'The secret History' is Donna Tartt’s first novel. Since its publication in 1993 it has become a best seller and it has been critically acclaimed, it even made it in to the top 100 in the recent ‘A good read ‘BBC list. So is it a great book? No. Let me explain why.
THE STORY
A young Californian ... Read review
A misfit at an exclusive New England college, Richard finds kindred spirits in the five ... more
eccentric students of his ancient Greek class. But his new friends have a horrific secret. When blackmail and violence threaten to blow their privileged lives apart, they drag Richard into the nightmare that engulfs them.
An unabridged audio recording, the MP3 CD format will allow listeners to transfer the ... more
recording easily between any mp3 compatible audio device including computers, iPods, and modern CD players. Running to 22 hours in duration, Donna Tartt's narration is pensive and deliberating, slowly leading listeners into the menacing heart of this novel.
Advantages: Well written, stylish prose Disadvantages: Flaws in the plot structure
...even made it in to the top 100 in the recent ‘A good read ‘BBC list. So is it a great book? No. Let me explain why.
THE STORY
A young Californian student Richard Papen frustrated at home gets a scholarship to study at Hampden College in an isolated part of Vermont in the North East on the US. Having already an interest in languages, especially Greek, he decides to enlist for a classics course run by the famous but rather ... ...his class, he always has the final decision. Rebuffed at first Richard by accident befriends the other students in the very selective group. They unlike Richard are all well off but seem to be of their own accord isolated from the rest of the students on campus. They feel superior and are regarded with suspicion by the other students. In order to emphasise their special status they wear old-fashioned clothes and are to varying degrees quite obsessive ... more
'The secret History' is Donna Tartt’s first novel. Since its publication in 1993 it has become a best seller and it has been critically acclaimed, it even made it in to the top 100 in the recent ‘A good read ‘BBC list. So is it a great book? No. Let me explain why.
THE STORY
A young Californian student Richard Papen frustrated at home gets a scholarship to study at Hampden College in an isolated part of Vermont in the North East on the US. Having already an interest in languages, especially Greek, he decides to enlist for a classics course run by the famous but rather mysterious academic Julian Morrow. This is not as easy as he at first imagines since Morrow a wealthy and independently fiancés tutor doesn’t accept just anyone in his class, he always has the final decision. Rebuffed at first Richard by accident befriends the other students in the very selective group. They unlike Richard are all well off but seem to be of their own accord isolated from the rest of the students on campus. They feel superior and are regarded with suspicion by the other students. In order to emphasise their special status they wear old-fashioned clothes and are to varying degrees quite obsessive about ancient Greek culture and rituals. The self appointed ‘leader’ of the group is Henry, calculating and unemotional, he is also Julian Morrow’s favourite. Francis is the complete opposite, a spoilt rich kid who is apt to fly of the handle at any moment, ‘The Twins’ Camilla and Charles are quiet and very friendly towards Richard and seem to have a very close bond with each other. Finally making up the group is Bunny in many ways the odd one out. Academically he is inferior to the rest of the group and h is also the only one to have has friends outside of the clique. Richard ashamed of his poor background tries desperately to fit in and eventually the group accepts him although he always has the feeling that they have something, a secret that they are keeping from him. After a series of tragic events a terrible crime takes place and their world begins to crumble around them.
MY OPINION
I’m not actually revealing too much if I tell you that the key event in the book is the murder of Bunny by the rest of the group since this fact is revealed in the opening lines of the story! Although the author tells us of this crime we spend the first half of the book exploring the events that lead up to Bunny’s death and the rest of the book exploring the consequences of the event.
Donna Tartt embarked on a very difficult task when she wrote this novel since this story deals essentially with the nature of crime, guilt and retribution many other stories deal with these same themes but the one that comes quickest to mind is Dostoyevsky’s brilliant ‘Crime and Punishment’. Is it fair to compare the two books, does she really mean for them to be compared? I wasn’t sure until half way through the book one of the characters quotes a line from ‘Crime and Punishment’ thus we can safely assume that the similarities between the two stories are more than mere coincidence. The question is as a study of the psychology of crime and an examination of guilt and remorse how does it compare?…Well it’s not in the same league.
Donna Tartt manages initially to successfully draw you in to the story, you quickly begin to understand the characters and the interplay between them is very well observed and outlined. Although in effect we know what is going to happen we are intrigued to know why it has happened and this part of the novel is an addictive read. We then come to the murder and soon after the other characters begin to go through a myriad of emotions, fear, guilt and paranoid illusions. A lot of drugs are taken and lots of alcohol in consumed, but not much else happens and this seems to go on for about 200 pages!
