Carol

Carol, first published as The Price of Salt under the pseudonym Claire Morgan, is Patricia Highsmith's lesbian love story. Highsmith, better known for Strangers on a Train and the Ripley novels, drew the idea from a mysterious woman she once noticed in a shop and briefly followed.

The story begins with Therese Belivet, a young woman working in a New York department store, who meets Carol Aird, an elegant older woman buying a gift in the toy department. The two are drawn together.

The book was notable in its day for letting its characters hope for happiness, which broke with the lesbian pulp formula of the time. Its characters also went against common stereotypes about homosexuality. Both of these made it popular with lesbian readers in the 1950s. It later fell out of print and was reissued, and it is now regarded as a pioneering work of lesbian romance. It was adapted into a film directed by Todd Haynes, starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara.