting, since a lot has changed, and Highsmith essentially begins the novel in media res, with the plot already in motion.
In brief, Tom is living in France, in a lovely home in the countryside. He is also neck deep in a complex art forging scheme, the details of which are only gradually revealed. A nosy American is threatening to expose the fraud, and though Tom is not really in it for the money – it’s more about the laughs – he gears up to protect himself and his friends. As if that wasn’t enough, a cousin of Dickie Greenleaf soon comes a calling.
More importantly, Tom’s married!
Yes, the man whose sexuality was so acutely studied in The Talented Mr. Ripley has married a French pharmaceutical heiress named Heloise. Highsmith, perhaps tweaking the audience, still toys with our ability to label Tom with regard to his orientation. In her carefully calibrated – that is, vague – description of how he came to be joined in matrimony, she provides fodder for debate.
For me, Tom’s sex life is not nearly as interesting as his everyday interactions with Heloise, because she gives us another access point with which to view and judge Tom Ripley. Despite whatever reservations Tom might have between the sheets, he seems to genuinely like Heloise, even depend on her. There is also the possibility that Tom – a seeming stone-sociopath – might even love her. Beyond that, Highsmith tantalizes with the prospect that Heloise might be Tom’s perfect mate, in a very specific way.
I liked Ripley Under Ground very much. It was exceptionally fast-paced, twisty, and occasionally gave me sweaty palms. Highsmith, who spent much of her life abroad, has a keen sense of place, and after a year in coronavirus-induced hiding, it was extremely pleasant to go on a vacation of sorts, following Tom as he travels about France, London, and Austria. There were times I felt like I was with him, sitting at a sidewalk café, drinking coffee out of a dainty cup, an unopened book of poems resting next to me, plotting the destruction of my enemies without my pulse every missing a beat.
That said, this was not as good as The Talented Mr. Ripley. Though I never got lost, the byzantine nature of the proceedings, as well as Tom’s reactions to certain events, really strained credulity. Tom’s ability to succeed often felt less a function of his skills, and more a function of English and French police inspectors being as credulous and unassuming as small children. Furthermore, Ripley Under Ground repeats a lot of the prior novel’s tricks. Tom has a nasty habit of responding to most of life’s roadblocks with a blunt aggressiveness that gets wearisome. His decision to attack every Gordian knot with Occam’s freshly-sharpened razor gets predictable. Instead of having Tom adapt his responses, Highsmith instead doubles down on gruesomeness. This leads to a grim scene of evidence disposal that is narrated with such an even-keeled tone that it took me a minute to realize how genuinely funny – in a sick way – Highsmith can be.
***
The reality that Ripley Under Ground does not reach its predecessor’s lofty heights is not really a criticism. The Talented Mr. Ripley, after all, is an acknowledged classic of the thriller genre. Even if Ripley Under Ground feels a bit repetitive, it is still the work of a master.
When I found out there were five books in the Ripley saga, I wondered where Highsmith would take the tale long term. Now I’m starting to see. In terms of storytelling, books one and two share the same beats. As a character study, however, Tom Ripley continues to evolve. Though I’m not sure I’ll ever plow to the very end (having heard that the final two titles feel like the cashing of a paycheck), I am intrigued to see Tom as he ages. I look at this series as the investigation into the heart of a very particular man, a nightmare of an American expatriate, just living the dream.
May 22, 2022
THE GREAT RIPLEY
Barry Pepper è Tom Ripley nel film di Roger Spottiswoode “Ripley Under Ground”.
Seconda avventura di Tom Ripley, sei anni dopo la prima (ma editorialmente di anni tra il primo e il secondo ne passano quindici, 1955 e 1970).
Adesso Tom vive in una villa chiamata Belle Ombre nella campagna francese vicino a Parigi (Fontainebleau), si è sposato con Héloïse, bella francese che viene da ricca famiglia affermata nel campo farmaceutico. La rendita che i soldi ereditati da (rubati a) Dickie Greenleaf, il giovane americano che Tom circuisce e uccide nel suo esordio letterario (Il talento di Mr Ripley) gli permette di condurre vita comoda e benestante.
Ma Tom non manca d’iniziativa, curiosità e inventiva, e non può certo accontentarsi della comodità un po’ soporifera di una rendita finanziaria: quindi è in società con Reeves Minot, contrabbandiere d’arte, personaggio che ritorna nella terza avventura (Ripley Under Ground – L’amico americano).
Barry Pepper/Tom Ripley e Jacinda Barrett che interpreta sua moglie Heloise.
Questa volta il titolo italiano, pur non traducendo alla lettera l’originale, è corretto, perfino più centrato, anche se anticipa qualcosa della trama.
La trama ruota attorno al collezionismo e ai falsi d’arte.
Ma la trama più polposa è quella che ruota intorno ai due personaggi principali, ancora una volta due uomini, il solito Ripley e Bernard, il falsario, persone molto diverse che per la loro differenza umana non dovrebbero entrare in contatto, si attraggono e respingono, collidono e fanno squadra.
Tom spregiudicato, cinico, machiavellico, amorale (ma quanto è facile identificarsi in lui! In verità più che di identificazione si tratta di desiderio di imitazione, di voglia di essere come lui) da una parte, e Bernard consumato da dubbi, sensi di colpa, senso d’inferiorità, debolezza e paura, dall’altra.
Willem Dafoe è Neil Murchison collezionista che smaschera la truffa di Ripley e…
Tom Ripley è probabilmente il cattivo, il fuorilegge più complesso e interessante che sia mai stato inventato. In ogni romanzo uccide qualcuno, ma non lo si direbbe né un serial killer né uno psicopatico, e neppure un gangster. È spiazzante, diverso, affascinante: non appare e non si mostra invulnerabile, conosciamo la sua debolezza e anche la sua vulnerabilità, che lo fanno soffrire. Crede nell’amicizia al punto da ‘innamorarsi’ degli amici, ma non sopporta interferenze o intromissioni, né in questo sentimento né nei suoi piani.
Claire Forlani e Alan Cumming, altri due interpreti del film che girato nel 2003, fu presentato nel 2005, per poi due ulteriori anni dopo essere distribuito nelle sole Filippine e nel resto del mondo direttamente in dvd. Il che la dice lunga sulla qualità del risultato.
Héloïse è la donna che si vorrebbe sempre intorno: bella, attraente, affascinante, intelligente, ricca, indipendente, fidata ma non prona. Non è chiaro quanto sappia delle attività illegali del marito: la sensazione è che intuisca, ma per quieto vivere, e forse anche solidarietà e approvazione, preferisca chiudere un occhio (o due).
Il lettore sospetta che Tom sia bisessuale, sia attratto anche dal suo stesso sesso, le sue amicizie maschili hanno sfumature che vanno in quella direzione, pur restando platoniche. Highsmith sembra mettere molto della sua stessa sessualità in Tom, ma sfuma tutto, non dice, non accenna neppure, lascia il lettore libero d’immaginare.
Tom Ripley/Barry Pepper con Alan Cumming e Claire Forlani insieme a Ian Hart, sull dx, che interpreta il pittore falsario Bernard.
Ripley sistema la situazione a suo vantaggio (altrimenti non gli sarebbero stati dedicati altri tre romanzi), ma la lama di rasoio sulla quale vive da anni diventa sempre più sottile e tagliente.
E, certo, se la sua strada incrociasse quella di un poliziotto come si deve, che so un Maigret, o di un detective all’altezza del nome, privato o meno, probabilmente Tom non la farebbe franca.
Marito e moglie in intimità. Il film è a capitale europeo, ma con regista e protagonista americani.
Barry Pepper è Tom Ripley nel film di Roger Spottiswoode “Ripley Under Ground”.
Seconda avventura di Tom Ripley, sei anni dopo la prima (ma editorialmente di anni tra il primo e il secondo ne passano quindici, 1955 e 1970).
Adesso Tom vive in una villa chiamata Belle Ombre nella campagna francese vicino a Parigi (Fontainebleau), si è sposato con Héloïse, bella francese che viene da ricca famiglia affermata nel campo farmaceutico. La rendita che i soldi ereditati da (rubati a) Dickie Greenleaf, il giovane americano che Tom circuisce e uccide nel suo esordio letterario (Il talento di Mr Ripley) gli permette di condurre vita comoda e benestante.
