Ripley Under Ground

Six years have passed since Tom Ripley arrived in Europe and, by murdering Dickie Greenleaf, inherited his money—and with it the habits of rich people who don’t have to think much about bread and daily needs. Tom is happily married to the millionaire’s daughter and lives in luxury on a French villa near Orly. Like Dickie, Mr. Ripley, a convert to aestheticism and hedonism, devotes his leisure time to painting; he is surrounded by beautiful works of art, and immortal music soothes the ear. His life seems serene until a phone call from London breaks its calm flow.

The swindle involving forging and selling paintings that Ripley got involved in a few years ago is about to come to light. And Ripley goes to London, hardly caring about the price he will have to pay so the matter doesn’t become public… “Mr. Ripley Under Ground” is the second book in the series about Mr. Ripley—the most popular character of Patricia Highsmith—who lives in a strange world where the dead rise from graves, where play and reality are indistinguishable, and where a forgery can sometimes seem more valuable than the original.

Like the other books of the “Ripley” series, this one was enormously successful with readers, translated into many languages, and based on it, a film was made in 2005 with Barry Pepper in the lead role (in Russian release, the film came out under the title “The Return of Mr. Ripley”).