Patricia Highsmith published The Price of Salt in 1952 under a pseudonym. At a time when love between women was either hidden or portrayed as shameful or doomed, Highsmith dared to imagine another scenario. The Price of Salt-now a major film, Carol, starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara-tells the story of Therese, a young woman starting out in New York City, and Carol, a suburban wife facing divorce, whose chance meeting sparks an unexpected and life-changing connection. With extraordinary acuity and burning tenderness, Highsmith depicts the evolution of their relationship in powerfully resonant terms.

Highsmith, rightly famous for psychological thrillers including Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley, here focuses her singular powers of observation on the nature of desire, intimacy, and freedom. The Price of Salt, one of the great novels of the twentieth-century, is a deeply moving love story and a gripping work of art that dramatizes an ethical path toward human happiness. This Warbler Classics edition includes a new introduction by pathbreaking literary scholar Catharine R. Stimpson.