I can understand that the exploration of the characters feelings and actions after the crime are essential to the story but the author goes about the task in a narrative vacuum. To go back to a comparison with ‘Crime and Punishment’, in that novel the central character spends most of the book torturing himself over the terrible crime he has committed BUT around him there are complex subplots developing, we have blackmail, a love interest, tragedy strikes other characters. The key elements of the main characters guilt are examined partly through his relationship to other characters and the events that are going on around him. This is essential to keep the story vibrant and to keep the reader enthralled by the hero’s plight. This is what Donna Tartt fails to do. She does try to introduce some external plot devices, there is an hint of a love story developing, there is a racist element to one of the characters that takes centre stage for a while there are two very cliché FBI agents who investigate the crime and that might begin to interact with Richard his friensds in a similar way that the investigator Porfiry Petrovich does with Raskalnikov in Dostoyevsky’s masterpiece. Unfortunately all these different threads fail in keeping the reader interested, like a dying fish out of water writhing this way and that, gasping for air the plot of ‘The Secret History’ equally is thrashing about from one underdeveloped subplot to another desperately trying to find some cohesiveness, trying to alleviate the boredom of so much futile introspection by the main characters.
Eventually something does happen towards the end of the book that changes the nature of the story once again and for the last third of the story we are again taken up and led speedily through to a thrilling finale. Tartt also includes a prologue that allows us to discover the fate of some of the other main characters that seem to have been jettisoned in the course of the story.
It seems to me that authors of modern fiction these days believe that for a publisher or critic to take a novel seriously as a work of literature as opposed to just pulp fiction then the novel has to be a long, a real ‘door stop’. Consequently we have many good stories becoming bloated with unnecessary narrative. It took Dostoyevsky just over 400 pages to give us an in depth exploration of guilt and at the same time keep us entertained and totally absorbed by the story. Ms Tartt takes up over 600 pages and doesn’t come close to the insights or the narrative thrills of ‘Crime and Punishment’.
Having said all this readers of this review might find it strange that I gave these book 4/5 stars. Indeed apart from the problems with the narrative structure there are also other problems with the plot and an inability of the author to set the whole story in a concrete time frame, which for me at least found me asking question of the plot that I shouldn’t really be asking and ultimately became a distraction from the main story.
On a positive side and there are plenty good things to say about ‘The Secret History’. The novel is written in a very pleasing prose style. The descriptive passages, especially those describing the seasonal changes nature of the Vermont countryside are excellent. Donna Tartt is also very good at setting a scene by highlighting minutiae, an old shoe laying on the ground an empty bottle, which really create the appropriate atmosphere in the story. She also manages to inject a certain amount of dry black humour in to an essentially tragic story.
In the end we are left with a ‘Curate’s Egg’ type of novel, lots to admire but also plenty to criticise.
Donna Tartt tried to do many things with her first novel, she tried to produce a hybrid part thriller, part psychological drama, even an element of Greek tragedy. She touched aspects (more eloquently described by many before her) of man as ‘superman’, the idea that some people due to their superior intellect are not bound by the morality and laws of other men and in the extreme have even the innate right to kill if suits their purpose. Ultimately she fails to do what she sets out but it is nonetheless a valiant attempt and ‘The Secret History’ is certainly worth reading.
‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt is available in paperback by Penguin book; ISBN: 0140167773 (640 pages) you can buy it from Amazon.co.uk for £3.99 (+ P&P)
Advantages: A haunting and imaginative story Disadvantages: Can seem overdone
...Sitting down to read it, the novel had a lot of expectation riding on it and I’m glad to say it didn’t disappoint. The novel is of a much higher grade than most, the characters are superbly written and the plot is gripping.
It begins (as most great thrillers do) with a murder. We are told that someone called Bunny is dead and that there are consequences. It is a powerful opening line and sets the tone for the story as a whole. The main narrator ... ...and exceptionally intelligent students.
The novel is dominated by one of these students, Henry Winters. Henry is a genius, with a gift for languages and academia, a man who Richard says, was translating Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ from English to Latin much in the same way that some people do crossword puzzles to pass the time. He is an enigmatic, charismatic, powerful leading character whose contriving, dangerous personality dominates the pages of ...
Galien 06.10.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Secret History - Donna Tartt
...trying to march drearily through the last dregs of a book that started well. Unlike 'The Little Friend' (another Tartt) this one actually has a comprehensive ending, too. Yay!
Once you get into the storyline, you'll eventually become part of the scenery; here you look on as a chair, there you become a cigarrette, and all the time you feel included. The first person perspective really works well to involve you in the plot (in places you're literally ... ...it? Cliff... Hanging... Read the book.) and interact with the characters. You might even become mentally attatched. A therapist or self-help book will come in handy there...
A doctor, too, because heart-stopping moments Might actually have your left arm tingling and you clutching frantically at your chest. You, the reader, are Richard Papen, studying Classics with 5 of the more interesting, less clubbing-type, students of american 'university' Hampden ...
blodeuedd9 02.05.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Secret History - Donna Tartt
Advantages: Fantastically well written book with great characters Disadvantages: Occasionally too much Latin or Greek being discussed
...low to begin with.
The Author
This is Donna Tartt's first novel. It was published in 1993 and has since gone on to be a best seller. It has around 660 pages and is published by Pengiun.Since then she has followed this up with 'The Little Friend'.