Ma Tom non manca d’iniziativa, curiosità e inventiva, e non può certo accontentarsi della comodità un po’ soporifera di una rendita finanziaria: quindi è in società con Reeves Minot, contrabbandiere d’arte, personaggio che ritorna nella terza avventura (Ripley Under Ground – L’amico americano).
Barry Pepper/Tom Ripley e Jacinda Barrett che interpreta sua moglie Heloise.
Questa volta il titolo italiano, pur non traducendo alla lettera l’originale, è corretto, perfino più centrato, anche se anticipa qualcosa della trama.
La trama ruota attorno al collezionismo e ai falsi d’arte.
Ma la trama più polposa è quella che ruota intorno ai due personaggi principali, ancora una volta due uomini, il solito Ripley e Bernard, il falsario, persone molto diverse che per la loro differenza umana non dovrebbero entrare in contatto, si attraggono e respingono, collidono e fanno squadra.
Tom spregiudicato, cinico, machiavellico, amorale (ma quanto è facile identificarsi in lui! In verità più che di identificazione si tratta di desiderio di imitazione, di voglia di essere come lui) da una parte, e Bernard consumato da dubbi, sensi di colpa, senso d’inferiorità, debolezza e paura, dall’altra.
Willem Dafoe è Neil Murchison collezionista che smaschera la truffa di Ripley e…
Tom Ripley è probabilmente il cattivo, il fuorilegge più complesso e interessante che sia mai stato inventato. In ogni romanzo uccide qualcuno, ma non lo si direbbe né un serial killer né uno psicopatico, e neppure un gangster. È spiazzante, diverso, affascinante: non appare e non si mostra invulnerabile, conosciamo la sua debolezza e anche la sua vulnerabilità, che lo fanno soffrire. Crede nell’amicizia al punto da ‘innamorarsi’ degli amici, ma non sopporta interferenze o intromissioni, né in questo sentimento né nei suoi piani.
Claire Forlani e Alan Cumming, altri due interpreti del film che girato nel 2003, fu presentato nel 2005, per poi due ulteriori anni dopo essere distribuito nelle sole Filippine e nel resto del mondo direttamente in dvd. Il che la dice lunga sulla qualità del risultato.
Héloïse è la donna che si vorrebbe sempre intorno: bella, attraente, affascinante, intelligente, ricca, indipendente, fidata ma non prona. Non è chiaro quanto sappia delle attività illegali del marito: la sensazione è che intuisca, ma per quieto vivere, e forse anche solidarietà e approvazione, preferisca chiudere un occhio (o due).
Il lettore sospetta che Tom sia bisessuale, sia attratto anche dal suo stesso sesso, le sue amicizie maschili hanno sfumature che vanno in quella direzione, pur restando platoniche. Highsmith sembra mettere molto della sua stessa sessualità in Tom, ma sfuma tutto, non dice, non accenna neppure, lascia il lettore libero d’immaginare.
Tom Ripley/Barry Pepper con Alan Cumming e Claire Forlani insieme a Ian Hart, sull dx, che interpreta il pittore falsario Bernard.
Ripley sistema la situazione a suo vantaggio (altrimenti non gli sarebbero stati dedicati altri tre romanzi), ma la lama di rasoio sulla quale vive da anni diventa sempre più sottile e tagliente.
E, certo, se la sua strada incrociasse quella di un poliziotto come si deve, che so un Maigret, o di un detective all’altezza del nome, privato o meno, probabilmente Tom non la farebbe franca.
Marito e moglie in intimità. Il film è a capitale europeo, ma con regista e protagonista americani.
September 21, 2025
Sigh. At last I understand those women who write love letters to imprisoned serial killers. If Tom Ripley were in prison, I would doubtless write him love letters and at some point probably propose. He's now married to a woman, Heloise, but that's a mere detail and won't stand in our way. She'd be perfectly happy to share him, I'm sure.
For a long time I was on the fence about reading the sequel to The Talented Mr. Ripley. Having loved the original, I was afraid that Highsmith was simply cashing in. I was not disappointed. I did miss Dickie Greenleaf, and Italy, but the French countryside is equally alluring. Tom still wears one of Dickie's rings, and if this doesn't prove that he really is a sweetie at heart then I don't know what does. Dickie's equally handsome cousin, Chris, is introduced in this one without any real purpose in the story. There is an annoying game of cat and mouse in Salzburg near the end, featuring a ridiculous attempted cremation—you read that right—but by the final page the Talented Ms. Highsmith has more than been forgiven.
For a long time I was on the fence about reading the sequel to The Talented Mr. Ripley. Having loved the original, I was afraid that Highsmith was simply cashing in. I was not disappointed. I did miss Dickie Greenleaf, and Italy, but the French countryside is equally alluring. Tom still wears one of Dickie's rings, and if this doesn't prove that he really is a sweetie at heart then I don't know what does. Dickie's equally handsome cousin, Chris, is introduced in this one without any real purpose in the story. There is an annoying game of cat and mouse in Salzburg near the end, featuring a ridiculous attempted cremation—you read that right—but by the final page the Talented Ms. Highsmith has more than been forgiven.
May 3, 2021
3,5 ⭐
"de vez em quando apagava pequenas chamas no chão com a pá. antes de enterrar o esqueleto, verificou se havia pegado a arcada dentária superior e constatou que sim. enterrou os restos e cobriu com terrra. alguns filetes de fumaça se ergueram através das folhas que ele espalhou em cima, por último. ele rasgou um pouco do jornal que forrava a mala, embrulhou o pedaço de osso que continha a arcada superior, pegou também a mandíbula inferior e a guardou junto."
assim levinho mesmo.
"de vez em quando apagava pequenas chamas no chão com a pá. antes de enterrar o esqueleto, verificou se havia pegado a arcada dentária superior e constatou que sim. enterrou os restos e cobriu com terrra. alguns filetes de fumaça se ergueram através das folhas que ele espalhou em cima, por último. ele rasgou um pouco do jornal que forrava a mala, embrulhou o pedaço de osso que continha a arcada superior, pegou também a mandíbula inferior e a guardou junto."
assim levinho mesmo.
April 4, 2021
Honestly, this simply felt like the book that never ends. It's not even a long book, per se, but I was so ready for it to be over. While I enjoy psychological thrillers like these, I hate how needless the murders in these books tend to be. The arguments are so silly and illogical! I'll continue to try, but I hope the next one is better.
June 24, 2022
The Talented Mr. Ripley is probably Patricia Highsmith's best book; Tom Ripley is certainly her favorite creation, coming back to him in four more books. This is the second in the series about the deliciously amoral bisexual sociopath who went from rags to riches, attaining all the things we want to have--fine wine, paintings on our walls, gardening.
Tom traveled to Italy at the request of Dickie Greenleaf's father, who mistook him for a friend of Dickie's from school. The working class Tom wants everything wealthy Dickie has; in fact he wants Dickie, and he wants to be Dickie. And so he impersonates the wealthy high culture he so desires, he's a conman, a fraud, and is very, very talented at it. We sort of like him! We sort of understand him.
We pick up the leisurely--can I get you a glass of wine? Please. sit! Don't worry about the polished oak floors; can the maid get you an espresso?--action six years after Dickie disappeared--suicide! How sad!--and his friend Freddy also goes missing--a nice guy, Freddie, but Tom hardly knew him.
Tom is now married to the wealthy and lovely Eloise, living in luxury in Paris, having received Dickie's inheritance--how nice of him to write Tom into the will before he killed himself! So thoughtful! and is part of an international art forgery scheme, until an art collector, Thomas Murchison, suspects the Phillip Derwatt paintings he owns are fakes and intends to get to the bottom of this! But Tom can't tolerate a disruption of his subterfuge. . . . and he likes the challenge and risk of solving a problem. It's not about money--he has plenty of that. He just wants what he wants. He does what he wants to do.
Bernard, the forger, wants out of the game, to restart his own career as a painter. Maybe that's enough of the plot, but there is a point in which Ripley actually is (as the title suggests) actually under ground.
