Monsieur Ripley Review

For forty years, Tom Ripley killed, lied, and thrived across five novels. He was never caught. Not because he was lucky, but because he learned to become Monsieur . And society loves a gentleman. This article is dedicated to the memory of Patricia Highsmith, who knew that the devil doesn’t wear Prada—he wears a custom-tailored suit from Charvet, and he lives two towns over.

However, before that book, Highsmith penned a crucial bridge novel in 1955: . Yet, there is a specific psychological figure that haunts the series—a version of Tom that is not a striver or a chameleon, but a settled, comfortable monster. In French literary criticism and among hardcore fans, this figure is often referred to as Monsieur Ripley . The Birth of the Gentleman Criminal The shift from Mr. Ripley to Monsieur Ripley is a shift in class and confidence. In the first novel, Tom is an American nobody—a sociopathic grifter living in New York, scamming the IRS and sleeping in a squalid boarding house. When he is sent to Italy to coax the playboy Dickie Greenleaf home, he operates from a place of desperation. His murders (Dickie, then Freddie Miles) are reactive, clumsy, and soaked in panic.

For most of the world, the name “Tom Ripley” conjures the sun-drenched, morally ambiguous charm of Anthony Minghella’s 1999 film The Talented Mr. Ripley . We remember Matt Damon’s anxious sweat, Jude Law’s golden arrogance, and the unforgettable image of a jazz club in Venice. But for readers of Patricia Highsmith’s original “Ripliad,” there is a different, more disturbing apex to the character’s arc. It is not found in the debut novel, but in its 1964 sequel: The Boy Who Followed Ripley . monsieur ripley

This is the essence of Monsieur Ripley : the domestication of evil. He kills the way a businessman closes a merger—efficiently, without passion, and only when it is necessary to protect the comfort of his home. The title Monsieur is critical. Tom Ripley despises the raw, capitalistic hustle of America. He craves European aesthetics, manners, and impunity. In France, particularly in Highsmith’s adopted homeland, class is armor. A well-dressed man in a fine château is above suspicion.

The true Monsieur Ripley appears most fully in René Clément’s 1960 French-Italian adaptation, Purple Noon ( Plein Soleil ), starring Alain Delon. Here, Delon’s Ripley is cold, beautiful, and utterly French in his aesthetic cruelty. He is not pitiable. He is enviable. For forty years, Tom Ripley killed, lied, and

Unlike the chaotic streets of 1950s New York or the expat beaches of Mongibello, the French countryside offers Ripley a shield. The local gendarmes do not bother the wealthy Monsieur who pays his taxes on time. Highsmith uses the French setting to ask a profound question: If evil is quiet, well-mannered, and socially useful, is it still evil? It is important to distinguish Monsieur Ripley from his cinematic counterparts. While Minghella’s film is a masterpiece of tragic longing, it ends with Tom still yearning, still alone, staring at a ring in the dark.

In Ripley’s Game , a local art framer, Jonathan Trevanny, insults Tom at a party. Tom does not explode in rage. He waits. He methodically engineers a situation where Jonathan is framed for a mob hit, forcing the innocent man to become a killer to save his family. Tom then befriends Jonathan, becoming a paternalistic mentor in murder. And society loves a gentleman

Monsieur Ripley is a warning wrapped in a linen jacket. He tells us that talent, charm, and taste are not virtues. They are weapons. And in the right hands—steady, unfeeling, French-cuffed hands—they are enough to get away with murder.