Enjoy reading june 2016

EL PRAT DE LLOBREGAT

June 2016 ENGLISH READING CLUB ENJOY READING!

PATRICIA HIGHSMITH

The talented Mr Ripley

PATRICIA HIGHSMITH (Fort Worth, Texas, January 19, 1921 – Locarno, Switzerland, February 4, 1995)

Mary Patricia Plangman – Patricia 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.

Highsmith had an unhappy childhood. Her parents separated several months before her birth, and she spent her earliest years with her maternal grandmother, who taught her to read before Highsmith was two years old. Highsmith’s mother remarried and brought Highsmith to New York when the girl was about six. Her mother and stepfather frequently fought bitterly, and Highsmith developed a strong dislike for both.

She studied English at Barnard College, then took a job writing comic book scripts. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train, was rejected by six publishers before appearing in print in 1950. Alfred Hitchcock directed a 1951 film version of the movie, scripted by Raymond Chandler.

As a writer, she was far more interested in the psychology of her characters than she was in writing typical detective stories. In fact, her favorite character, charming murderer Tom Ripley, is never caught and indeed finds fortune and prosperity from his string of murders.

Highsmith spent most of her adult life living abroad, eventually settling in Switzerland after stints in the United Kingdom, Italy, and France.She had sexual relationships mostly with women. Although she had occasionally engaged in sex with men she did not feel physical attraction for them and wrote in her diary that "the male face...isn't beautiful to me. She never married or had children and lived alone, except for her many cats. An animal lover, she wrote an entire short story collection, The Animal Lover’s Book of Beastly Murders (1975), in which animals avenge themselves on their human owners.

Highsmith wrote a number of other novels and short stories, often macabre, over her long career. She is considered one of the more literary novelists in the crime genre. From 1963 until her death, the reclusive Highsmith lived in Europe. She died of leukemia in and her last novel, 'Small g: a Summer Idyll', was published posthumously a month later.

SELECTED WORKS Novels Strangers on a Train (1950) The Price of Salt (as Claire Morgan) (1952) (republished as Carol in 1990 under Highsmith's name) The Blunderer (1954) The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) Deep Water (1957) A Game for the Living (1958) This Sweet Sickness (1960) The Cry of the Owl (1962) The Two Faces of January (1964) The Glass Cell (1964) A Suspension of Mercy (1965) Those Who Walk Away (1967) The Tremor of Forgery (1969) Ripley Under Ground (1970) A Dog's Ransom (1972) Ripley's Game (1974) Edith's Diary (1977) The Boy Who Followed Ripley (1980) People Who Knock on the Door (1983) Found in the Street (1986) Ripley Under Water (1991) Small g: a Summer Idyll (1995)

Short-story collections Eleven (1970; also known as The Snail-Watcher and Other Stories), introduction by Graham Greene Little Tales of Misogyny (1974) The Animal Lover's Book of Beastly Murder (1975) Slowly, Slowly in the Wind (1979) The Black House (1981) Mermaids on the Golf Course (1985) Tales of Natural and Unnatural Catastrophes (1987) Chillers (1990) Nothing That Meets the Eye: The Uncollected Stories (2002; posthumously published)

The talented Mr Ripley (1955) Tom Ripley is struggling to stay one step ahead of his creditors and the law, when an unexpected acquaintance offers him a free

trip

to

Europe

and

a

chance

to

start

over.

Ripley wants money, success and the good life and he's willing to kill for it. When his new-found happiness is threatened, his response is as swift as it is shocking.

Tom Ripley has been played in the movies by Dennis Hopper (“The American Friend”, 1977), Matt Damon (“The Talented Mr. Ripley”, 1999) and John Malkovich (“Ripley’s Game”, 2002), among others.

Biblioteca Antonio Martín Plaça Catalunya, 39-41 08820 El Prat de Llobregat Telèfon: 93.370.51.52 b.prat.am@diba.cat www.biblioteca.elprat.cat

Horaris Hivern Dilluns de 15.30 a 21h De dimarts a divendres de 10 a 21h Dissabte de 10 a 19h Estiu

Juliol:

Dilluns de 15.30 a 21 hores.

De dimarts a divendres de 10 a 21 hores Dissabtes de 10 a 14 hores

Agost:

Dilluns a divendres de 15.30 a 21 hores.

Dissabtes de 10 a 14 hores