We know there are three more books, so we know the jig is not yet up, so that is a kind of spoiler in itself. I preferred the solo fraud Ripley, going from a kind of innocence--in disguise, performing wealth and privilege--suddenly acting rashly, and surprisingly, to the guy who now works in tandem with others in the forgery scheme, with an ever widening circle. And we already know what he will do when he is pushed into a corner, so the surprise element is gone; how can his character develop much? But he's such a deliciously evil character!
Ripley reminds me a bit of the amoral pedophile Humbert in Nabokov's Lolita, though not so urbane and well read. But both have no real selves, no there in their souls. At some points Ripley speaks of the lack of a self, he has little remorse or reflection at all. He hates reading people's journals. Bernard writes about the artist and self:
"More good artists don't show their personalities or waste their fire in their personal life, I think. They seem perfectly ordinary on the surface."
Ripley's all veneer and surface. He's performing a role, empty inside, just as Highsmith in the mid-twentieth century may have seen her lesbian life, performing heterosexuality when she felt he had to, hiding her one "lesbian" novel, Carol under a pseudonym, having relationships with men as well as women (Highsmith even willingly paid for "conversion" therapy at one point to see if she could stop her lesbian "deviancy"). Doesn’t she seem “perfectly ordinary” (i.e., straight) to many on the surface? Ripley Underground explores the relationship between art and authenticity (or fakery).
This book isn't quite as engaging as the first novel in the series, but it is still very good, written by a very fine writer, even a misanthropic one with a dark view of human nature.
Tom traveled to Italy at the request of Dickie Greenleaf's father, who mistook him for a friend of Dickie's from school. The working class Tom wants everything wealthy Dickie has; in fact he wants Dickie, and he wants to be Dickie. And so he impersonates the wealthy high culture he so desires, he's a conman, a fraud, and is very, very talented at it. We sort of like him! We sort of understand him.
We pick up the leisurely--can I get you a glass of wine? Please. sit! Don't worry about the polished oak floors; can the maid get you an espresso?--action six years after Dickie disappeared--suicide! How sad!--and his friend Freddy also goes missing--a nice guy, Freddie, but Tom hardly knew him.
Tom is now married to the wealthy and lovely Eloise, living in luxury in Paris, having received Dickie's inheritance--how nice of him to write Tom into the will before he killed himself! So thoughtful! and is part of an international art forgery scheme, until an art collector, Thomas Murchison, suspects the Phillip Derwatt paintings he owns are fakes and intends to get to the bottom of this! But Tom can't tolerate a disruption of his subterfuge. . . . and he likes the challenge and risk of solving a problem. It's not about money--he has plenty of that. He just wants what he wants. He does what he wants to do.
Bernard, the forger, wants out of the game, to restart his own career as a painter. Maybe that's enough of the plot, but there is a point in which Ripley actually is (as the title suggests) actually under ground.
We know there are three more books, so we know the jig is not yet up, so that is a kind of spoiler in itself. I preferred the solo fraud Ripley, going from a kind of innocence--in disguise, performing wealth and privilege--suddenly acting rashly, and surprisingly, to the guy who now works in tandem with others in the forgery scheme, with an ever widening circle. And we already know what he will do when he is pushed into a corner, so the surprise element is gone; how can his character develop much? But he's such a deliciously evil character!
Ripley reminds me a bit of the amoral pedophile Humbert in Nabokov's Lolita, though not so urbane and well read. But both have no real selves, no there in their souls. At some points Ripley speaks of the lack of a self, he has little remorse or reflection at all. He hates reading people's journals. Bernard writes about the artist and self:
"More good artists don't show their personalities or waste their fire in their personal life, I think. They seem perfectly ordinary on the surface."
Ripley's all veneer and surface. He's performing a role, empty inside, just as Highsmith in the mid-twentieth century may have seen her lesbian life, performing heterosexuality when she felt he had to, hiding her one "lesbian" novel, Carol under a pseudonym, having relationships with men as well as women (Highsmith even willingly paid for "conversion" therapy at one point to see if she could stop her lesbian "deviancy"). Doesn’t she seem “perfectly ordinary” (i.e., straight) to many on the surface? Ripley Underground explores the relationship between art and authenticity (or fakery).
This book isn't quite as engaging as the first novel in the series, but it is still very good, written by a very fine writer, even a misanthropic one with a dark view of human nature.
March 22, 2022
This is Patricia Highsmith's second novel to feature the character Tom Ripley, following The Talented Mr. Ripley. Six years following the conclusion of the first book, Ripley is married to a lovely heiress and is living a very comfortable life in a large French home, surrounded by art, books, and music.
Ripley has also become involved in an art forgery scheme, perpetuating the work of a painter named Derwatt, who actually died several years earlier. Only a handful of people know that Derwatt is dead; most people think he is simply missing and that he has disappeared of his own accord. Working with a couple of gallery owners and a painter named Bernard Tufts, Ripley has manufactured a fiction that Derwatt is alive and well and living in a small Mexican village, unknown to anyone. Allegedly, Derwatt has no contact with the outside world, save for when he ships a batch of paintings to the London gallery that represents him.
Bernard Tufts is a very talented painter in his own right, and he has mimicked Derwatt's style almost flawlessly. But then, just as the gallery is mounting a new show of "Derwatt's" work, an American collector appears, claiming that the Derwatt he bought from the gallery may be a fake. The collector is obsessed with the way in which Tufts has used a particular color in the painting he bought and insists that Derwatt had moved on from using that color long before the collector's painting was actually made.
At the same time, unfortunately for all concerned, Tufts is getting an attack of conscience and decides that he no longer wants to continue imitating Derwatt. Tufts appears unstable and Ripley and the gallery owners fear that he may be on the verge of blowing up the entire scheme. The gallery owners beg Ripley to come to London to deal with the situation, and the plot is thus set into motion.
What follows is a very complicated effort by Ripley to protect himself and, secondarily, his accomplices from exposure, which would ruin Ripley's marriage, cost him a fortune, and perhaps land him in prison. As readers of the previous book know, Tom Ripley is one of the most devious and amoral characters ever to appear in a novel and the steps he takes to save him self can only be described as disturbing and amazing. Ripley Under Ground is not quite on a par with the first Ripley novel, but for those who like their crime fiction on the dark side, it's well worth reading.
Ripley has also become involved in an art forgery scheme, perpetuating the work of a painter named Derwatt, who actually died several years earlier. Only a handful of people know that Derwatt is dead; most people think he is simply missing and that he has disappeared of his own accord. Working with a couple of gallery owners and a painter named Bernard Tufts, Ripley has manufactured a fiction that Derwatt is alive and well and living in a small Mexican village, unknown to anyone. Allegedly, Derwatt has no contact with the outside world, save for when he ships a batch of paintings to the London gallery that represents him.
Bernard Tufts is a very talented painter in his own right, and he has mimicked Derwatt's style almost flawlessly. But then, just as the gallery is mounting a new show of "Derwatt's" work, an American collector appears, claiming that the Derwatt he bought from the gallery may be a fake. The collector is obsessed with the way in which Tufts has used a particular color in the painting he bought and insists that Derwatt had moved on from using that color long before the collector's painting was actually made.
At the same time, unfortunately for all concerned, Tufts is getting an attack of conscience and decides that he no longer wants to continue imitating Derwatt. Tufts appears unstable and Ripley and the gallery owners fear that he may be on the verge of blowing up the entire scheme. The gallery owners beg Ripley to come to London to deal with the situation, and the plot is thus set into motion.
What follows is a very complicated effort by Ripley to protect himself and, secondarily, his accomplices from exposure, which would ruin Ripley's marriage, cost him a fortune, and perhaps land him in prison. As readers of the previous book know, Tom Ripley is one of the most devious and amoral characters ever to appear in a novel and the steps he takes to save him self can only be described as disturbing and amazing. Ripley Under Ground is not quite on a par with the first Ripley novel, but for those who like their crime fiction on the dark side, it's well worth reading.
September 12, 2019
A second outing for suave psychopath, Tom Ripley. Such a shame Highsmith jumps straight to him being married to a French wife and living in a French villa - I'd have loved to have been party to that wooing!
