Tom Ripley - in The Novels

In The Novels

Highsmith introduced Ripley in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) as a young man making a meager living off his "talents": forgery, impersonation, and lying. The novel reveals that he was orphaned at age five when his parents drowned in Boston Harbor, and was raised in Boston by his aunt Dottie, a cold, stingy woman who repeatedly mocked him as a "sissy". As a teenager, he attempted unsuccessfully to run away from his aunt's home to New York City, before finally moving there at 20.

In The Talented Mr. Ripley, he is paid to go to Italy by shipping magnate Herbert Greenleaf to convince his son Dickie (a half-remembered acquaintance) to return to New York and join the family business. Ripley befriends the younger Greenleaf and quickly becomes infatuated with the rich young man's indulgent, carefree lifestyle; he also becomes obsessed with Greenleaf himself. He eventually murders Greenleaf after the playboy tires of him and spurns his friendship. He then assumes Greenleaf's identity, forging the signatures on his monthly remittances from a trust fund. He rents an apartment in Italy and enjoys the good life, as well as the feeling of pretending to be someone other than himself. He does the latter to perfection, imitating Greenleaf to the point that he virtually becomes him. Eventually, however, this charade gets him in trouble whenever he is confronted by people who know both him and Greenleaf, particularly Greenleaf's suspicious friend, Freddie Miles, whom Ripley eventually murders. Ripley ultimately forges Greenleaf's will, leaving himself the dead man's inheritance. The novel ends with Ripley, having narrowly evaded capture, sailing to Greece and rejoicing in his newfound wealth. However, the book's final passages hint that he will pay for his freedom with a lifetime of paranoia, as he wonders whether "he was going to see policemen waiting for him on every pier that he ever approached".

As revealed in the sequel, Ripley Under Ground (1970), set six years later, Ripley eventually settles down into a life of leisure in Belle Ombre, an estate on the outskirts of the fictional village of Villeperce-sur-Seine, which is stated as being "some forty miles south of Orly", "some twelve miles" from Fontainebleau, and "seven kilometres" from Moret. By now, he has added to his fortunes by marrying Héloise Plïsson, a rich socialite who has suspicions about how he makes his money, but prefers not to know. He avoids direct involvement in crime as much as possible in order to preserve his somewhat shady reputation, but he still occasionally finds himself involved in criminal enterprises, often aided by Reeves Minot, a small-time fence. Ripley's criminal exploits include a long-running art forgery scam (introduced in Ripley Under Ground and consistently mentioned in later books), an entanglement with the Mafia (in Ripley's Game), and several murders. While he comes perilously close to being caught several times, he is never arrested for any of his crimes.