the secret history
by donna tartt
★★★★★
dates read: 7/28/22 - 8/4/22, 9/28/23 - 10/11/23
"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 they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at last—inexorably—into evil.
tw: homophobia, hate speech, fatphobia, racism, animal cruelty, sexual assault, incest, suicide, alcoholism, murder
the secret history is the perfect example of entropy. everything that can go wrong. will.
this is one of the most entertaining and intriguing books that i have ever read. it has automatically become a new favorite of mine. it has all been said and done before, but finishing tartt's debut novel leaves me with a lingering sadness that my journey with her characters has come to a close. (i will definitely be rereading).
“I am nothing in my soul if not obsessive.”
although i have a lot of praise for the secret history, it isn't without it's flaws. the plot can feel like a slow trudge for many. i found myself feeling the same way in the first half, but trust me when i tell you it's worth the patience. everything in this book centers around the characters. it's very character driven, and while there is an underlying plot that runs through the pages, it can feel like it is being sidelined. however, on the upside tartt is able to set the stage with meticulous detail on hampden college, the characters, and their relationships with one another that overall make the ending so much more engaging. by the end of the book, i felt very protective over the classic students and their inevitable outcomes.
i want to hone in on one character specifically that i think is interesting, and it's the narrator, richard. there are multiple, not so subtle hints, that he is an unreliable narrator. i was never convinced that richard ever really saw his classmates as authentic, real people. he would rather live in a beautiful idea than an ugly reality, and i can't say that i blame him. since richard is narrating the story as an older man, it is clear that he romanticizes his time at hampden and is nostalgic for his college days despite the death and violence that took place while he was there.
"And if beauty is terror,” said Julian, “then what is desire? We think we have many desires, but in fact we have only one. What is it?”
“To live,” said Camilla.
“To live forever,” said Bunny, chin cupped in palm.
despite richard's self-awareness over his faults (mentioned in the first chapter), his obsession with the picturesque completes warps the whole story, making it not just richard's "fatal flaw," but the novel's as well. the reader will never know what happened from a purely objective and unbiased perspective, and i believe that makes the secret history infinitely re-readable. the book practically invites the reader to take a stab at what they think really happened at hampden college, and if the characters are really as they were portrayed or if he simply projected his obsession with aesthetics onto them. but of course, there is always the option to take richard's word for it (although i wouldn't).
the secret history in general has a huge focus on exclusion. of course in the environment of hampden college and the extremely small classics class that richard barely got into, it is clear that exclusion is a pervasive theme. however, i also want to propose that tartt also aims to intentionally exclude the reader as well. while it is difficult for the average reader to relate to the classics class in many ways, tartt also textually excludes the reader in her use of foreign languages. there are parts of the novel that are written in a different language that aren't translated, but in other parts it is translated for the reader, proving that it is possible for richard to do. when the text isn't translated, tartt pushes the reader to put their book down, turn on their phones or open their foreign language dictionary to understand what is being said. those actions heavily emphasizing how excluded the reader is from the text, richard himself, and the other characters. tartt establishes distance in a really clever, subtle, (and slightly inconvenient) way.
lastly, there are also so many literary allusions in the secret history, so be ready to engage with "the wasteland" by t.s. eliot and pick up on references to the great gatsby by f. scott fitzgerald.
i don't want to give away too much, because i think that it is best to go into reading the secret history not knowing too much, but just enough to get you hooked. i sincerely love all of the deeply flawed characters, especially henry and francis, in the secret history and will take them with me, even outside the page. this is one of those books that i would donate an arm and leg to read for the first time again.