I really resent the time I spent on this book. I don't know what I was thinking. I had read a couple hundred pages of this book on a trip a few years ago and never got around to picking it back up afterward, so I never finished it. It has such a reputation as a landmark literary mystery, the kind that always gets shelved in Fiction or even Literature and never in a bookstore's Mystery ghetto, and though I remember the experience of reading it the first time being almost as annoying as it was engrossing, I decided to pick it up again. The two main reasons I had were the two books I had just read--Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl, and The Likeness by Tana French. Both books feature a strangely tight-knit, cerebral, elitist group of friends with a surrounding murder mystery--clearly these authors both owed something to this famous book by Donna Tartt. And having loved both of these books (the first as a throughly literary read, the second as an astonishingly well-drawn mystery novel), I felt compelled to go to the source. Boy, do I regret that decision. I'm not saying it was an entirely unenjoyable read. It is engrossing, it does have its moments of good writing and haunting mystery. But mostly it's just lurid trash disguised as literature by its numerous quotations in classical Greek. Its plot is thoroughly improbable, its characters are flat cardboard cutouts of human beings that walk around like zombies drinking, smoking, and doing drugs with ever-increasing voraciousness to the point where you have to wonder if they are in fact robots because it's the only possible explanation why they're all not dead yet. In the end, I don't know whether to blame my hatred for this book on the author or on the hype. I've certainly read and forgiven the faults of thinner mystery novels than this one, but this book has been wrapped in so much pretentious hype, that it can only end up looking like complete garbage on closer examination. ( )

Awesome read. Excellent character development, I was very torn about how to feel about the characters. I sympathized and hated them at the same time. It's definitely a very dark, twisted, intricate work of art, but does not disappoint! ( )

This is one of my all-time favorite books. I've read it numerous times since it first came out and I enjoy it every single time and every single time I am so sorry to finish it. It belongs to what I think of as a trio of books about school along with Waking the Moon by Elizabeth Hand and Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers. Let me be clear - these books are nothing alike - the only thing they have in common is their college setting. In a way, though, they are alike - they each deal with Dionysian events and their consequences in closed and exclusive college settings.

The Secret History isn't so much a whodunit as a whydunit - you know the who immediately, the why is somewhat more mysterious (and in many ways is never fully revealed). I love the sweeping romanticism of this book - set at fictional Hampden College in the eighties. I was in college at the same time and some of the characters are familiar - the punk rockers, the druggies, the incredibly annoying hippies. Our hero is a California transplant, at college on scholarship and thrust into a small group of privileged students studying the Classics with the enigmatic Julian Morrow.

This is a winter book - cold at its heart, colder in its setting. There are deaths and funerals and philosophizing - lots of masks constantly worn. At its center is the narrator, Richard, and his love of the picturesque and Henry, who may or may not be a psychopathic killer. In this reading I found Julian Morrow to be the most chilling character - he is the old man in the road with the answers you probably won't like once you get them.

If you haven't read this, it's worth reading. Donna Tartt is a good writer and a good storyteller (a worthwhile combination). It takes her forever to write a book (this one took 8 years). Her second book, The Little Friend, is an odd Southern gothic that I also enjoyed, although it doesn't have the staying power of the first. It was 10 years between the first and second novel. Her third novel is due out in 2012. I'll be interested to see how she gets past her sophomore slump. ( )

I waited and waited for an adequate explanation of exactly *why* the main characters fall into such depravity, but a plausible reason was never forthcoming. I found the author's explanation to be very, very weak. Basically, "antiquity made me do it..."?

It is also obvious that the author knows very little about the protestant mainline. WASPs are protestant; that's what the P stands for. And we don't call a priest "Father", and we don't use Holy Water, especially not to sprinkle on graves! I found these details irritating. Bunny's family was portrayed as a weird amalgam of Catholic/Protestant and it was very disconcerting.

Overall, however, the book is a worthy read simply because of the detailed dynamics of the friendships and enmities as well as the descent into suspicion, loathing and paranoia. There is a great deal of human complexity on view here and I enjoyed Tartt's writing style. ( )

I loved this book and could not put it down. The suspense built slowly and the characters were complex and interesting. A great read ( )

