Ripley Under Ground

Rating:
Summary: The artistic killer and his bourgeois victims
Review: "Ripley Under Ground" is the first book in the Ripley series to follow the talented Mr. Ripley. It establishes Tom Ripley as a married man living on a French estate and explains much of his transition from parasitic murderer to suave psychopath. This novel is possibly the most psychological one in the Ripley series since it endows Ripley with a tremendous artistic sensibility that often validates his homicidal choices.

In this novel, Ripley has evolved from a sponger and a drifter to a country gentleman. In true aristocratic fashion, he shuns professional life and devotes his energy to painting, gardening, language study, and--well--forgery. Ripley plays a pivotal role in setting up a forgery ring in England that produces the work of a dead painter whom the world believes is still alive. Unfortunately, an art aficionado discovers some of the forgeries and begins an investigation that threatens to expose the ring. In an effort to validate the forgeries, Ripley disguises himself as the dead painter and holds a press conference. The investigator attends the conference but remains unconvinced. As a result, Ripley (in his own guise) invites him to his estate and subsequently murders him. This puts Ripley in an ironic predicament since the police approach him not only in search of the missing investigator, but also in search of the dead painter who, thanks to Ripley's impersonation, they believe is still alive. To complicate matters more, the forger himself appears at Ripley's estate in a state of agitation ready to confess his crime to the world. Somehow Ripley must avoid incrimination, subdue the distraught forger, and prevent the police from searching for the dead painter whom he inadvertently brought back to life.

The most fascinating aspect of this novel is the artistic sensibility that seems to govern Ripley's homicidal choices. For example, the investigator whom Ripley murders is more concerned with commercial authenticity than artistic value. He ignores Ripley's argument that the successful forger is as great as the artist he imitates and retorts that building a reputation on forgery is like stealing another person's bank account. When Ripley murders him, one wonders if he does so out of artistic revolt rather than self-preservation. This idea is reinforced by Ripley's refusal to kill the forger even after the forger attempts to murder him. Despite the enormous danger posed by the forger, Ripley is affectionate and nurturing toward him.

Is this thriller really an assault on middle class values? I think so. Ripley the art connoisseur loves his forged paintings and his genuine ones equally. Unlike the investigator, he feels no need to distinguish between them as long as they are of the same aesthetic caliber. While Ripley despises the business concerns of his forgery partners, he admires the forger who paints for passion rather than profit.

Equally as interesting is the attitude of Ripley's wife. Ripley confesses his murder to her and indicates that she knew of his homicidal past even before marrying him. He frequently alludes to her amoral tendencies which, no doubt, are quite compatible with his own.

I recommend "Ripley Under Ground" as a thriller, a psychological study, and a novel of ideas.

Rating:
Summary: The artistic killer and his bourgeois victims
Review: "Ripley Under Ground" is the first book in the Ripley series to follow the talented Mr. Ripley. It establishes Tom Ripley as a married man living on a French estate and explains much of his transition from parasitic murderer to suave psychopath. This novel is possibly the most psychological one in the Ripley series since it endows Ripley with a tremendous artistic sensibility that often validates his homicidal choices.

In this novel, Ripley has evolved from a sponger and a drifter to a country gentleman. In true aristocratic fashion, he shuns professional life and devotes his energy to painting, gardening, language study, and--well--forgery. Ripley plays a pivotal role in setting up a forgery ring in England that produces the work of a dead painter whom the world believes is still alive. Unfortunately, an art aficionado discovers some of the forgeries and begins an investigation that threatens to expose the ring. In an effort to validate the forgeries, Ripley disguises himself as the dead painter and holds a press conference. The investigator attends the conference but remains unconvinced. As a result, Ripley (in his own guise) invites him to his estate and subsequently murders him. This puts Ripley in an ironic predicament since the police approach him not only in search of the missing investigator, but also in search of the dead painter who, thanks to Ripley's impersonation, they believe is still alive. To complicate matters more, the forger himself appears at Ripley's estate in a state of agitation ready to confess his crime to the world. Somehow Ripley must avoid incrimination, subdue the distraught forger, and prevent the police from searching for the dead painter whom he inadvertently brought back to life.

The most fascinating aspect of this novel is the artistic sensibility that seems to govern Ripley's homicidal choices. For example, the investigator whom Ripley murders is more concerned with commercial authenticity than artistic value. He ignores Ripley's argument that the successful forger is as great as the artist he imitates and retorts that building a reputation on forgery is like stealing another person's bank account. When Ripley murders him, one wonders if he does so out of artistic revolt rather than self-preservation. This idea is reinforced by Ripley's refusal to kill the forger even after the forger attempts to murder him. Despite the enormous danger posed by the forger, Ripley is affectionate and nurturing toward him.

Is this thriller really an assault on middle class values? I think so. Ripley the art connoisseur loves his forged paintings and his genuine ones equally. Unlike the investigator, he feels no need to distinguish between them as long as they are of the same aesthetic caliber. While Ripley despises the business concerns of his forgery partners, he admires the forger who paints for passion rather than profit.