This time, Ripley is involved in an art fraud operation - and already Highsmith has realised that if nearly all fiction about art riffs on fraud and identity, then she can go one step further.
Another deliciously dark offering full of edgy tension and sudden explosions of violence.
This time, Ripley is involved in an art fraud operation - and already Highsmith has realised that if nearly all fiction about art riffs on fraud and identity, then she can go one step further.
Another deliciously dark offering full of edgy tension and sudden explosions of violence.
February 13, 2024
Tom Ripley CRAWLED so Joe Goldberg could run.
October 29, 2022
It had been a curious murder
Rereading this, it feels at times that Highsmith is referencing French farce as Ripley is faced with a range of visitors to Belle Ombre, some less welcome than others, as he tries to usher away one guest before the next is to arrive. But frivolity is swapped here for murder, and a complicated layering of false identities, doublings and reflections.
Interestingly, Ripley is sickened and reluctant at times to commit the 'necessary' violence though does what he has to with creativity and quick-wittedness, not without cost. With insights into his marriage, and the police hovering on the side lines, this is tense and fast-paced, edgy and transgressive - and the more mature Ripley continues to learn by experience, becoming all the more dangerous as his story progresses.
------------------------------------------
A second outing for suave psychopath, Tom Ripley. Such a shame Highsmith jumps straight to him being married to a French wife and living in a French villa - I'd have loved to have been party to that wooing!
This time, Ripley is involved in an art fraud operation - and already Highsmith has realised that if nearly all fiction about art riffs on fraud and identity, then she can go one step further.
Another deliciously dark offering full of edgy tension and sudden explosions of violence.
October 24, 2025
„Завръщането на мистър Рипли" е много добър и интересен криминален роман! Действието се развива около 6 г. след събитията от първата книга, като Том Рипли вече се е оженил и живее като богат човек в Париж. Междувременно той получава пари и от сложна измама, свързана с продажба на картини. Към даден момент има вероятност схемата да бъде разкрита, затова Том е повикан от своите съучастници в Лондон, за да изиграе ролята на мистериозен художник. Впоследствие напрежението значително се повишава и се случват мрачни престъпления...
„Не, нямаше да отиде в Лондон прекалено рано. Щеше да излезе на сцената в последния момент, да използва устрема и инерцията. Прекалено многото подготовка и репетиции можеха да навредят."
„Може би беше смешно, помисли си Том. Но не безумно смешно. Не толкова смешно, колкото истината..."
„Французойките имаха този навик, да си тръгват - от стаята, от къщата - или да поискат от някого да излезе или да се махне, и колкото по-неудобно беше за другия, толкова повече им харесваше, но все пак не беше толкова неудобно, колкото ако почнеха да крещят. Том го наричаше „Закон за френското преместване".
„Когато говорим за някого, не говорим за човека, а за творчеството му..."
„Не, нямаше да отиде в Лондон прекалено рано. Щеше да излезе на сцената в последния момент, да използва устрема и инерцията. Прекалено многото подготовка и репетиции можеха да навредят."
„Може би беше смешно, помисли си Том. Но не безумно смешно. Не толкова смешно, колкото истината..."
„Французойките имаха този навик, да си тръгват - от стаята, от къщата - или да поискат от някого да излезе или да се махне, и колкото по-неудобно беше за другия, толкова повече им харесваше, но все пак не беше толкова неудобно, колкото ако почнеха да крещят. Том го наричаше „Закон за френското преместване".
„Когато говорим за някого, не говорим за човека, а за творчеството му..."
July 10, 2017
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Publisher Says: It's been six years since Ripley murdered Dickie Greenleaf and inherited his money. Now, in Ripley Under Ground (1970), he lives in a beautiful French villa, surrounded by a world-class art collection and married to a pharmaceutical heiress. All seems serene in Ripley's world until a phone call from London shatters his peace. An art forgery scheme he set up a few years ago is threatening to unravel: a nosy American is asking questions and Ripley must go to London to put a stop to it. In this second Ripley novel, Patricia Highsmith offers a mesmerizing and disturbing tale in which Ripley will stop at nothing to preserve his tangle of lies.
My Review: Once a con man, always a con man. Tom Ripley, well-met in The Talented Mr. Ripley, is now a solid, happily (?) married man, solidly in possession of his wife's fortune, and a partner in an art firm.
An art *forgery* firm.
Yeah, that's Ripley. All the expected things happen, threats of discovery, many many obstacles to Tom's lasting love affair with himself as a wealthy man, inconvenient relationships ending. Permanently.
Oh yeah. That's our Tom Ripley.
But, well, lightning don't strike twice, do it? The Talented Mr. Ripley was simply brilliant, a bolt of heaven-sent inspiration...and this sophomore effort, fifteen years in the making, feels like it's a response to requests for more Ripley, more Ripley, from his fans.
It's a fun book to read, don't get me wrong, but it's just...not...there if you know what I mean. Really good writing! Really nicely drawn story! Characters a little bit foreshortened, lacking in a depth that Marge and Dickie and even the tiresome Mr. Miles showed. And Ripley himself is a little more squeamish this time, which frankly made a lot of sense to me as Tom now has a wife and an art collection to defend against intruders like the forger, the copper, and the gallery owners.
I wonder if Highsmith thought this book was the equal of the first one...I recommend this as a delightful fall-fire-with-scotch read. Completists *must* read it. The squeamish should stay far away! The law-and-order types are herewith warned: You'll *hate* this book.
The Publisher Says: It's been six years since Ripley murdered Dickie Greenleaf and inherited his money. Now, in Ripley Under Ground (1970), he lives in a beautiful French villa, surrounded by a world-class art collection and married to a pharmaceutical heiress. All seems serene in Ripley's world until a phone call from London shatters his peace. An art forgery scheme he set up a few years ago is threatening to unravel: a nosy American is asking questions and Ripley must go to London to put a stop to it. In this second Ripley novel, Patricia Highsmith offers a mesmerizing and disturbing tale in which Ripley will stop at nothing to preserve his tangle of lies.
My Review: Once a con man, always a con man. Tom Ripley, well-met in The Talented Mr. Ripley, is now a solid, happily (?) married man, solidly in possession of his wife's fortune, and a partner in an art firm.
An art *forgery* firm.
Yeah, that's Ripley. All the expected things happen, threats of discovery, many many obstacles to Tom's lasting love affair with himself as a wealthy man, inconvenient relationships ending. Permanently.
Oh yeah. That's our Tom Ripley.
But, well, lightning don't strike twice, do it? The Talented Mr. Ripley was simply brilliant, a bolt of heaven-sent inspiration...and this sophomore effort, fifteen years in the making, feels like it's a response to requests for more Ripley, more Ripley, from his fans.
It's a fun book to read, don't get me wrong, but it's just...not...there if you know what I mean. Really good writing! Really nicely drawn story! Characters a little bit foreshortened, lacking in a depth that Marge and Dickie and even the tiresome Mr. Miles showed. And Ripley himself is a little more squeamish this time, which frankly made a lot of sense to me as Tom now has a wife and an art collection to defend against intruders like the forger, the copper, and the gallery owners.
I wonder if Highsmith thought this book was the equal of the first one...I recommend this as a delightful fall-fire-with-scotch read. Completists *must* read it. The squeamish should stay far away! The law-and-order types are herewith warned: You'll *hate* this book.
December 5, 2015
“Honestly, I don't understand why people get so worked up about a little murder!”
― Patricia Highsmith, Ripley Under Ground
While I don't believe 'Ripley Under Ground' is quite on the same level as 'The Talented Mr Ripley' it is still amazing to think about on how many levels Highsmith is writing. This novel reminds me a lot of Peter Carey's novel My Life as a Fake and obviously Gaddis' The Recognitions. It also makes me want to explore deeper into the life of Wolfgang Beltrracchi, but that will have to be another day.
