With 'The Talented Mr. Ripley' (1955), Patricia Highsmith opened new dimensions in the crime novel: the focus is not on the detective, but on the double murderer, from whose perspective the story is told. The novel, which has long reached classic or cult status among millions of crime fans, was adapted into films by René Clément (with Alain Delon) in 1959 and by Anthony Minghella (with Matt Damon) in 1999. This is an unabridged and unedited text edition in the original language, with translations of difficult words at the bottom of each page, a postscript, and literary references.