Proof of the author's skill at crafting a suspenseful tale is that the murder is revealed on the first page, yet I read on. Nor are the main characters particularly appealing, but I allowed myself to become absorbed in their solipsistic, arrogant world nonetheless.
Greek classicism is really just an intellectual prop for the students to appear aloof - this is not a novel of ideas per se. There is one or two references at the beginning about Greek ideas underpinning the bacchanal that kills the farmer, but, again, these are not essential to the story, just an exotic way to do a killing and accentuate the overinflated sense of superiority these students have.
I was waiting for the professor Julian Morrow to be fleshed out more, or at least to hear some of his profound utterances that made him such a figure of respect and awe for the students, but the reader is denied any real flashes of wisdom. Even Henry, a genius at translation, seems oddly ordinary in his speech.
Despite it's length, I can see why people re-read this, for the first time the plot pulls you forward. I imagine subsequent readings would allow the reader to pay attention more to the friendships, the moments where decisions are made, and the gestures that point to greater turmoil, for it is a novel of great attention to detail and luxuriates in creating atmosphere.
Other mediums have done similar tales with much greater tautness - Hitchcock's thrilling Rope springs to mind, while the charm and faint menace behind Henry's self assuredness reminded me of Patricia Highsmith's writing.
Despite my quibbles, I felt real pleasure reading this. Yes, they are dreary uni students who spend their days smoking, drinking and staring out from rain drizzled windows, but the world Donna Tartt creates is a richly textured one and I appreciated the ride on this different kind of thriller. ( )

I surprised myself by how much I enjoyed reading this book. The plotting and story telling are excellent - the apparent longeurs and diversions (college parties, the narrator's near death experience, everyday life in the wealthy Connecticut set) work well with the inexorability of the plot - though the end feels melodramatic, that is nonetheless appropriate - how many Greek tragedies end without bodies littering the stage in all sorts of imaginative and inevitable attitudes? None of the characters are 'likeable'; but the adolescent pretentiousness and snobbishness is rounded with a sympathy for the foibles of youth. The inevitable echoes of Brideshead are nicely undercut with the world of the modern campus novel; overblown sentimentality never gets away with it.

For many, college would seem a waste of time. There are many disciplines to follow that would not lead directly to a job. However, whatever the degree, the college experience is mostly a discover of self. Who are you, who will you be? In Donna Tartt's book, the same delimna holds forth. Richard Papin doesn't know who he is and what he does know of himself, he would prefer to erase. When he leaves his droll California town for East Coast and New Hampshire, he wants to escape himself. He also has no direction in his college studies. He decides to take Classics as his major. The professor seduces him into taking only course from him so that he and his five other classmates may be taught in the ancient Greek way (similar to the days of Plato). His classmates decide to re-enact a Dionysis orgy and as a result, murder an innocent man. When another classmate discovers them, he threatens to reveal their secret. As a result, they plan his murder.Favorite quotes: 'It's a very Greek idea, and a very profound one. Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it. And what could be more terrifying and beautiful, to souls like the Greeks or our own, than to lose control completely? To throw off the chains of being for an instant, to shatter the accident of our mortal selves? Euripides speaks of the Maenads: head thrown I back, throat to the stars, "more like deer than human being." To be absolutely free! One is quite capable, of course, of working out these destructive passions in more vulgar and less efficient ways. But how glorious to release them in a single burst! To sing, to scream, to dance barefoot in the woods in the dead of night, with no more awareness of mortality than an animal! These are powerful mysteries. The bellowing of bulls. Springs of honey bubbling from the ground. If we are strong enough in our souls we can rip away the veil and look that naked, terrible beauty right in the face; let God consume us, devour us, unstring our bones. Then spit us out reborn.'...When I walked home at night, things got white around the edges and it seemed I had no past, no memories, that I had been on this exact stretch of luminous, hissing road forever....But one mustn't underestimate the primal appeal - to lose one's self, lose it utterly. And in losing it be born to the principle of continuous life, outside the prison of mortality and time. ...Henry, who generally disliked and was disliked by hoi polloi a category which in his view expanded to include persons ranging from teenagers with boom boxes to the Dean of Studies of Hamp den, who was independently wealthy and had a degree in American Studies from Yale - nonetheless had a genuine knack with poor people, simple people, country folk; he was despised by the functionaries of Hampden but admiredby its janitors, its gardeners and cooks. Though he did not treat them as equals - he didn't treat anyone as an equal, exactly - neither did he resort to the condescending friendliness of the wealthy. 'I think we're much more hypocritical about illness, and poverty, than were people in former ages,' I remember Julian saying once. 'In America, the rich man tries to pretend that the poor man is his equal in every respect but money, which is simply not true. Does anyone remember Plato's definition of Justice in the Republic? Justice, in a society, is when each level of a hierarchy works within its place and is content with it. A poor man who wishes to rise above his station is only making himself needlessly miserable. And the wise poor have always known this, the same as do the wise rich.'...He hadn't seen it coming at all. He hadn't even understood, there wasn't time. Teetering back as if on the edge of the swimming pool: comic yodel, windmilling arms. Then the surprised nightmare of falling. Someone who didn't know there was such a thing in the world as Death; who couldn't believe it even when he saw it; had never dreamed it would come to him. (I liked this one because it reminded me of the Odyssey. When Odysseus begins to kill his rivals, the first one is written quite poetically, "Did he dream of death?") ( )