The Story
The book sees events through the eyes of avery likeable but somewhat shy and poor student Richard Papen. He is offered a scholarship to Hampden College. Where he tries and eventually is allowed ... ...loses contact with most of the other students at the college as this study involves giving up all the other courses and only contact with this new small group.
However initally he is kept at arms length by this inner santum . Leaving him lonely and isolated. So he begins to try and uncover their secrets and understand them allowing him to join their activities. He manages to do this to a point but soon realises he is not told the whole truth and ...
CPTDANIELS 05.01.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Secret History - Donna Tartt
Advantages: A superb read Disadvantages: Might put people off going to university!
The novel " A Secret History" is the only novel (as far as I am aware) by the American author Donna Tartt, an acquaintance of Brett Easton Ellis (American Psycho). The novel is set in a small insular New England university town. The cast of characters is equally insular, five students of varying levels of intelligence who are part of one class at the college. They are studying Greek with a rather eccentric professor. Greek mythology and lifestyle ... ...kill one of their number. The rest of the novel is taken up with their efforts to avoid the law, the college authorities and their own moral questions.
This makes it sound like a highly intellectual thriller and in a sense it is. There are frequent references to the classics. However, it is also about humanity and our responsibilities to others. For example, it could be argued that one person is killed simply because he "doesn't fit in". This happens ...
FionaR 08.04.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Secret History - Donna Tartt
Advantages: Wonderful read Disadvantages: Not a cheery yarn
...to pull me out of the darkness, the exception to this is A Secret History. I can always read this novel. My paperback copy is almost in tatters.
The story opens with a murder - it takes only a few pages, and is a very short moment in time. This prologue is followed by the main story which starts with the events leading up to this moment and what happens afterwards. The point, of course, is for the characters their lives are forever changed by the ... ...which will haunt them for the rest of their lives.
It is a tale of remorse. None of the characters are the "murderous type", and part of what carries this tale is the knowledge that seemingly good and likeable people can make terrible mistakes and do terrible things. The main protagonist is the eternal outsider. His father is boorish and uneducated, his mother weak willed, so when he arrives at university he recreates himself to fit in with the ...
Psychgirl 27.02.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Secret History - Donna Tartt
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Advantages: Well written, enjoyable story Disadvantages: Quite easy to guess the plot
between the teachers at the school were interesting and linked back to Jane's past well.
Jane's teenage students were reasonably well portrayed but there were some silly coincidences such as three of the girls happening to stay in the same dorm room she lived in with her two room-mates in her final year. There was also the device of Jane's diary which was used to fill in the blanks throughout the book which was also not terribly original.
There was a good use of myth and legend throughout the book to build up a suspenseful atmosphere, especially the legend of the Three Sisters - the standing stones of the lake.
This is the first book by Carol Goodman and has been compared to " The SecretHistory" by DonnaTartt. I would say that although enjoyable, this wasn't anywhere near as good as "The SecretHistory".
I did like the style of writing ...
Advantages: good storyline, interesting characters Disadvantages: none
is a mistake. He's a loose cannon, someone who is always going to pop up in her life to demand money, or to deliver a slap or a threat. He's a nasty bit of work and the author paints an excellent description of the bad boy with a chip on his shoulder. From the start he's blamed Carole for the events of that night and he's not going to let her get away with it. He intimidates her at every opportunity.
I loved the way that the girls go from being close friends to almost deadly enemies. Naomi 'lost' the bet so why is she seen kissing Eddie shortly afterwards? Once they're at college Naomi and Carole barely speak - all three present that night have sworn never to talk about what happened.
On the front of the book Wally Lamb, the author, has said 'Sits comfortably alongside DonnaTartt's 'The SecretHistory' and Patricia Highsmith ...
Advantages: Great read Disadvantages: Book is too big to carry in your bag to read on the train!
I bought DonnaTartt's 2nd novel shortly after reading and loving her first, The SecretHistory. I was expecting something equally dark: instead i got an equally enjoyable novel which despite its seemingly depressing subject matter (unsolved murder of a young boy) was entertaining, gripping and featured characters that could be identified with.
The main character, Harriet (the younger sister of the murdered child who was just 1 when it happened), sets out to find out who killed him with her best friend Hely - an ambitious task for a couple of 12 year olds and one which leads them into some trouble.
I found this book a pleasure to read and difficult to put down - definitely recommended to all donnatartt fans and anyone wanting a great example of modern fiction. ...
Product Information for "The Secret History - Donna Tartt" »
Product details
Type
Fiction
Genre
Thriller
Title
The Secret History
Author
Donna Tartt
ISBN
0140167773; 0141013052; 0670843652; 0670848549
Manufacturer's product description
The narrator of this story is a boy who leaves California to attend a college in New England. He falls in with a group of students of Ancient Greek. Four of their number work themselves into a trance-like condition one night, and murder a local farmer. Bunny then tries to blackmail the others.
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