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The Secret History by Donna Tartt
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The Secret History (1992)

by Donna Tartt

Other authors: See the other authors section.

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9,750213274 (4.1)419
1001 (76) 1001 books (58) 20th century (80) academia (113) American (119) American fiction (47) American literature (89) classics (79) college (209) contemporary fiction (63) crime (151) favorite (48) fiction (1,376) friendship (57) Greek (64) literature (89) murder (292) mystery (328) New England (117) novel (198) read (160) Roman (75) students (45) suspense (43) thriller (146) to-read (99) university (54) unread (57) USA (98) Vermont (107)
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    Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl (Eumenides)
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    Gentlemen & Players by Joanne Harris (amyblue, ecleirs24)
  3. 60
    The Likeness by Tana French (tangentialine, cransell, Skippy74, GodOfTheAnthill)
    tangentialine: Same sense of the mysterious, same sense of intense psychological speculation.
  4. 40
    The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman (amyblue, lahochstetler)
  5. 40
    Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (vnovak)
  6. 84
    The Magicians by Lev Grossman (kraaivrouw)
  7. 40
    Waking the Moon by Elizabeth Hand (kraaivrouw)
    kraaivrouw: Dionysian events at college ...
  8. 42
    The Magus by John Fowles (WoodsieGirl)
  9. 10
    A Traitor to Memory by Elizabeth George (DAR1102)
  10. 21
    The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis (yokai)
  11. 10
    A Fatal Inversion by Barbara Vine (Bookmarque)
    Bookmarque: Reminiscent because of the group of students, but this murder is more shrouded and the supporting characters more distinct.
  12. 10
    Tam Lin by Pamela Dean (Aquila)
    Aquila: Though it's a much nicer book.
  13. 10
    The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler (zembla)
    zembla: A clique of elitist students' involvement in murder, told in foreboding prose. Tartt's writing is quietly eerie where Handler's is showily clever, reflecting the difference in their narrators' ages.
  14. 00
    Fall by Colin McAdam (kraaivrouw)
  15. 22
    The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break: A Novel by Steven Sherrill (Booksloth)
  16. 11
    Dark Places by Gillian Flynn (SomeGuyInVirginia)
  17. 01
    The Bellwether Revivals by Benjamin Wood (kraaivrouw)
  18. 12
    The First Verse by Barry McCrea (Jannes, NeilDalley)
  19. 01
    The Athenian Murders by José Carlos Somoza (bonne1978)
  20. 36
    The Little Friend by Donna Tartt (Booksloth)

(see all 21 recommendations)

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English (193)  Dutch (6)  French (4)  Swedish (3)  Portuguese (1)  Spanish (1)  Norwegian (1)  All languages (209)
Showing 1-5 of 193 (next | show all)
I love this book. There is something comforting about its weirdness, and its wordiness, and its near-formulaic conclusion. What keeps it afloat is the language. I'm kind of in love with Donna Tartt.

I'm rereading this, and deliberately taking my time so that I don't finish too quickly. ( )
  usefuljack | May 17, 2013 |
I love this book. There is something comforting about its weirdness, and its wordiness, and its near-formulaic conclusion. What keeps it afloat is the language. I'm kind of in love with Donna Tartt.

I'm rereading this, and deliberately taking my time so that I don't finish too quickly. ( )
  usefuljack | May 17, 2013 |
'I suppose at one time in my life I might have had any number of stories, but now there is no other. This is the only story I will ever be able to tell.'

I was pretty blown away at how much I enjoyed this. It took me almost an entire month to read (which is practically unheard of for me) but this is one that you definitely can't zoom right through in my opinion. Incredibly detailed and enthralling, I'm really glad that I paced myself and took my time because this is one to be savored.

Truly compelling, you already know from the very first line what's to come:

'The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation.'

All of the characters were vibrant and completely unforgettable. Despite knowing exactly what's to come, the beauty of this story is the slow unraveling process that the author takes you through, detailing each and every step the friends took to get to that final moment. I can definitely see why this one is considered a modern classic. ( )
1 vote bonniemarjorie | May 7, 2013 |
Initially I wasn't fond of the pace...but I came to terms with the subtley of the story. Although described as a murder mystery, I would say that it is more of a dissection of obsessions, both physical and in the ideal. Set in Vermont at a liberal arts college, five students study the classics with their doting yet narcissistic professor. Their study leads to a frightening night and all of them deal with the reprocussions for several months by lying, deceiving and further developing their bizarre relationship and codependence on one another. A codependence that becomes increasingly necessary as they try to resume what they perceive to be a normal life. What is real and what is manipulation becomes harder to sort as you go on..This is a book that needs some thought and a reread in the future and will not wrap up the story in a neat package at the end. ( )
  MichelleCH | Apr 5, 2013 |
I don't have time to write a real review of this right now. I will say this is not a book to read when you have no time to read which is what happened to me. I was extremely sad and all I wanted was some uninterrupted free time so I could hunker down with this one. ( )
  E.J | Apr 3, 2013 |
Showing 1-5 of 193 (next | show all)
As a ferociously well-paced entertainment, ... "The Secret History" succeeds magnificently. Forceful, cerebral and impeccably controlled, "The Secret History" achieves just what Ms. Tartt seems to have set out to do: it marches with cool, classical inevitability toward its terrible conclusion.
 

» Add other authors (12 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Donna Tarttprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Lange, Barbara deTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Siikarla, EvaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
Come then, and let us pass a leisure hour in storytelling, and our story shall be the education of our heroes.
-- PLATO,
Republic, Book II
I enquire now as to the genesis of a philologist and assert the following:
1. A young man cannot possibly know what Greeks and Romans are.
2. He does not know whether he is suited for finding out about them.
-- FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE,
Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen
Dedication
For Bret Easton Ellis,
whose generosity will never cease to warm my heart;
and for Paul Edward McGloin,
muse and Maecenas,
who is the dearest friend I will ever have in this world.
First words
The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation. (Prologue)
Does such a thing as "the fatal flaw," that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature?
Quotations
...how I longed to be an orphan when I was a child!
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
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Information from the German Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to the English one.

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (1)

Book description
Richard Papen arrived at Hampden College in New England and was quickly seduced by an elite group of five students, all Greek scholars, all worldy, self-assured, and, first glance, all highly unapproachable. As Richard is drawn into their inner circle, he learns a terrifying secret that binds them to on anothert...a secret about an incident in the woods in the dead of night where an ancient rite was brought to brutal life...and led to a gruesome death., And that was just the beginning...
Haiku summary

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0140167773, Paperback)

Truly deserving of the accolade "Modern Classic", Donna Tartt's novel "The Secret History" is a remarkable achievement - both compelling and elegant, dramatic and playful. 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 for ever. "It takes my breath away". (Ruth Rendell). "Enthralling ...image the plot of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment crossed with the story of Euripides' "Bacchae" set against the backdrop of Bret Easton Ellis' "The Rules of Attraction"...forceful, cerebral and impeccably controlled...ferociously well-paced...remarkably powerful". ("The New York Times"). Donna Tartt was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, and educated at the University of Mississippi and Bennington College. She is a novelist, essayist, and critic and author of "The Little Friend". "The Secret History" has been translated into twenty-four languages.

(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:45:41 -0500)

(see all 5 descriptions)

Richard Papen had never been to New England before his nineteenth year. Then he arrived at Hampeden College and quickly became seduced by the sweet, dark rhythms of campus life -- in particular by an elite group of five students, Greek scholars, worldly, self-assured, and at first glance, highly unapproachable.… (more)

» see all 6 descriptions

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Two editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia.

Editions: 0140167773, 0141037695

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