These novels all explore ideas/themes of art, authenticity, fakery, artistic isolation and basic counterfeits of all forms. What happens when the poseur becomes a greater poet/painter than the original? How do we measure art? How thin is the line between truth and fiction? I do love how fascinated some writers become with the idea of fakes, forgery, doppelgängers, etc. There is a deeper undercurrent here than I've explored. There is: Nabokov, Highsmith, Doestoevsky, Carey, Gaddis, etc. I'd love to find the Urtext on forgery; the first fictional exploration. Where did the spring of this all come from?
Anyway, Highsmith deserves to be recognized not just as a hard-boiled crime writer, but as a literary/genre example of Gresham's law. When the gods of fiction made Highsmith, they broke and buried the plates.
― Patricia Highsmith, Ripley Under Ground
While I don't believe 'Ripley Under Ground' is quite on the same level as 'The Talented Mr Ripley' it is still amazing to think about on how many levels Highsmith is writing. This novel reminds me a lot of Peter Carey's novel My Life as a Fake and obviously Gaddis' The Recognitions. It also makes me want to explore deeper into the life of Wolfgang Beltrracchi, but that will have to be another day.
These novels all explore ideas/themes of art, authenticity, fakery, artistic isolation and basic counterfeits of all forms. What happens when the poseur becomes a greater poet/painter than the original? How do we measure art? How thin is the line between truth and fiction? I do love how fascinated some writers become with the idea of fakes, forgery, doppelgängers, etc. There is a deeper undercurrent here than I've explored. There is: Nabokov, Highsmith, Doestoevsky, Carey, Gaddis, etc. I'd love to find the Urtext on forgery; the first fictional exploration. Where did the spring of this all come from?
Anyway, Highsmith deserves to be recognized not just as a hard-boiled crime writer, but as a literary/genre example of Gresham's law. When the gods of fiction made Highsmith, they broke and buried the plates.
August 5, 2024
Lo que más llama la atención de la novela es precisamente lo anodino de un personaje que aquí pierde todo el atractivo que derrochó en la primera entrega de la saga.
March 23, 2022
The startling thing about The Talented Mr. Ripley was finding out what Ripley was capable of, because you found out along with him. He wants so much, and over the course of the book he discovers what he can do to get it.
The problem with Ripley Under Ground is that both of you already know. So there are no surprises here. You read it because you liked the first one and you want to see Ripley up to his old game.
You'll get it, but this sequel is less deadly than the first book. It's just an exciting crime story. Highsmith checks the Ripley boxes: he impersonates someone, he murders someone, there's confusion not only over who murdered but who's even been murdered (the Ripley books are like the Mission: Impossible movies for murder), Ripley is audacious and pretentious, as always. There's an art forging plot lifted liberally from Dawn Powell's Wicked Pavilion. Bizarrely, Ripley seems to have gotten less gay. But it's fun and a total page-turner. If you liked the first book you should certainly go ahead and read this; if you didn't you certainly shouldn't.
My review of the first book in this series contains links to my reviews of the rest of them, if you're interested.
The problem with Ripley Under Ground is that both of you already know. So there are no surprises here. You read it because you liked the first one and you want to see Ripley up to his old game.
You'll get it, but this sequel is less deadly than the first book. It's just an exciting crime story. Highsmith checks the Ripley boxes: he impersonates someone, he murders someone, there's confusion not only over who murdered but who's even been murdered (the Ripley books are like the Mission: Impossible movies for murder), Ripley is audacious and pretentious, as always. There's an art forging plot lifted liberally from Dawn Powell's Wicked Pavilion. Bizarrely, Ripley seems to have gotten less gay. But it's fun and a total page-turner. If you liked the first book you should certainly go ahead and read this; if you didn't you certainly shouldn't.
My review of the first book in this series contains links to my reviews of the rest of them, if you're interested.
October 9, 2017
Loved the first one. This was incredibly disappointing unfortunately. If I had to read the word Derwatt one more time I would've thrown the book across the room.
May 27, 2024
CRITIQUE:
Talented Sequel
If you've read and enjoyed "The Talented Mr. Ripley", you're bound to enjoy this sequel.
By the end of the first novel, Ripley seemed to have both escaped justice, and acquired Dickie Greenleaf's money and freedom.
Since then, Ripley has abandoned his homo- or bi-sexuality, and married a stylish French woman (Heloise), whose millionaire pharmaceuticals manufacturer father gave them "Belle Ombre," a substantial two-storey stone house in a village called Villeperce-sur-Seine (apparently 60km south of Paris-Orly airport), as a wedding present.
Return to His Shady Past
Ripley has managed to keep his reputation amazingly clean since leaving Italy, but has not totally avoided shady activities. He has advised some friends about setting up a London art gallery called Derwatt Limited, which specialised in the works of an artist called Philip Derwatt.
Unbeknown to the public, Derwatt had died (potentially by suicide) in Greece three years earlier, and Ripley has devised a scheme whereby another artist (Bernard Tufts) would continue to paint artworks in the style of Derwatt, so that Derwatt Limited (and its investors) could continue to derive income from his reputation.
Impersonating Derwatt
When one of the investors starts to question whether the new works are forgeries, the gallery owners ask Ripley to impersonate Derwatt and reassure the investors.
Along the way, at least one murder (and one attempted murder) and another suicide (or two?) occurs.
I still wonder whether some of these complications were necessary. Bernard's suicide alone would have been enough to suggest a credible cause of death of the investor, Murchison.
Criminal Contrivances
Ripley is dragged back into the contrivances of his criminal past, and we read/watch, fascinated, wondering whether he will escape detection, capture and prosecution (or "defeat, exposure and shame"), again.
How much will he reveal to Heloise (and how much will she find out herself), and what will her reaction be? Will Ripley end up dead and buried? Will he end up poor and incarcerated? Will there be yet another sequel to his story? I hope so. I think so.
Talented Sequel
If you've read and enjoyed "The Talented Mr. Ripley", you're bound to enjoy this sequel.
By the end of the first novel, Ripley seemed to have both escaped justice, and acquired Dickie Greenleaf's money and freedom.
Since then, Ripley has abandoned his homo- or bi-sexuality, and married a stylish French woman (Heloise), whose millionaire pharmaceuticals manufacturer father gave them "Belle Ombre," a substantial two-storey stone house in a village called Villeperce-sur-Seine (apparently 60km south of Paris-Orly airport), as a wedding present.
Return to His Shady Past
Ripley has managed to keep his reputation amazingly clean since leaving Italy, but has not totally avoided shady activities. He has advised some friends about setting up a London art gallery called Derwatt Limited, which specialised in the works of an artist called Philip Derwatt.
Unbeknown to the public, Derwatt had died (potentially by suicide) in Greece three years earlier, and Ripley has devised a scheme whereby another artist (Bernard Tufts) would continue to paint artworks in the style of Derwatt, so that Derwatt Limited (and its investors) could continue to derive income from his reputation.
Impersonating Derwatt
When one of the investors starts to question whether the new works are forgeries, the gallery owners ask Ripley to impersonate Derwatt and reassure the investors.
Along the way, at least one murder (and one attempted murder) and another suicide (or two?) occurs.
I still wonder whether some of these complications were necessary. Bernard's suicide alone would have been enough to suggest a credible cause of death of the investor, Murchison.
Criminal Contrivances
Ripley is dragged back into the contrivances of his criminal past, and we read/watch, fascinated, wondering whether he will escape detection, capture and prosecution (or "defeat, exposure and shame"), again.
How much will he reveal to Heloise (and how much will she find out herself), and what will her reaction be? Will Ripley end up dead and buried? Will he end up poor and incarcerated? Will there be yet another sequel to his story? I hope so. I think so.
February 7, 2023
Ah, heme aquí. Preocupada porque un sociopata homicida tenga un final feliz.
February 5, 2022
”In for a penny, in for a pound.”
For almost 70% of Ripley Under Ground I was gobbling up this tense and suspenseful story, worrying over how Tom would explain it all, and all those house guests, geez Louise, no way could I have kept a cool demeanor! Unfortunately, toward the end, it became too far-fetched but not enough to dampen my interest about reading book 3, Ripley's Game.
