The Secret History

by Tartt, Donna
ISBN: 9781400031702
4.5 (10)
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Used - Trade Paperback - 9781400031702

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Overview

Donna Tartt, winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for her most recent novel, The Goldfinch, established herself as a major talent with The Secret History, which has become a contemporary classic.

Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality their lives are changed profoundly and forever, and they discover how hard it can be to truly live and how easy it is to kill.

  • Format: TradePaperback
  • Author: Tartt, Donna
  • ISBN: 9781400031702
  • Condition: Used
  • Dimensions: 8.05 x 1.00
  • Number Of Pages: 576
  • Publication Year: 2004

Customer Reviews

Rating Snapshot

5 ★   70%
4 ★   10%
3 ★   20%
2 ★   0%
1 ★   0%
4.5
10 Ratings

10

10% Would Recommend
1 Recommendations

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  • The Secret History - Donna Tartt

    Would Recommend
    June M. - 1 month ago

    A very intricately told story with six main characters: Richard, the storyteller; Camila; Charles; Henry; Francis; and Bunny. The story is compelling from beginning to end. Very well written, complex, and the characters are endearing. Would highly recommend this book.

  • College fun gone bad

    Ashlie N. - 5 years 1 month ago

    I love literary friendships, and one of my favorites is between Donna Tartt and Brett Easton Ellis. If you've read The Rules of Attraction you may remember a passage with the one off line about the group of inclusive students studying classics at a nearby college. It's one line and it's easily lost if you don't realize that The Secret History is about those students. Don't worry, there's a one off line about the insufferable party students at Camden in this book. The Secret History takes a group of students who are all close and pushes them to the edge of what any friendship can endure. One night changes the course of their lives irrevocably and leaves them haunted beyond what most could ever endure. This book is not light, and it is not happy. It is however a great read, and if you loved Tartt's The Goldfinch I suggest you give this one a try.

    HPB Staff Review

  • THE SECRET HISTORY Will Live with You Forever

    Bobby u. - 5 years 6 months ago

    THE SECRET HISTORY debuted in 1992 but, for me, it seems like only yesterday. Donna Tartt's hypnotizing writing style with such beautiful language and detail with relatable, powerful characters set in a New England private college town make this book of captivating twists and turns a must read. You'll find out what happened on page one, but you will not want to put down the book until you find out why it happened. #BannedBook

  • Donna Tartt novel

    Laura R. - 5 years 8 months ago

    Strong characters who you thought you could predict the behavior of but you were still caught off guard. Even though you knew an event was about to happen it still brought a sense of shock. I enjoyed the setting and the twists and turns along the way, kind of a coming-of-age story but college kids in my day were NOT this mature or corrupt.

    HPB Staff Review

  • A campus murder greek tragedy that starts off with five stars but fades to one

    Benjamin R. - 5 years 9 months ago

    I both LOVED and HATED this book. How you ask? Here's how: The novel is divided into two sections, book 1 and book 2. Book 1: It started off with so much promise. A murder is committed in the prologue, where the murderers are already revealed, so instead of a who-dun-it, it becomes a why-dun-it. Intriguing. Then Donna Tartt starts to build an atmospheric tale about a small liberal arts college where a select group of students study Classics with an enigmatic professor. Like an exclusive club, the reader wants in. We get that chance from the narrator, Richard, who as an outsider, gains access to this group and becomes friends with Henry, Bunny, Camilla, Charles, and Francis. Through vivid descriptions of the weather, the college, the characters' attire, eating and drinking habits, the mysterious world of privilege and elitism that these eccentric kids inhabit is brought to life. And as a reader, we're happy to suspend belief to make it all plausible. After all, we're looking for an escape into a different world. So we ride along with Richard, and slowly but surely the mystery of the why-dun-it is revealed to horrifying effect. Because this novel is written in the first person, you find out everything at the same time the narrator Richard does. So in a weird way, you feel complicit in the crime once you know the reason. The taut rope of suspense holds your attention all the way until the climax (end of book 1) where it circles back to the the prologue. In my opinion, it was perfection. And should have been the end. Except the novel continues on for another 300+ pages. But as a reader, we've basically just climbed a (emotional) mountain and reached the pinnacle. The view was magnificent, breathtaking even, but now we're tired, and we just want to go to bed (or onto a new book). Instead, Donna Tartt makes the descent more arduous than the climb. Book 2: In what I suppose was an intended character study of the aftermath of the murder, everything Donna Tartt did in book 1 made me hate book 2. The descriptions of the weather that had been atmospheric now felt repetitive and monotonous. Every time I came across another line about the sun, the light, the wind, or (lack of) sleeping, I want to scream: just get on with it. Same for the eating and drinking as it becomes a hot mess of alcoholism coupled by pill-popping by the main characters. I found myself wanting to drink mass amounts of alcohol when I realized I still had so many pages to go. A ton of secondary characters are suddenly introduced (family members, other students, the police, etc) but their aloofness and coldness makes the reader extremely skeptical. Really? A student died and the only person that (barely) sheds a tear is his Dad? My suspension of belief is snapped and I start to questioning things. Also, the sheer lack of humanity shown by all the characters means you start hating the whole lot of them. The first person narration also becomes a barrier in book 2 in that you can never get any straight answers. In book 1, it's a wonderful device to create suspense. In book 2, there's no suspense left. Instead it simply leaves the reader incredibly frustrated because you only know what the other characters tell Richard, and they're not telling him anything anymore. At this point you realize you've now been shut out of the exclusive club. At first, you wait patiently by the door, hoping someone will let you back in. But as the pages dwindle, you realize no one is, so you cease to care. Towards the end, I felt like I was being held hostage by this book. It went from something that I couldn't wait to read every night to one where I was slogging through and asking myself: God, when is this thing going to be over? Having invested so much time and emotional energy into the novel, I felt like I deserved a good ending. Please let the ending be good. Nope. The author attempts to invoke some more drama by introducing a couple more plot twists, but the "high" is no longer effective because the reader is too exhausted having dragged himself through the last stretches. An epilogue tries to wrap up the fates of everyone, but by then, I wanted to jump into the ravine myself. To sum it up: I think Donna Tartt ruined her own book. #SummerReading