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Relatos
Este volumen reúne los primeros cinco libros de cuentos de Patricia Highsmith, tres de los cuales –Once, A merced del viento y La casa negra– no habían aparecido hasta ahora en Anagrama. El lector descubrirá en estos relatos los elementos característicos del universo Highsmith: el crimen que irrumpe en lo cotidiano, la maldad que acecha en cualquier esquina, la crueldad que emerge donde menos se la espera, el suspense manejado con mano maestra, un profundo conocimiento de la naturaleza humana, pinceladas de un humor macabro y de una ironía lacerante, además del finísimo manejo del impacto súbito y el giro inesperado. En dos de los libros aquí incluidos la autora vertebra los relatos en torno a un eje central: los animales y su relación con los humanos en Crímenes bestiales y los arquetipos femeninos en Pequeños cuentos misóginos. Este volumen reúne los primeros cinco libros de cuentos de Patricia Highsmith, tres de los cuales –Once, A merced del viento y La casa negra– no habían aparecido hasta ahora en Anagrama. El lector descubrirá en estos relatos los elementos característicos del universo Highsmith: el crimen que irrumpe en lo cotidiano, la maldad que acecha en cualquier esquina, la crueldad que emerge donde menos se la espera, el suspense manejado con mano maestra, un profundo conocimiento de la naturaleza humana, pinceladas de un humor macabro y de una ironía lacerante, además del finísimo manejo del impacto súbito y el giro inesperado. En dos de los libros aquí incluidos la autora vertebra los relatos en torno a un eje central: los animales y su relación con los humanos en Crímenes bestiales y los arquetipos femeninos en Pequeños cuentos misóginos.
Los primeros cinco libros de cuentos de Patricia Highsmith, maestra del suspense y la tensión psicológica.
Los primeros cinco libros de cuentos de Patricia Highsmith, maestra del suspense y la tensión psicológica.
888 pages, Paperback
First published January 17, 2018
27 people are currently reading
160 people want to read
About the author
Patricia Highsmith
488 books5,042 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
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 11, 2021
Es una excelente recopilación, muchos de los relatos son increíblemente inquietantes a pesar de lo breves que pueden ser y en más de una ocasión deseas que las historias no terminen.
Puede resultar un poco tedioso en algunos momentos, en especial los relatos de “Crímenes bestiales” y “Pequeños cuentos misóginos” donde rápidamente se siente la reincidencia del tema y puede ser una buena idea alternan las lecturas para evitar esta sensación.
Este mamotreto hermoso, puede ser un ejercicio de lectura interesante porque se compone de 64 relatos en total, es decir que cada uno promediaría 13 páginas y el involucrarse en la historia y soltarla tan rápido puede ser una buena opción para quienes gusten de una lectura rápida y corta.
En cuanto a Patricia Highsmith, quedo gratamente sorprendida por la versatilidad de sus escritos en relación a otras obras de ella cómo las historias de Tom Ripley.
Puede resultar un poco tedioso en algunos momentos, en especial los relatos de “Crímenes bestiales” y “Pequeños cuentos misóginos” donde rápidamente se siente la reincidencia del tema y puede ser una buena idea alternan las lecturas para evitar esta sensación.
Este mamotreto hermoso, puede ser un ejercicio de lectura interesante porque se compone de 64 relatos en total, es decir que cada uno promediaría 13 páginas y el involucrarse en la historia y soltarla tan rápido puede ser una buena opción para quienes gusten de una lectura rápida y corta.
En cuanto a Patricia Highsmith, quedo gratamente sorprendida por la versatilidad de sus escritos en relación a otras obras de ella cómo las historias de Tom Ripley.
January 12, 2024
Patricia es la escritora q sabe escribir mejor mi tipo de tristeza preferida, no tengo mejores palabras para explicarlo. Aquí hay relatos muy en la línea d sus novelas, muchos crímenes y muy movidos por personajes maravillosamente contruídos. Pero TAMBIÉN y eso ha sido lo q más m ha gustado hay cuentos muy INQUIETANTES y algunos totalmente oníricos y surrealistas q probablemente hayan sido los q más me he disfrutado. En esta última categoría, d las mejores cosas q he leído en mi vida, y contando solo con 8 páginas, el relato Uno para las islas se va a quedar en mi memoria pa siempre. Muy destacables tb La pajarera vacía, El estanque, Lo que trajo el gato y La cometa. Tristísimos, aterradores, preciosos, preciosos. Te quiero Patri 💘
June 6, 2018
Inquietantes
July 18, 2022
Impresionante
June 11, 2024
Como siempre Paty no defrauda.
Al ser una compilación de varias antologías de cuentos mis favoritos fueron
Pequeños cuentos misóginos
Donde la mayoría de los cuentos eran sobre feminicidios
Crímenes bestiales
Donde todos los cuentos tenían relación con animales
Hay varios cuentos que recuerdo mucho, como el de la morra que mata a su esposo dandole comidas grasosas hasta que le da un paro cardíaco o el del Uron que le saco los ojos al mayordomo. OMG hablando de traumas esta señorona lo hace a la perfección
Al ser una compilación de varias antologías de cuentos mis favoritos fueron
Pequeños cuentos misóginos
Donde la mayoría de los cuentos eran sobre feminicidios
Crímenes bestiales
Donde todos los cuentos tenían relación con animales
Hay varios cuentos que recuerdo mucho, como el de la morra que mata a su esposo dandole comidas grasosas hasta que le da un paro cardíaco o el del Uron que le saco los ojos al mayordomo. OMG hablando de traumas esta señorona lo hace a la perfección
January 25, 2023
Además de personajes míticos como Tom Ripley, Patricia Highsmith nos regaló un buen repertorio de relatos donde sigue presente la base de su estilo inconfundible: esa densidad perturbadora que progresa lentamente hasta envolvernos con su textura fría y viscosa.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews