The Price of Salt (1952)

by Patricia Highsmith

Other authors: See the other authors section.

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Fiction. Literature. HTML: A chance encounter between two lonely women leads to a passionate romance in this lesbian cult classic. Therese, a struggling young sales clerk, and Carol, a homemaker in the midst of a bitter divorce, abandon their oppressive daily routines for the freedom of the open road, where their love can blossom. But their newly discovered bliss is shattered when Carol is forced to choose between her child and her lover. Author Patricia Highsmith is best known for her psychological thrillers Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley. Originally published in 1952 under a pseudonym, The Price of Salt was heralded as "the novel of a love society forbids." Highsmith's sensitive treatment of fully realized characters who defy stereotypes about homosexuality marks a departure from previous lesbian pulp fiction. Erotic, eloquent, and suspenseful, this story offers an honest look at the necessity of being true to one's nature. .… (more)

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	Group › Topic	Messages	Last Message
	Monthly Author Reads: June 2019: Patricia Highsmith	24 unread / 24	Bookmarque, July 2019

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English (107) Dutch (2) Italian (1) Catalan (1) Swedish (1) All languages (112)

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Showing 1-5 of 107 (next | show all)

Slow sweet romance and coming of age. (

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coprime | Nov 24, 2024 |

The first edition of this book was my choice for a rare books acquisitions assignment last semester. I've read some Valerie Taylor and a few other books from the Femme Fatale: Women Write Pulp reissue series. A fun read before the semester begins. (

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RichmondLibrary | Nov 15, 2024 |

Absolutely exquisite. My heart was in my throat from cover to cover. (

)

papercrowns | Aug 6, 2024 |

What a strange book! People say it has a happy/bittersweet ending, but that did not prepare me.
https://donut-donut.dreamwidth.org/878701.html (

)

amydross | Jun 26, 2024 |

“Was it love or wasn't it that she felt for Carol? And how absurd it was that she didn't even know. She had heard about girls falling in love, and she knew what kind of people they were and what they looked like. Neither she nor Carol looked like that. Yet the way she felt about Carol passed all the tests for love and fitted all the descriptions.”

First published in 1952, Highsmith's "The Price of Salt" was likely considered quite risque at its debut as it explores the intimate relationship between 19-year old Therese and the older Carol -- a wealthy woman with a young daughter who is going through a divorce (this book is also the basis for the movie "Carol," recently out in theaters).

If you're looking for a book that explores the depths of human relationships -- as well as their costs -- you've come to the right place. Emotions abound in the text as Therese and Carol sort out their feelings about life, friends, family, and each other.

Highsmith also makes the 1950s come alive -- cocktails, records, road trips, and fashion. But most profoundly Highsmith exposes the challenges Therese and Carol face from society.

“She had seen just now what she had only sensed before, that the whole world was ready to be their enemy, and suddenly what she and Carol had together seemed no longer love or anything happy but a monster between them, with each of them caught in a fist.”

While I enjoyed the entire book, the last couple of chapters were particularly satisfying. (

)

jj24 | May 27, 2024 |

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Showing 1-5 of 107 (next | show all)

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▾Other authors

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Patricia Highsmith	—	primary author	all editions	calculated
Campbell, Cassandra	Narrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Lefkow, Laurel	Narrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Stromberg, Kyra	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

Belongs to Publisher Series

The Arno Series on Homosexuality

detebe (22487)

Virago Modern Classics (616)

Is contained in

Patricia Highsmith: Selected Novels and Short Stories by Patricia Highsmith

Has the adaptation

Carol [2015 film] by Todd Haynes

Inspired

Flung Out of Space: Inspired by the Indecent Adventures of Patricia Highsmith by Grace Ellis

Carol in a Thousand Cities by Ann Aldrich

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▾Common Knowledge

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Canonical title

Original title

The Price of Salt

Alternative titles

Carol

The Price of Salt

Original publication date

People/Characters

Important places

New York, New York, USA

New Jersey, USA

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Waterloo, Iowa, USA

Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

(show all 8 items)

Important events

Related movies

Carol (2015 | IMDb)

Epigraph

Dedication

To Edna, Jordy and Jeff

First words

The lunch hour in the co-workers' cafeteria at Frankenberg's had reached its peak.

Quotations

Happiness was like a green vine spreading through her, stretching fine tendrils, bearing flowers through her flesh.

She had seen just now what she had only sensed before, that the whole world was ready to be their enemy, and suddenly what she and Carol had together seemed no longer love or anything happy but a monster between them, with each of them caught in a fist.

I don't mean people like that. I mean two people who fall in love suddenly with each other, out of the blue. Say two men or two girls ... I suppose it could happen, though, to almost anyone, couldn't it?

They're not horrid. One's just supposed to conform. I know what they'd like, they'd like a blank they could fill in. A person already filled in disturbs them terribly.

Remember what you said about physics not applying to people? ... Well, I’m not sure you’re
right ... Take friendships, for instance. I can think of a lot of cases where the two people have nothing in common. I think there’s a definite reason for every friendship just as there’s a reason why certain atoms unite and others don’t—certain missing factors in one, or certain present factors in the other—what do you think? I think friendships are the result of certain needs that can be completely hidden from both people, sometimes hidden forever.

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Carol was first published in the USA under the title The Price of Salt, 1952, and the author's pseudonym of Claire Morgan.

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Original language

Information from the German Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.

Amerikanisch

Canonical DDC/MDS

813.54

Canonical LCC

PR6015.I366

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (3)

Carol (soundtrack)

History of lesbianism in the United States

The Price of Salt

▾Book descriptions

Fiction. Literature. HTML:

A chance encounter between two lonely women leads to a passionate romance in this lesbian cult classic. Therese, a struggling young sales clerk, and Carol, a homemaker in the midst of a bitter divorce, abandon their oppressive daily routines for the freedom of the open road, where their love can blossom. But their newly discovered bliss is shattered when Carol is forced to choose between her child and her lover.

Author Patricia Highsmith is best known for her psychological thrillers Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley. Originally published in 1952 under a pseudonym, The Price of Salt was heralded as "the novel of a love society forbids." Highsmith's sensitive treatment of fully realized characters who defy stereotypes about homosexuality marks a departure from previous lesbian pulp fiction. Erotic, eloquent, and suspenseful, this story offers an honest look at the necessity of being true to one's nature.

▾Library descriptions

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Book description

Arguably Patricia Highsmith's finest, The Price of Salt is the story of Therese Belivet, a stage designer trapped in a department-store day job, whose salvation arrives one day in the form of Carol Aird, an alluring suburban housewife in the throes of a divorce. They fall in love and set out across the United States, pursued by a private investigator who eventually blackmails Carol into a choice between her daughter and her lover. With this reissue, The Price of Salt may finally be recognized as a major twentieth-century American novel.

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