A Real Look at Patricia Highsmith's Early Novel
The Price of Salt is a 1952 novel by Patricia Highsmith, originally published under the pen name Claire Morgan. It tells the story of Therese Belivet, a young department store clerk who meets an older married woman named Carol Aird on a Christmas Eve trip. The book became notable because it was one of the first mainstream lesbian novels to give its central couple a happy ending instead of the usual tragic punishment that was standard at the time. I picked up a vintage paperback edition a few years ago at a used bookshop in Portland. The cover was faded, the spine cracked, and the paper had that distinct vanilla-almond smell that only old paper gets. It was a decent copy but not pristine. I've since read several different editions — the Norton Critical Edition, a Penguin modern reprint, and a Spanish translation called Carol. The text is essentially the same across them, though some annotations in the Norton version are actually useful if you want to understand the publication history and the censorship challenges Highsmith faced.
Claire Morgan The Price Of Salt: What Makes It Different
Most people know Highridge from her Rope of Gold series featuring Tom Ripley. The Price of Salt is completely different in tone. It is warm, hopeful, and relatively uncharacteristic of her later dark work. Some critics argue it reads almost like a romance novel, which Highsmith herself reportedly found embarrassing. She initially wrote it quickly to pay rent, taking advances from two publishers simultaneously. Here is something most summary pages miss: the novel was written during a period when Highsmith was living in Europe and grappling with her own sexuality. She never publicly acknowledged being a lesbian during her lifetime, but the correspondence and biographical material make it clear the book drew from personal experience. That background matters because it explains why the ending feels so deliberately hopeful — she was writing something she wanted to be true rather than something she expected to happen. The structure is straightforward. Therese works at Bergdorf Goodman. She crosses paths with Carol, who is going through a messy divorce and fighting for custody of her daughter. They drive across the country together. The affair develops quietly. Carol returns to her husband temporarily. Therese reinvents herself as a photographer. They reunite at the end. That is basically the entire plot, and it works because Highsmith writes with enormous restraint. Nothing is sensationalized.
One thing I noticed re-reading it recently: the secondary characters are surprisingly underdeveloped. Highsmith focuses almost entirely on the interior lives of Therese and Carol. Richard, Therese's early boyfriend, exists mostly as a foil. Abbie, Carol's friend, provides comic relief but little depth. If you are looking for a rich ensemble cast, this is not it. The book is intimate by design, and that limitation is also its strength. The legal and publishing history is worth knowing. The original publication was anonymous — no author name, just "by the author of Strangers on a Train." This was partly because Highsmith did not want her mainstream thriller reputation attached to a lesbian romance, and partly because publishers knew the market would be hostile. The book sold well enough on word of mouth that it went through multiple printings. It was republished under Highsmith's real name in 1963 when social attitudes shifted slightly, and again in various editions afterward. If you want to read it, the easiest route is any major bookstore or library. The Norton Critical Edition is the most annotated version and worth getting if you plan to study the book academically. The Penguin Classics paperback is fine for a casual read. There are also audiobook versions narrated by Celia Imrie and Jessica Hecht that handle the material well.
Get the Full Details
The 2015 film adaptation directed by Todd Haynes, starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, takes some liberties but captures the overall feeling of the novel. I would recommend reading the book first. The film is good but compresses a lot of Therese's internal development into visual shorthand, and you lose some of the quiet precision of Highsmith's prose in the process. There are not many other books quite like it from that era. Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness, published decades earlier, ends in tragedy and was famously banned. Highsmith's novel was a deliberate rejection of that tradition. It proved that a lesbian story could end with the characters together and still be taken seriously as literature. That may seem obvious now, but in 1952 it was genuinely radical. The prose itself is clean and unadorned. Highsmith was never a stylistic showoff. She writes in clear sentences that move steadily forward. Some readers find it plain. I find it reliable. The emotional beats land because they are earned through small accumulated details rather than dramatic declarations. A glance across a room. A hand hesitating before touching someone else's. A silence in a motel room that says everything.
I do not think this book is for everyone. If you want plot twists or intellectual puzzles, stick with the Ripley novels. If you want lush lyrical prose, try Edmund White or Jeanette Winterson instead. But if you want a quietly written story about two women finding each other against real social pressure, it remains one of the best examples of that particular kind of novel.