A good thriller, but not a who-dunnit type. Mostly well put together and engaging, although it did start to seem like it had been padded out towards the end and, as often seems to be the way, the end was unlikely and almost ridiculous. A good holiday read. ( )

This is a well-written book, thick with synthetic erudition and interesting (if somewhat shallow) characters. The story essentially consists of the goings-on of a small group of naïve, privileged, over-educated students at a small liberal college in the Northeast. The narrator is, unfortunately, something of a cipher. The plot is clever enough, but never very complicated. It is a pleasure to read, however, largely because Donna Tartt is adept at creating cogent relationships and an evocative and convincing mise-en-scène. ( )

http://2manybooks2read.blogspot.com/2... ( )

Reading The Secret History prompted me to wonder, not for the first time, if there has ever been a wealthy character in literary history whose most marked characteristics were not arrogance, dishonesty and manipulativeness. The inhabitants of Donna Tartt's fictional college universe certainly had these qualities in spades. And it's hard to get through a 600-odd page book with no hero (not even one of the complex, flawed variety) to root for. All of the main players were objectionable, albeit in different ways. What kept my attention - and created a palpable sense of drama and suspense - was Tartt's choice to break with crime fiction conventions and focus not on whodunnit, but why. ( )

* NO SPOILERS WERE USED IN THE WRITING OF THIS REVIEW! *

Tartt cleverly wrote this book as a modern day Greek tragedy, with all the elements prerequisite to the Greek Tragedy genre: the main characters are a tight-knit group of noble character (elite scholars at a liberal arts college, with traditional royal names to remind the reader of their nobility); as tragic heroes, their common personality flaw (arrogance) results in the unwise and ill-fated decision to murder a friend, leading to their eventual downfall. Lest we have any more doubts about the Greek Tragedy format, the main characters all study Ancient Greek, a language which they use to converse about their secrets in the presence of outsiders.

Tartt's writing is crisp, wry and often stunning; it has the power to make the reader laugh, cry or quake with sudden insights. The characters are colorful, intricate individuals. By the end of the book the reader experiences a genuine affection for them, coupled with earnest pity for their tragic fates.

It is really surprising to me as a voracious reader that this clever, moving book is not more highly praised; it impacted me more than 95% of the books that I "consume." So why did I not give it 5 Stars? In reviewing an excellent book, the central question becomes whether the book has "classic" potential; will readers 50 or 100 years from now still understand it's appeal? This book seems slightly too heavy on pop-culture references to remain accessible to future generations - an admittedly arguable point, since some of the references are necessary to set the "modern day" stage for a traditional Greek Tragedy.

The extensive mention of drug and alcohol abuse may be offensive to sensitive or young readers, though in my opinion it is an important element of character development.

An excellent read, bordering on ingenuousness. Time alone will tell whether it has "modern classic" potential. ( )

I have listened to this audio book over and over, and this is easily one of my favourite books of all time. The characters are so rich and interesting, and the story mightily engaging. It is a book I recommend often as having captured my heart and imagination. ( )

I would almost rather discuss the author’s portrait on the inside back cover of my edition than the novel. Don’t get me wrong, the novel is good. A college student finds himself caught up in a murder and it’s cover up. His clique of friends are strange. It’s almost a tribute to “Crime and Punishment”, as the friends each react differently to guilt over what has happened.

But the author’s portrait is intriguing. She looks serious and defiant, her arms crossed in front of her, her head tilted slightly to the side, an slight, enigmatic smile on her face. Penetrating dark eyes, dark hair, and a very pale face. I can imagine her seeing through all deceptions to the truth within. Very much like her writing. ( )

A group of six students at a small Vermont college become engrossed with their studying of ancient Greek culture, so much so that two murders are committed. The second murder is divulged in the prologue of the book. The first murder is the catalyst for this psychological drama.

Tartt weaves a good blend of suspicion and paranoia amongst her main characters to the point of hysteria. This book is less about the two murders and more about how people cope with the knowledge of what they have done. Tartt shows the destructiveness that guilt and personal responsibility has on a person or group of people.

The richness in the details of Vermont and it's countryside were breathtaking but the storyline dragged on a little too long for me.

