Carol
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First published in 1952 under the pseudonym Claire Morgan and the title The Price of Salt, Patricia Highsmith’s Carol is a love story that quietly challenged the conventions of its time. Therese Belivet, a young sales assistant in a Manhattan department store, meets Carol Aird, an elegant married woman in the midst of a divorce. What begins as an encounter across a shop counter develops into an attachment that draws both women beyond the boundaries of their familiar lives.
Set against the social constraints of post-war America, the novel explores desire, independence, class, and the risks of choosing a life outside accepted expectations. Distinct from the psychological menace of Highsmith’s better-known thrillers, Carol reveals her gift for tension and moral ambiguity within a deeply intimate story. Its refusal of the tragic conventions traditionally imposed on queer characters made it a landmark of lesbian literature; republished under Highsmith’s own name in 1990, it remains one of her most affecting works.
From the book
“Happiness was like a green vine spreading through her, stretching fine tendrils, bearing flowers through her flesh.”
— Patricia Highsmith, Carol
On Carol
“An original, honest novel, a remarkable imaginative achievement by any standard.”
— Financial Times