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Secret History (Penguin Celebrations) by…
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Secret History (Penguin Celebrations) (original 1992; edition 1995)

by Donna Tartt (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
20,190553220 (4.06)1 / 733
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.… (more)
Member:ktlavender
Title:Secret History (Penguin Celebrations)
Authors:Donna Tartt (Author)
Info:Ivy Books (1995), Edition: New Ed, 503 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:
Tags:to-read, own

Work Information

The Secret History by Donna Tartt (1992)

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    The Raising by Laura Kasischke (comtso)
    comtso: Mystery, murder and angst in college.
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    Aquila: Though it's a much nicer book.
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    The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly (BookshelfMonstrosity)
    BookshelfMonstrosity: Something disturbing sometimes happens when young people congregate. These gothic tales feature young, bohemian, and intellectual characters becoming caught up in relationships that lead to tragic results.
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    Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis (Vulco1)
    Vulco1: A look at elitist rich kids who get in over their heads and spiral out of control.
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    A Separate Peace by John Knowles (akblanchard)
    akblanchard: Dark happenings at elite New England schools.
  15. 10
    The Rabbit Back Literature Society by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen (Becchanalia)
    Becchanalia: Slow uncovering of a dark secret amongst a tight-knit group of friends. Lots of snow.
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    urban_lenny: Similar New England setting, some similarities between the characters of Owen and Bunny, both stories told with the foreshadowing of death.
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    Bookmarque: Reminiscent because of the group of students, but this murder is more shrouded and the supporting characters more distinct.
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(see all 37 recommendations)

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1990s (54)
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» See also 733 mentions

English (518)  Dutch (8)  French (7)  Swedish (6)  Italian (4)  German (1)  Latvian (1)  Spanish (1)  Norwegian (1)  Portuguese (1)  All languages (548)
Showing 1-5 of 518 (next | show all)
Ordinary guy is overwhelmed by acceptance into a strange clique of students studying Classics under an eccentric professor. He continues uncertain of his status until a confession by one member draws him into the groups dark secret. Madness segues into even darker logic.
  ritaer | Mar 20, 2024 |
everyone's said everything about this book already. its a banger and was great to re-read after actually going to college in New England. is it bad that Bunny's funeral is the funniest scene in the whole book? ( )
  griller02 | Mar 18, 2024 |
Dark academia, social commentary of the upper class and its penchant for debauchery, atmospheric historical fiction with a hint of fantasy.

In other words, The Secret History is what I wanted Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo to be. ( )
  boopingaround | Mar 6, 2024 |
Glacially paced, very much with the connotation of being steady and inexorable. (Thank goodness for audiobooks; still, 20 hours is a lot.) Incredibly campy.

I'm never going to be over the fact that she named the twins who sleep together Charles and Camilla. How much of an upper-class twit in-joke was this in 1992?

The teacher, Julian, is a side character at best. His sexuality is lampshaded and played for laughs more than present; early on I could have sworn we were going to get a Julian/Henry relationship. I never had any doubt how the ending was going to go down. I was only surprised he didn't turn out to be two steps ahead of his students.

There are so many books and movies that must be intentionally riffing on this one---[b:The Likeness|5941114|The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad, #2)|Tana French|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1538062804l/5941114._SY75_.jpg|6504351] was one that occurred to me. ( )
  caedocyon | Feb 23, 2024 |
I don't think this book needed to be 559 pages but it sure kept me flipping them to find out how it all ended. At a couple points I was so stressed about what was happening (like Bunny not going on a walk at a certain time, or when THE LETTER makes an appearance) that I felt like I was personally the one all caught up in the scheme.
Tartt's writing itself and the unsettling, unreliable characters she has crafted are certainly the strengths of the novel and make up for a slightly predictable plot and lackluster ending, but again, I was absorbed by them anyways so that says a lot. I'm definitely wanting to read more of Tartt's work to see what she has to offer. ( )
  deborahee | Feb 23, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 518 (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 (6 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Tartt, Donnaprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
de Wilde, BarbaraDesignersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Kidd, ChipDesignersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Landolfi, IdolinaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Lange, Barbara deTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Larsen, IdaLouTranslatorsecondary 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!
[They were] sitting at a table that was spread with papers and pens and bottles of ink. The bottles of ink I remember particularly, because I was very charmed by them, and by the long black straight pens, which looked incredibly archaic and troublesome.
[The tutor] reached for a pen in a cup on his desk; amazingly, it was full of Montblanc fountain pens, Meisterstucks, at least a dozen of them.
"Guess what," said Bunny, "Henry bought himself a Montblanc pen." ... He nodded at the cup of sleek black pens that sat on Julian's desk. "How much are those things worth? ... Three hundred bucks a pop? ... I remember when you used to say how ugly they were. You used to say you'd never write with a thing in your life but a straight pen." ... Bunny picked [the pen] up and turned it back and forth in his fingers. "It's like the fat pencil I used to use in first grade," he said. ... "Now, what kind of pens do we all use here? Francois, you're a nib-and-bottle man like myself, no? ... and you, Robert? What sort of pens did they teach you to use in California?" "Ball points," I said.
Last words
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Wikipedia in English (1)

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.

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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 one another...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...
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Penguin Australia

2 editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia.

Editions: 0140167773, 0141037695

 

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