I would recommend this book to anyone that is not in a hurry to find out the ending in a quick "all tied up in a bow" manner. Good book~yes Great book~ not so much ( )

This is a favorite re-read, great when new library books disappoint etc. (if I could only take 3 books on vacation with me, this would be one of them). Wonderfully written first novel with strong characters and plotting. I am glad no attempt has been made to adapt this for the screen (yet), because there is not a single actor I can think of who could play Henry. Not the way I picture him. ( )

As I am not particularly an 'academic', few books make me think about certain themes, and meanings behind what normally I might consider mundane aspects to a book. This though, was one of those books that had me thinking throughout it, which of course I like, because it makes me feel like I might contain above average intelligence! :)

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, even though the prologue (don't skip it!) tells you what the climax of the novel is going to be, you still find yourself wondering, is that what's going to happen? Really?! No, they wouldn't! The relationships between the characters are odd, endearing and down right creepy.

Throughout the novel there really isn't any mention for what period of time this story is taking place in except for one offhand remark. Dr. Roland (Richard's boss) says that he drives a 10-year old '98 Buick - which says 2008! Yes Emily you have figured it out. This is the one thing that really bothered me though because Tartt makes many references to pop culture, for example...

- Judy Poovey says that she is out of shape and needs to start doing her Jane Fonda again
- While Richard and either Charles or Francis are at the bar they are watching 'Sally Jesse Raphael' - which made me laugh

These are minor glitches but they really stuck out to me, maybe because when this book was written I was in second grade?

The names of the six main characters I found interesting as they are all names of royalty... Henry, Charles, Camilla, Francis, Richard, except for the outcast of the group, Bunny. Charles and Camilla are twins that have an underlying sexual tension (this was the creepy part), I don't know if they were named intentionally or if it is just a coincidence, either way, nice work. I also made the royalty connection as it seems as though the characters view themselves as above the law, they don't seem to think that their actions should have any legal implications, or if they do, that they will never be found out.

Well, that is just my two cents. This book was a really quick read for being over 500 pages long, and very different from anything else I have read. Now I' wondering if I should go pick up Tartt's second novel, The Little Friend though I have heard that it is nowhere near as good as her first. ( )

I saw this referenced as one of many people's favorite books on a message board. I started it and had trouble making myself finish it. It was predictable and none of the characters were likeable or intriquing. I couldn't care about any of them, what they did or what happened to them. ( )

I read this for my book club.

A bunch of students at some tiny college in the middle of nowhere (somewhere in the USA) all study ancient Greek and are cliquey to a quite ridiculous (although believable) level. The narrator is a student from a much less monied background from the rest, but manages to join them. And... they kill someone.

You know who they kill and when right from the beginning, but finding out why and what lead them to it is still a compelling reason to keep reading. The atmosphere of the book felt very realistic, and you could even sort of sympathise with the characters despite their acts.

SPOILERS: Once the murder has taken place the book continues for a while, showing you how it affected them. In itself this was a good idea, but I felt it continued on too long, and I could really have done without the whole incest subplot. ( )

This novel was a great read. It's not the greatest novel ever written, and I don't think it tries to be. I really enjoyed reading this book but I think it had a few hiccups and slow points (it would have been nice if it had been a little more plot driven).

The approach of telling the reader about the murder and who committed such a horrendous act right from the start and its subsequent fall out was a unique angle that was a nice switch from the typical suspense novel. The pretentious nature of this book and its characters is hard to overlook. I found it amazing that a character driven novel could have so many despicable characters and still be enjoyable. I find it hard to imagine a bigger collection of snobs and shallow people. Hampden college certainly plays into ever stereotype of a rich, private Liberals arts college imaginable. I think this hurt the book in the end, but allowed the despicable traits to flourish in such an environment. In any other setting this novel wouldn’t work. In the end snobbish intellectuals with no redeeming value, in a college where nothing but money and position matter, something like a petty murder or two and its subsequent cover up fits.

Now the hiccups, one the more persistent problems for me was establishing a consistent time period. Cultural events seemed to place it in the early 90’s or late 80’s. But the students dress and actions, like listening to music that their parents listened to, the lack of television, or recreation doesn’t seem to fit college students in the early 90’s. Then there’s the rampant drug and alcohol use, being so intoxicated on such a regular basis makes it hard to believe that any coherent plan to cover up or plan a murder is even possible. I also found the homosexual and incestral undertones a bit hard to accept. Maybe its apart of the whole ancient Greek emersion and fit the tragic Greek comedy theme, but still I found it to be a little to overt and over the top. The last annoyance was the frequent injection of foreign languages instead of English. Most of the time it was pretty easy to get at what she was trying to say but at times she was inconsistent and at times left me scratching my head at key points in the story.