Equally as interesting is the attitude of Ripley's wife. Ripley confesses his murder to her and indicates that she knew of his homicidal past even before marrying him. He frequently alludes to her amoral tendencies which, no doubt, are quite compatible with his own.

I recommend "Ripley Under Ground" as a thriller, a psychological study, and a novel of ideas.

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time
Review: All the problems with the mystery genre are typified by this novel: pedestrian writing, plot holes big enough to fly a plane through, flat characterization, totally implausible motivations, and a basic premise that just doesn't make any reasonable sense if you pause long enough to think about it. If Highsmith is one of the "stars" of this field, mystery readers must have very low standards.

Rating:
Summary: Hypnotic suspense
Review: Another adventure with Patricia Highsmith's lovely character Thomas Ripley. This book follows the author's "The Talented Mr Ripley" so that the reader is already acquainted with most of the protagonists like Dick and Chris Greenleaf, Bernard Murchisson or Tom's wife Heloise. When Ed Banbury and Jeff Constant, owners of the Buckmaster Gallery in London, decide to open a new show featuring paintings by the famous Derwatt, the situation becomes uncomfortable when the American collector, Murchisson, claims that a painting he bought three years ago is a fake. Knowing that Derwatt died years ago in Greece and that Bernard had been forging paintings by "Derwatt", allegedly living in a remote village in Mexico, it will take all of Ripley's talent to clean the reputation of the Buckmaster Gallery, as Murchisson's visit to London is imminent. Mrs Highsmith's highly successful ingredients are all present in this novel: crime, horror, humour and suspense.

Rating:
Summary: A great reading
Review: Another adventure with Patricia Highsmith's lovely character Thomas Ripley. This book follows the author's "The Talented Mr Ripley" so that the reader is already acquainted with most of the protagonists like Dick and Chris Greenleaf, Bernard Murchisson or Tom's wife Heloise. When Ed Banbury and Jeff Constant, owners of the Buckmaster Gallery in London, decide to open a new show featuring paintings by the famous Derwatt, the situation becomes uncomfortable when the American collector, Murchisson, claims that a painting he bought three years ago is a fake. Knowing that Derwatt died years ago in Greece and that Bernard had been forging paintings by "Derwatt", allegedly living in a remote village in Mexico, it will take all of Ripley's talent to clean the reputation of the Buckmaster Gallery, as Murchisson's visit to London is imminent. Mrs Highsmith's highly successful ingredients are all present in this novel: crime, horror, humour and suspense.
Nigel Lambert reading Patricia Highsmith's "Ripley Under Ground" is a masterpiece. All the humour and suspense is rendered splendidly by Mr Lambert's beautiful reading.


Rating:
Summary: Ripley Under Ground
Review: Hello? Where is the nervous, insecure, most probably insane pathological liar we met in the excellent "Talented..." This book is a weak sequel, with an improbable plot, and a house full of guests that has Ripley running back and forth like a character in a 1930's comedy. How stupid are the police? A seasoned detective can't tell the guy's wearing makeup and a fake beard from a few feet away? The ending is just ridiculous: the cop takes Ripleys word about some very strange goings on in the middle of the Salzburg woods, and that's the end of it. If it were this easy to get away with murder, I would have tried it myself.

Rating:
Summary: Amoralists can't all be this dull.
Review: I thought I'd try this book because I enjoyed both of the films about Ripley. But take away the acting of Matt Damon and John Malkovich and Ripley loses his depth as a fascinatingly ambiguous amoralist, and turns into just a bore in a dressing gown who happens to kill a lot of people. Furthermore, Highsmith seems to have only one literary trick up her sleeve: describe a bunch of horrific acts in deadpan, Hemingwayesque prose so that your reader can shiver and marvel at the incongruity of it all. Well, ho hum.

Rating:
Summary: Study in Amorality
Review: If you read this series of novels by Patricia Highsmith with care you must come away from the experience disturbed to say the least. Under the guise of a murder mystery or suspense novel she ruthlessly spotlights middle-class morality and its' hypocrisy. Then again, maybe it's just a simple murder mystery after all. It's all up to you.

Rating:
Summary: Ripley is as Talented as Ever
Review: In this, the second book of the Ripley series, we find Tom Ripley married and living in the country. He devotes most of his time to painting and gardening, and oh--there's this little art forgery scam he's involved in, and it's about to be exposed. Ripley isn't so much concerned with the forgeries; it's that his father-in-law contributes significantly to his very comfortable way of life, and Ripley fears that if he's linked to any more scandal, he's likely to be cut off for good.

Highsmith very effectively makes us sypathize with and even root for Ripley as he goes to great lengths to keep from being exposed. This book is slow-paced, but once Ripley decides to take matters into his own hands, it's a riveting read.

Rating:
Summary: What imagaination!
Review: It's a very interesting novel about a picture forging company which is peppered with a murder case, a suicide and the living funeral of the main character. I'd never have thought that a story about forging paintings could be as interesting as that. It almost compels me to read another one of the Ripley books, like "Ripley Under Water" or "The Talented Mr. Ripley"