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Secret History: A Novel (Paperback)

by Donna Tartt (Author) "DOES SUCH a thing as "the fatal flaw," that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? ..." (more)

4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (443 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Paperback: 592 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books; Reprint edition (Sep 29 1996)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0449911519
ISBN-13: 978-0449911518
Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 13.7 x 3.6 cm
Shipping Weight: 454 g

Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (443 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #196,804 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category:
#6 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( T ) > Tartt, Donna

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Tartt's much bruited first novel is a huge (592 pages) rambling story that is sometimes ponderous, sometimes highly entertaining. Part psychological thriller, part chronicle of debauched, wasted youth, it suffers from a basically improbable plot, a fault Tartt often redeems through the bravado of her execution. Narrator Richard Papen comes from a lower-class family and a loveless California home to the "hermetic, overheated atmosphere" of Vermont's Hampden College. Almost too easily, he is accepted into a clique of five socially sophisticated students who study Classics with an idiosyncratic, morally fraudulent professor. Despite their demanding curriculum (they quote Greek classics to each other at every opportunity) the friends spend most of their time drinking and taking pills. Finally they reveal to Richard that they accidentally killed a man during a bacchanalian frenzy; when one of their number seems ready to spill the secret, the group--now including Richard--must kill him, too. The best parts of the book occur after the second murder, when Tartt describes the effect of the death on a small community, the behavior of the victim's family and the conspirators' emotional disintegration. Here her gifts for social satire and character analysis are shown to good advantage and her writing is powerful and evocative. On the other hand, the plot's many inconsistencies, the self-indulgent, high-flown references to classic literature and the reliance on melodrama make one wish this had been a tauter, more focused novel. In the final analysis, however, readers may enjoy the pull of a mysterious, richly detailed story told by a talented writer. 75,000 first printing; BOMC and QPB selections.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

This well-written first novel attempts to be several things: a psychological suspense thriller, a satire of collegiate mores and popular culture, and a philosophical bildungsroman. Supposedly brilliant students at a posh Vermont school (Bennington in thin disguise) are involved in two murders, one supposedly accidental and one deliberate. The book's many allusions, both literary and classical (the students are all classics majors studying with a professor described as both a genius and a deity) fail to provide the deeper resonance of such works as Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose . Ultimately, it works best as a psychological thriller. Expect prepublication hype to generate interest in this book and buy accordingly. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/92.
- Charles Michaud, Turner Free Lib., Randolph, Mass.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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DOES SUCH a thing as "the fatal flaw," that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? Read the first page

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Customer Reviews

443 Reviews

5 star:		(278)
4 star:		(83)
3 star:		(31)
2 star:		(24)
1 star:		(27)

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4.3 out of 5 stars (443 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Amazon Pick!, May 12 2005

By	Michelle Presta (Dixon, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Secret History (Paperback)

When we think of murder, we almost without exception regard it as a profoundly unethical, inhumane and immoral act. But even so, murders do occur, and consequently we often consider those who have committed murder as, in a fundamental way, different from those who have not, and explaining them being able to commit such horrible acts by thinking of them as abnormal or just plain insane.

In Donna Tartts The Secret History another explanation to murder is offered. Tartt refuses to portray the act of murder as a consequences of one single decision or motive, but instead tries to reveal those psychological mechanism that make murder possible; it is with far reaching insights, and a great sense of detail that she shows that no one step in the chain is larger than the other. Once the unthinkable becomes thinkable, it is close to become an option, and once an option, it is not far from deliberated, and then we are well on the way to the act itself. Tartt shows murder to be something banal, and that is what makes her book so relevant, and at the same time so disturbing, because once in face of this conclusion about murder, the distance between those who are able to commit it, and those who are not, vanishes; it is not a criminal mind that makes a murderer, it is circumstances, and once in such circumstances there is nothing that reveals them to be out of the ordinary.

So now you know someone is going to be murdered even before you have opened the book. But don't despair, Tartt were not trying to hold you in suspense about what was going to happen, the murder is a given from the get-go. Instead she sets out to do something much more difficult; to portray an answer to the question WHY a murder took place at all. What makes The Secret History so engaging, so thought provoking, is that Tartt takes this task seriously, and actually manages to accomplish what she set out to do. A great read, but try it for yourself! Pick up a copy! Another book I need to recommend -- completely unrelated to Heller, but very much on my mind since I purchased a "used" copy off Amazon is "The Losers' Club: Complete Restored Edition," a funny, highly entertaining little novel I can't stop thinking about.

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5.0 out of 5 stars My Personal Favorite, Jul 9 2004

By	Peri Whitney "P.Whitney" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Secret History (Mass Market Paperback)

I actually found this novel laying on the side of the road at summer camp about seven years ago and started reading it on a whim. It must have been fate because i believe this to be the finest novel i've read, and i read a lot. Everything about it is brilliant, especially the eerie calm that seeems to surround everything-from the characters, to the campus-even the college party scenes seem strangely calm and distant-proving further that the group really is seperate from the rest of the college community. i love the plot, i love the weird, quirky, of-another-era characters, i love the prose. i reccomend it highly.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A Real Page-Turner, Jul 8 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Secret History (Mass Market Paperback)

This book kept me on the edge of my seat. It was amazing how Tartt could reveal the turning point before the story began and still keep my interest because I wanted to find out how. I gave this book to my male friend for his 20th birthday and he read it in less than 24 hours (which is saying quite a bit considering he doesn't like to read and he had a paper due the next day on an unrelated subject). This book is also very well-written. I've also read The Little Friend, which is good, but this is better.

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Most recent customer reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Over my head!
I bought this book after seeing it reviewed in the magazine REAL SIMPLE, as I had great luck with the other books on their list. However, I cannot get into this book. Read more

Published 8 months ago by J. Cochrane

3.0 out of 5 stars Still Not Finished... Groan!
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2.0 out of 5 stars Didn't Live Up To The Hype
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5.0 out of 5 stars Ker-WOW!
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Published on Jun 27 2004