I know this review isn’t exactly glowing, it really was a good read. In the end I guess I really don’t know what to say or feel about this book. ( )

Simply, one of my favourite novels. Humor and friendship filled. It makes me wish I was a scholar earlier in life. The 10 years it took to write shows in the thoughtful story telling. The characters are so strongly written that if they walked into a room, then I would be able to recognize them easily. ( )

Blurp: 'A beautifully written story, well-told, funny, sad, scary, and impossible to leave alone until finished... What a debut!' - John Grisham. Richard Papen had never been to New England before in his nineteenth year. Then he arrived at Hampden 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 unappraochable. Yet as Richard was accepted and drawn into their inner circle, he learned a terrifying secret that bound 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... 'Powerful... Enthralling... A ferociously well-paced entertainment.' - The New York Times. 'An accomplished psychological thriller... Absolutely chilling... Tartt has a stunning command of the lyrical.' - The Village Voice. 'A smart, craftsman-like, viscerally compelling novel.' - Time. Selected by the Book-Of-The-Month-Club. A New York Times notable book.
Samenv.: Richard Papen, zoon van een eenvoudige benzinepomphouder in Plano, Californië, schrijft zich in als student bij het prestigieuze Hampden College, ver van huis aan de oostkust. Al direct bij aankomst raakt hij gefascineerd door het selecte clubje van vijf rijke studenten rond de charismatische docent Julian Morrow. Richard stelt alles in het werk om in die excentrieke en arrogante elite, die de antieke Griekse beschaving bestudeert, te worden opgenomen. Dat lukt, al heeft hij het gevoel dat hij niet van alles deelgenoot wordt gemaakt. Pas in het tweede semester komt hij erachter, dat vier van zijn nieuwe vrienden tijdens een zorgvuldig voorbereid Grieks bacchanaal een toevallige passant op gruwelijke wijze hebben afgeslacht. In hun hoogmoed hebben de jonge studenten een plaatselijke boer aan een experimenteel onderzoek opgeofferd. Deze geheime moord leidt tot een keten van leugen, bedrog en zelfs tot een tweede moord waarbij Richard wel betrokken is. Donna Tartt (1964) schreef een absoluut meeslepende psychologische en ethisch-filosofische thriller over hoogmoed, schuld en verantwoordelijkheid, het best te vergelijken met Dostojevski's "Misdaad en straf".

This is a novel that goes in two directions, one that is sheer brilliance, and one that is a more conventional, though very gripping, page-turner.

When I first read this, and even though the killing is flagged up early on, I was completely seduced by the first part and its thesis : that a charismatic and unconventional teacher has the power to mould a group that is self-contained and 'exclusive', and create an 'us against the world' vibe that the group feeds on, particularly when all its members are so unnaturally intelligent. Peppered with classical motifs, unafraid to make explorations into philosophy, this part of the novel fizzes with energy, brilliance and eccentricity; holding "onto my seat for dear life" I wondered just where the ride was taking us, and took a view that this was developing into one of the greatest novels that I had ever read.

Then there is the killing.

From this point on, the story changes. The charismatic tutor recedes more into the background, becomes almost 'ordinary' in comparison with before, while the group itself is now the sole focus of attention. This is now a psychological drama, as one by one, different members of the group are subjected to pressures from within, from immediately without (the remaining group members), and from the outside world. The drama unfolds as we learn, "who will keep the awful secret?" "who will crack?". It becomes a study in group dynamics.

It is still very exciting, tense, gripping, and involving. It still makes us turn the page, holds us to the edge of our seat, and yet ... I couldn't help thinking "this kind of thing has been done before". From Narnia to Brideshead Revisited, this is no longer virgin territory. So, from an early assessment that this might be one of The Great Novels, I downgraded it to merely Very Good Indeed.

But don't misunderstand me - it is still worth reading, and will not disappoint, especially if tense psychological dramas and the study of "group dynamics and how extreme intelligence impacts on the presence or otherwise of a conscience" are your thing.

And British readers will be highly amused to encounter an unnaturally close brother and sister by the names of Charles and Camilla ... ( )

The story of a small, elitist group of students at a tiny liberal arts college in Vermont, and how they come to murder one of their number and struggle both to hide the crime and to live with the guilt, each in their own way. An intriguing, powerful story where "who dunnit" is answered from the very first page, but the whys and hows are developed beautifully over hundreds of pages until a clear portrait of these fascinating characters has been set down for the reader. One of my all-time favorite reads, encompassing both a great story and an obvious appreciation for language and literature that shines through each sentence. ( )