Edith's Diary

Highsmith probes to the very core of her heroine with a controlled ferocity and single-mindedness that illuminates every page of her novel. It is a masterly book, a haunting book, a book that lingers long in the memory and constantly disturbs and delights * The Times * Edith's Diary is certainly one of the saddest novels I ever read, but it is also one of the mere twenty or so that I would say were perfect, unimprovable masterpieces -- A. N. Wilson * Telegraph * As original, as funny, as cleverly written and as moving as any novel I have read since I started reviewing -- Auberon Waugh * Evening Standard * Edith's fall takes the form of a psychological chiller, but there is also something larger, the poignancy of her struggle not to go under. She is betrayed by such ordinary dreams -- New York Times A work of extraordinary force and feeling . . . her strongest, her most imaginative and by far her most substantial novel * New Yorker * Moral speculations surface about the respective responsibilities of the uncaring and the unloved, tenterhooks cushioned with an enveloping intimacy of character and place * Kirkus Reviews * Highsmith's novels are peerlessly disturbing ....bad dreams that keep us thrashing for the rest of the night * The New Yorker * Edith's fall takes the form of a psychological chiller, but there is also something larger, the poignancy of her struggle not to go under. She is betrayed by such ordinary dreams * New York Times * Highsmith probes to the very core of her heroine with a controlled ferocity and single-mindedness that illumines every page of her novel. It is a masterly book, a haunting book, a book that lingers long in the memory and constantly disturbs and delights. -- The Times * The Times * A work of extraordinary force and feeling . . . her strongest, her most imaginative and by far her most substantial novel -- New Yorker * New Yorker * As original, as funny, as cleverly written and as moving as any novel I have read since I started reviewing -- Auberon Waugh * The Evening Standard * Edith's Diary is certainly one of the saddest novels I ever read, but it is also one of the mere twenty or so that I would say were perfect, unimprovable masterpieces -- A.N Wilson * Daily Telegraph *

Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995) was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and moved to New York when she was six. In her senior year, she edited the college magazine, having decided at the age of sixteen to become a writer. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train (1950), was made into a classic film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951. The Talented Mr Ripley (1955), introduced the fascinating anti-hero Tom Ripley, and was made into an Oscar-winning film in 1999 by Anthony Minghella. Highsmith died in Locarno, Switzerland, in February 1995. Her last novel, Small g: A Summer Idyll, was published posthumously, the same year.