Ripley Under Ground is book 2 in the series and happens six years after The Talented Mr. Ripley ended. Tom Ripley (30s), the affable sociopath that Highsmith got me to root for in book 1, has been married to a pharmaceutical heiress for three years. They live in France and lead an indulgent and leisurely lifestyle. Tom’s French wife, Heloise (25), is impulsive and hot tempered with gray morals. She fills her time shopping and traveling. With wealth, Tom spends his time gardening, listening to music, and studying languages.
That is not to say that Tom has reformed. He is still receiving money from Dickie Greenleaf’s trust, plus he dabbles in fraud and fence work. He receives profits from businesses developed from the popularity of a painter named Philip Derwatt. Only Tom and a couple of his business partners know that Derwatt is really dead. Yet new Derwatt paintings have been sold for years.
This refined house of cards that Tom has built seems to be holding up until an American art collector, Thomas Murchison, shows up in London at the Tate art gallery that Tom’s partners run, claiming his Derwatt painting is a phony. To make more trouble, Tom receives a letter from a Greenleaf who plans to visit Paris and wishes to meet with him.
From early on, this novel was a page-turner. Tom has hardly a moment to breath between running about trying to keep the falsehoods from crashing down. Like in the first book, you know what Tom’s thinking, hear how he justifies his actions, and marvel at how he can maintain a seemingly normal conversation with, say the police, all the while testing scenarios about his next move in his head.
I couldn’t believe how Tom was able to maneuver through these situations. In book 1, I admired how Highsmith hit upon plausible answers for Tom’s actions, and I felt the same rapt attention here. That is until one of Tom’s partners started acting nutty and the story took at doubtful spiral. It left me feeling unsatisfied and somewhat grossed out .
Overall, I enjoyed this installment in Tom’s life and plan to read the next book soon.
For almost 70% of Ripley Under Ground I was gobbling up this tense and suspenseful story, worrying over how Tom would explain it all, and all those house guests, geez Louise, no way could I have kept a cool demeanor! Unfortunately, toward the end, it became too far-fetched but not enough to dampen my interest about reading book 3, Ripley's Game.
Ripley Under Ground is book 2 in the series and happens six years after The Talented Mr. Ripley ended. Tom Ripley (30s), the affable sociopath that Highsmith got me to root for in book 1, has been married to a pharmaceutical heiress for three years. They live in France and lead an indulgent and leisurely lifestyle. Tom’s French wife, Heloise (25), is impulsive and hot tempered with gray morals. She fills her time shopping and traveling. With wealth, Tom spends his time gardening, listening to music, and studying languages.
That is not to say that Tom has reformed. He is still receiving money from Dickie Greenleaf’s trust, plus he dabbles in fraud and fence work. He receives profits from businesses developed from the popularity of a painter named Philip Derwatt. Only Tom and a couple of his business partners know that Derwatt is really dead. Yet new Derwatt paintings have been sold for years.
This refined house of cards that Tom has built seems to be holding up until an American art collector, Thomas Murchison, shows up in London at the Tate art gallery that Tom’s partners run, claiming his Derwatt painting is a phony. To make more trouble, Tom receives a letter from a Greenleaf who plans to visit Paris and wishes to meet with him.
From early on, this novel was a page-turner. Tom has hardly a moment to breath between running about trying to keep the falsehoods from crashing down. Like in the first book, you know what Tom’s thinking, hear how he justifies his actions, and marvel at how he can maintain a seemingly normal conversation with, say the police, all the while testing scenarios about his next move in his head.
I couldn’t believe how Tom was able to maneuver through these situations. In book 1, I admired how Highsmith hit upon plausible answers for Tom’s actions, and I felt the same rapt attention here. That is until one of Tom’s partners started acting nutty and the story took at doubtful spiral. It left me feeling unsatisfied and somewhat grossed out .
Overall, I enjoyed this installment in Tom’s life and plan to read the next book soon.
July 19, 2025
This is as good as it gets — entertaining but ruthless, clever, dark as pitch. One worries about whether the author admires Ripley too much, is over-fond of this most sociopathic protagonist. Or is the reader projecting?
August 10, 2024
Ripley and the Painters
Review of the Vintage paperback (September 1, 1992) of the original Heinemann (UK) & Doubleday (US) hardcover (June 1970).
It had been 15 years since the publication of book #1 The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) but in fictional time, Ripley Under Ground takes place six years after those events. Ripley now lives in France and is married to Héloïse and they live at their château Belle Ombre in a small village community.
Ripley is living comfortably with the inheritance which he obtained through events in the first novel but he can't resist a little grift on the side. An unsuccessful painter whom he knew through friends in London had died as an apparent suicide in Greece. The value of his paintings go up in value, and the friends have a hoard of them in storage. Eventually the backlog of original paintings are sold, even at the new higher prices.
Ripley suggests that a substitute painter could continue to provide product for further sales and why not say that the original painter actually faked his death and went to live as a recluse in Mexico from where he still sends his paintings to Europe? Ripley earns a comfortable percentage while his London friends open a gallery in order to launder the latest works.
It all proceeds remarkably well, until an American collector begins to suspect that the later paintings are forgeries. Suddenly Ripley in disguise has to make an appearance as the deceased painter in order to authenticate the later works. But the forger also has second thoughts and is having a nervous breakdown as a result.
Will the impersonation hold up? Will the American collector be placated? Will the forger settle down? Only the talented Mr. Ripley can make it happen, but it may have to involve a little murder.
Speculation on whether there will be a Season 2 of "Ripley" starring Andrew Scott. According to the article, the makers of "Ripley" have the option for all of the further books and may yet proceed with further TV adaptations. Image sourced from Collider.
Trivia and Links
Ripley Under Ground has been adapted twice as feature films. The first adaptation The American Friend (1977) directed by Wim Wenders and starring Dennis Hopper as Tom Ripley, used only some of the plot elements as it was based more on book #3 Ripley's Game (1974). The second adaptation Ripley Under Ground (2005) directed by Roger Spottiswoode and starring Barry Pepper as Tom Ripley, was more faithful to the plot.
You can watch a trailer for The American Friend here.
You can watch a German language dubbed trailer for Ripley Under Ground here. The full movie (in English) is also available here.
Review of the Vintage paperback (September 1, 1992) of the original Heinemann (UK) & Doubleday (US) hardcover (June 1970).
“Honestly, I don't understand why people get so worked up about a little murder!”
It had been 15 years since the publication of book #1 The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) but in fictional time, Ripley Under Ground takes place six years after those events. Ripley now lives in France and is married to Héloïse and they live at their château Belle Ombre in a small village community.
Ripley is living comfortably with the inheritance which he obtained through events in the first novel but he can't resist a little grift on the side. An unsuccessful painter whom he knew through friends in London had died as an apparent suicide in Greece. The value of his paintings go up in value, and the friends have a hoard of them in storage. Eventually the backlog of original paintings are sold, even at the new higher prices.
Ripley suggests that a substitute painter could continue to provide product for further sales and why not say that the original painter actually faked his death and went to live as a recluse in Mexico from where he still sends his paintings to Europe? Ripley earns a comfortable percentage while his London friends open a gallery in order to launder the latest works.
It all proceeds remarkably well, until an American collector begins to suspect that the later paintings are forgeries. Suddenly Ripley in disguise has to make an appearance as the deceased painter in order to authenticate the later works. But the forger also has second thoughts and is having a nervous breakdown as a result.
Will the impersonation hold up? Will the American collector be placated? Will the forger settle down? Only the talented Mr. Ripley can make it happen, but it may have to involve a little murder.
Speculation on whether there will be a Season 2 of "Ripley" starring Andrew Scott. According to the article, the makers of "Ripley" have the option for all of the further books and may yet proceed with further TV adaptations. Image sourced from Collider.
Trivia and Links
Ripley Under Ground has been adapted twice as feature films. The first adaptation The American Friend (1977) directed by Wim Wenders and starring Dennis Hopper as Tom Ripley, used only some of the plot elements as it was based more on book #3 Ripley's Game (1974). The second adaptation Ripley Under Ground (2005) directed by Roger Spottiswoode and starring Barry Pepper as Tom Ripley, was more faithful to the plot.
You can watch a trailer for The American Friend here.
You can watch a German language dubbed trailer for Ripley Under Ground here. The full movie (in English) is also available here.
