Editors Reads Verdict
Highsmith's most personal novel and a landmark of LGBTQ+ literature — a love story told without apology, ending without punishment, written under a pseudonym she maintained for thirty years.
What We Loved
- The love story is genuinely tender and precisely observed
- Therese's point of view is beautifully rendered
- The 1950s New York atmosphere is impeccably detailed
Minor Drawbacks
- Quieter and less thriller-driven than her other work — different expectations required
- The plot mechanics around Carol's divorce are occasionally laborious
Key Takeaways
- → The first mainstream American novel to end a lesbian love story happily
- → Highsmith's most autobiographical work — based on a real encounter
- → Published under pseudonym for decades; claimed as her own only late in her life
| Author | Patricia Highsmith |
|---|---|
| Publisher | W. W. Norton |
| Pages | 292 |
| Published | January 1, 1952 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Literary Fiction, Romance, LGBTQ+ Fiction |
| Difficulty | Beginner |
| Best For | Literary fiction readers; LGBTQ+ fiction readers; fans of the 2015 film |
It is 1952. Therese Belivet works in the toy department of a Manhattan department store over the Christmas rush, designing theatre sets in her spare time, and going through the motions of a relationship with a young man she does not love. Carol Aird comes to the counter to buy a doll for her daughter. She is blonde, elegant, in her mid-thirties, and everything Therese has not known to want.
What follows is a love story — careful, precise, told entirely through Therese’s perspective, which is the perspective of someone who has not yet understood that she is capable of love, let alone this kind of love. Carol invites her to lunch, then to her house in New Jersey, then on a road trip west. Carol’s husband, aware of her previous relationships with women and using the fact in the divorce, has hired a private detective. The road west is also a flight.
Carol — originally published as The Price of Salt under the pseudonym Claire Morgan, because Highsmith feared her crime-writing career could not survive it — is the most directly personal thing she ever wrote, based on an encounter with a customer when she herself worked in a department store in 1948. It is also the most anomalous: a love story, not a thriller, with a genuinely happy ending, written by the author who specialised in the psychology of guilt. Todd Haynes filmed it in 2015 with Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, and both the film and the novel deserve their reputations.
Reading Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "Carol" about?
Therese Belivet, a young woman working in a New York department store, meets Carol Aird — older, wealthy, in the midst of a difficult divorce. A love story told with Highsmith's characteristic precision, remarkable for its time because it ends happily. Originally published in 1952 under the pseudonym Claire Morgan as 'The Price of Salt', it was the first novel in American publishing to portray a lesbian relationship without punishment or renunciation. Filmed in 2015 with Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara.
Who should read "Carol"?
Literary fiction readers; LGBTQ+ fiction readers; fans of the 2015 film
What are the key takeaways from "Carol"?
The first mainstream American novel to end a lesbian love story happily Highsmith's most autobiographical work — based on a real encounter Published under pseudonym for decades; claimed as her own only late in her life
Is "Carol" worth reading?
Highsmith's most personal novel and a landmark of LGBTQ+ literature — a love story told without apology, ending without punishment, written under a pseudonym she maintained for thirty years.
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