May 30, 2023
Sociopathic killer Tom Ripley managed to murder two people casually in this sequence to Ripley novel no. 1 ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley.’ In this no. 2 novel, Ripley had to even use the remains of one of these two dead victims to finally get rid of a previously deceased important person to make all these murders explainable and beyond his power or control.
I am sorry to say that I found the whole novel a rather boring and monotonous story. It is puzzling why I kept having sympathy for Tom Ripley as he is clearly a maniacal bastard. Perhaps it was Ms Highsmith’s intention to write a hilarious murder mystery and, if that is the case, she certainly succeeded.
I am sorry to say that I found the whole novel a rather boring and monotonous story. It is puzzling why I kept having sympathy for Tom Ripley as he is clearly a maniacal bastard. Perhaps it was Ms Highsmith’s intention to write a hilarious murder mystery and, if that is the case, she certainly succeeded.
December 6, 2017
Disappointed. It's a well written book stylistically, but Pat has completely lost her character! Ripley is not the kind to do "group project" murders. He would never murder to protect somebody else (he's a psychopath). I can't possibly believe he had enough control to not murder for six years.
In the last book, when Ripley murdered it was sort of a desperate need. This book has a calm cool collected Ripley who murders for convenience. The old Ripley was excited with anticipation for the murder, this Ripley doesn't even really plan the murders.
In his relationship with people, Ripley can only stand to be with another person for one or two hours before he gets very frustrated and had to concentrate very hard on his acting. This Ripley has like six best friends who do not irritate him at all.
The last book, Ripley was either asexual or homosexual and gets possessive and jealous of Dickie to the point he murders him. He is disgusted by women, by their underwear and toothbrushes and mannerisms. The thought of touching a woman disgusts him. Yet I'm this novel, he's married to a woman. Gone are all traces of his obsessive nature and jealousy. He never describes people in a loathing way (as he did in the first book of almost any person he met or had known).
My point is, this character is not Ripley. This man is well rounded and likeable, he's almost heroic. He is not Ripley.
The real Ripley would've continued to murder with more frequency, as he devolution showed in the last book where the murders were slowly becoming more frequent. He wouldn't have been able to avoid it. He would've never married, not even for social convention. I doubt he would ever have any physical relationship with anybody. And he would undoubtedly be in jail six years later, or dead, or in another country far away.
Plus the ending of this book was ridiculous. No police officer in their right mind would believed that stupid story. It's also not a Ripley thing to do...
In the last book, when Ripley murdered it was sort of a desperate need. This book has a calm cool collected Ripley who murders for convenience. The old Ripley was excited with anticipation for the murder, this Ripley doesn't even really plan the murders.
In his relationship with people, Ripley can only stand to be with another person for one or two hours before he gets very frustrated and had to concentrate very hard on his acting. This Ripley has like six best friends who do not irritate him at all.
The last book, Ripley was either asexual or homosexual and gets possessive and jealous of Dickie to the point he murders him. He is disgusted by women, by their underwear and toothbrushes and mannerisms. The thought of touching a woman disgusts him. Yet I'm this novel, he's married to a woman. Gone are all traces of his obsessive nature and jealousy. He never describes people in a loathing way (as he did in the first book of almost any person he met or had known).
My point is, this character is not Ripley. This man is well rounded and likeable, he's almost heroic. He is not Ripley.
The real Ripley would've continued to murder with more frequency, as he devolution showed in the last book where the murders were slowly becoming more frequent. He wouldn't have been able to avoid it. He would've never married, not even for social convention. I doubt he would ever have any physical relationship with anybody. And he would undoubtedly be in jail six years later, or dead, or in another country far away.
Plus the ending of this book was ridiculous. No police officer in their right mind would believed that stupid story. It's also not a Ripley thing to do...
July 11, 2013
I knew going into this that the later Ripley novels don't live up to the first one, but I was still curious anyway. And it was certainly true that a lot of those elements that made the first novel so enjoyable - Tom's very believable rationalizations of his actions, the atmosphere and the tightrope-like intensity of the action - were largely missing from this book. The events in this book take place some 6 or 7 years after the first book. Tom has settled down in France with a French wife and leads a life largely of leisure with a few illegal enterprises on the side. When one of those enterprises is threatened Tom steps in to save it which inevitably leads to more suspicious deaths and more coverups required on his part. It just felt like such a watered down version of the previously vibrant and exciting Tom and the sense of tension was largely missing for me. From any other author this would have been a fine thriller, but as a sequel to Ripley it just didn't live up.
September 8, 2025
3.5
I much preferred this to the first in the series, mainly because Ripley seems to be a much more believable character - at the beginning at least.
We have moved on around 6 years since the first novel and Highsmith drops us into the middle of Ripley's new life in France. He is married to Eloise (who is away in Greece at the beginning of the book) who seems to float in and out of the action and occasionally asks awkward questions.
Ripley is certainly no less dodgy. He has two scams going- one being a courier for a minor fence. The other, the main subject of the book, is an art scandal in which a group have formed to perpetuate the work of an artist who committed suicide some years before in Greece. Bernard is the forger who is replicating the work of Derwatt. Jeff and Ed run a gallery in London which sells all "Derwatts" work and Ripley is, of course, the brains behind the operation.
Unfortunately Bernard is becoming unstable and wants to quit and now an American, Murchison, has cast doubt on the veracity of some of Bernard's Derwatt paintings.
Of course you know this is going to end badly for at least some of the players. Its just a case of who can Ripley persuade to his way of thinking and who has to go?
I liked most of the book but there were several parts that severely strained belief - Ripley's casual impersonation of the shadowy Derwatt for one. I was reminded of Clark Kent's "transformation" into Superman. And the peculiar zigzagging Ripley does all over Europe to try to find the increasingly deranged Bernard. Quite ridiculous.
In general though I enjoyed it farfetched as it sometimes was. Ripley really isn't that great a murderer. I'm still trying to work out the significance of Chris, a cousin of Dickie Greenleaf's, sudden appearance. It seemed to play no part. And, to be fair to Ripley, if he us a terrible murderer then the Police aren't any better at solving his crimes.
I much preferred this to the first in the series, mainly because Ripley seems to be a much more believable character - at the beginning at least.
We have moved on around 6 years since the first novel and Highsmith drops us into the middle of Ripley's new life in France. He is married to Eloise (who is away in Greece at the beginning of the book) who seems to float in and out of the action and occasionally asks awkward questions.
Ripley is certainly no less dodgy. He has two scams going- one being a courier for a minor fence. The other, the main subject of the book, is an art scandal in which a group have formed to perpetuate the work of an artist who committed suicide some years before in Greece. Bernard is the forger who is replicating the work of Derwatt. Jeff and Ed run a gallery in London which sells all "Derwatts" work and Ripley is, of course, the brains behind the operation.
Unfortunately Bernard is becoming unstable and wants to quit and now an American, Murchison, has cast doubt on the veracity of some of Bernard's Derwatt paintings.
Of course you know this is going to end badly for at least some of the players. Its just a case of who can Ripley persuade to his way of thinking and who has to go?
I liked most of the book but there were several parts that severely strained belief - Ripley's casual impersonation of the shadowy Derwatt for one. I was reminded of Clark Kent's "transformation" into Superman. And the peculiar zigzagging Ripley does all over Europe to try to find the increasingly deranged Bernard. Quite ridiculous.
In general though I enjoyed it farfetched as it sometimes was. Ripley really isn't that great a murderer. I'm still trying to work out the significance of Chris, a cousin of Dickie Greenleaf's, sudden appearance. It seemed to play no part. And, to be fair to Ripley, if he us a terrible murderer then the Police aren't any better at solving his crimes.
December 8, 2023
03/2019
This is from 1970 (though Tom sees a poster - in London or Paris, I forget which - for Romeo and Juliet which I assume is Zefferelli's, which came out in 1968). So probably the book takes place more like then. Tom is now in his early 30s
This is terrific, picking up Tom's story where he is married to a lovely French woman, Heloise, and living in a house known as Belle Ombre (which means Beautiful Shadow). Mr. Ripley is involved in an art forging ring of a dead painter, Derwatt. He does a murder, related to this. And later lives through being buried alive (Ripley Under Ground). This book is great at first, with the art stuff, but then goes on too long. But, like the first book, it is really about Tom Ripley trying to get away with his crimes. And succeeding.
I did read this once, probably in 2007.
This is from 1970 (though Tom sees a poster - in London or Paris, I forget which - for Romeo and Juliet which I assume is Zefferelli's, which came out in 1968). So probably the book takes place more like then. Tom is now in his early 30s
This is terrific, picking up Tom's story where he is married to a lovely French woman, Heloise, and living in a house known as Belle Ombre (which means Beautiful Shadow). Mr. Ripley is involved in an art forging ring of a dead painter, Derwatt. He does a murder, related to this. And later lives through being buried alive (Ripley Under Ground). This book is great at first, with the art stuff, but then goes on too long. But, like the first book, it is really about Tom Ripley trying to get away with his crimes. And succeeding.
I did read this once, probably in 2007.
September 6, 2021
A few years years after the events of ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’ and Tom Ripley is now living a comfortable life with his rich heiress wife, Heloise. Tom is at the center of a scheme selling forged paintings. All goes well until a buyer, Thomas Murchison, notices a change in color that doesn’t make sense in a couple of the recent paintings . Tom begins by impersonating the painter and trying to convince the buyer of the paintings’ authenticity. When that doesn’t work, he turns to other ways to resolve the problem. Not the best Ripley, but still quite an enjoyable read.
October 16, 2018
I enjoyed this more than the first book - until the ending. The story moves along rapidly with Ripley dodges various and increasing number challenges to protect an art scam. What I did not get was the acceptance of the characters when Ripley admits to being a murderer.
June 27, 2016
Sociopath Tom Ripley lives the life of luxury in a beautiful villa in France, forty miles outside of Paris; he is an amateur painter and has an appreciation for fine arts, he finds pleasure working in the garden, he has a cellar full vintage wine, he reads, he travels back and forth across Europe…and he’s a killer. He has a housekeeper and a beautiful wife who little by little comes to suspect that her husband has been living on the dark side. But does she care? Amorality has never been this much fun. Patricia Highsmith is an entertaining storyteller and a clever one. As the author introduces more and more characters into the fray, the suspense builds and builds--almost unbearably at times--and I found myself wanting to jump ahead to see how it would end. This is a worthy follow-up to The Talented Mr. Ripley.
November 26, 2019
Tom Ripley has grown up.
He is still a conman and a murderer, of course. But now, in place of the socially awkward, seething, repressed homosexual, there is a man of a certain suaveness, a man with an apparently healthy, loving, and sexual relationship with his wife, a man of leisure and taste with friends all over Europe. And instead of murdering in a rage, lashing out at men who confront him with that desire he won’t face, this time Tom can tell himself a plausible story that his crimes are for the greater good, protecting not just his own interests but the interests and reputations of a host of others.
The result of this maturation is a book that seems initially to have less psychological depth—at least with regard to its protagonist—than the first installment in his chronicles, The Talented Mr. Ripley. In contrast to its predecessor, Ripley Under Ground is almost a romp, as Tom gets himself into trouble and out of it, impersonating a dead artist, murdering a nosy amateur critic who threatens to blow the lid off Tom’s art-forgery operation, burying the body, exhuming it and dumping it to a river, and on and on. Where Talented was an origin story, the making of a sociopath, Ripley Under Ground is the continuing adventures of a sociopath. It’s a great deal of fun.
But the psychological complexity is still there; it’s just beneath the surface, hidden in a glamour of symbolism, a cloak of indirectness. The splintering of identity, that most Highsmithian of themes, crackles through the pages of Ripley Under Ground. Throughout the book, characters impersonate one another, question their perceptions of reality, and even move liminally between the planes of the living and the dead.
The painter Derwatt, dead by suicide years before the book began, is resurrected first by the forgeries and then by Tom’s impersonation of him. The painter who makes the forgeries, the guilt-racked Bernard Tufts, loses his own identity in the artistic impersonation of Derwatt; Tom even thinks that Bernard’s Derwatts are, in some ways, better Derwatts than the originals (not just better paintings; better Derwatt paintings). In despair, Bernard announces himself dead and hangs himself in effigy, before eventually killing himself for real—or is it murder, Tom wonders, if you drive someone to suicide? The bizarre and gruesome transformation of Bernard’s remains into those of Derwatt is yet another blurring of identity, one which leaves no doubt as to Tom’s tenuous connection to sanity, in case you are (as I was) temporarily fooled by the apparent normalcy of his life and marriage. Even Tom Ripley himself takes a round trip into death, in the chilling sequence that gives the book its title.
The book concludes very much as the first one did, with Tom’s sense of the clock ticking on his freedom. The ghosts of the murders he committed in Talented haunt him; people still ask him about Dickie Greenleaf, his first victim and his first impersonation. And the police inspector investigating the amateur critic’s disappearance has noticed that acquaintances of Tom Ripley have an unusual tendency to vanish or die. As Tom girds himself to carry out yet another deception, he wills away a chilling sense of imminent defeat, of failure lurking at the other end of the telephone line. And because of the closeness of perspective, the great intimacy with which Highsmith lays bare Tom’s inner life, as a reader you can’t help but want him to succeed, and to find out who he will have to murder next.
He is still a conman and a murderer, of course. But now, in place of the socially awkward, seething, repressed homosexual, there is a man of a certain suaveness, a man with an apparently healthy, loving, and sexual relationship with his wife, a man of leisure and taste with friends all over Europe. And instead of murdering in a rage, lashing out at men who confront him with that desire he won’t face, this time Tom can tell himself a plausible story that his crimes are for the greater good, protecting not just his own interests but the interests and reputations of a host of others.
The result of this maturation is a book that seems initially to have less psychological depth—at least with regard to its protagonist—than the first installment in his chronicles, The Talented Mr. Ripley. In contrast to its predecessor, Ripley Under Ground is almost a romp, as Tom gets himself into trouble and out of it, impersonating a dead artist, murdering a nosy amateur critic who threatens to blow the lid off Tom’s art-forgery operation, burying the body, exhuming it and dumping it to a river, and on and on. Where Talented was an origin story, the making of a sociopath, Ripley Under Ground is the continuing adventures of a sociopath. It’s a great deal of fun.
But the psychological complexity is still there; it’s just beneath the surface, hidden in a glamour of symbolism, a cloak of indirectness. The splintering of identity, that most Highsmithian of themes, crackles through the pages of Ripley Under Ground. Throughout the book, characters impersonate one another, question their perceptions of reality, and even move liminally between the planes of the living and the dead.
The painter Derwatt, dead by suicide years before the book began, is resurrected first by the forgeries and then by Tom’s impersonation of him. The painter who makes the forgeries, the guilt-racked Bernard Tufts, loses his own identity in the artistic impersonation of Derwatt; Tom even thinks that Bernard’s Derwatts are, in some ways, better Derwatts than the originals (not just better paintings; better Derwatt paintings). In despair, Bernard announces himself dead and hangs himself in effigy, before eventually killing himself for real—or is it murder, Tom wonders, if you drive someone to suicide? The bizarre and gruesome transformation of Bernard’s remains into those of Derwatt is yet another blurring of identity, one which leaves no doubt as to Tom’s tenuous connection to sanity, in case you are (as I was) temporarily fooled by the apparent normalcy of his life and marriage. Even Tom Ripley himself takes a round trip into death, in the chilling sequence that gives the book its title.
The book concludes very much as the first one did, with Tom’s sense of the clock ticking on his freedom. The ghosts of the murders he committed in Talented haunt him; people still ask him about Dickie Greenleaf, his first victim and his first impersonation. And the police inspector investigating the amateur critic’s disappearance has noticed that acquaintances of Tom Ripley have an unusual tendency to vanish or die. As Tom girds himself to carry out yet another deception, he wills away a chilling sense of imminent defeat, of failure lurking at the other end of the telephone line. And because of the closeness of perspective, the great intimacy with which Highsmith lays bare Tom’s inner life, as a reader you can’t help but want him to succeed, and to find out who he will have to murder next.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,111 reviews