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The Secret History

Average rating: 3/5

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The Secret History

Random House | September 8, 1992 | Audio Book (Cassette)

In this brilliant debut novel, Donna Tartt gives us a richly textured and hypnotic story of golden youth corrupted by its own moral arrogance.

Richard Papen recalls, years after the fact, how he came to an upper-crust New England college -- yearning for a life of privilege and intellect -- and was amazed to find himself accepted by the school''s ultimate inner circle, an exclusive Greek class. He is at first unaware of the shadow cast over this group by a past crime in which they all colluded. But then, slowly and inevitably, Richard and the others begin to believe in the necessity of murdering the one friend and classmate who might betray their secret...

Robert Sean Leonard has appeared in such films as Mr. and Mrs. Bridge and The Manhattan Project and was critically acclaimed for his performance in Dead Poets Society.
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Reviews

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    Rating: 4/5

    An original, fantastical story

    BookThia

    2 years ago

    Tartt is such a clever writer, I can't say enough about her skill. This book, which mirrors the story-telling styles of Greek tragedy, is full of deeply disturbed, yet somehow likeable, characters. The reader is so gradually brought into their Secret History, that by the time you realize how abhorrant they are, you have developed a real true liking for them. The beauty of this, of course, is that the reader is told of their crime in the first few pages ... Compelling reading, excellent writing, and suspenseful storytelling make this an excellent novel.

    • Was this review
      helpful to you?

    Rating: 5/5

    A Great Psychological Read

    Monica

    • Top Book Reviewer

    3 years ago

    I wasn't sure what to expect from this book...but i ended up loving it. The darkness of it, the slightly British tinge to it, the eloquent way the words flowed...all made for fast reading. Richard, the narrator, tells the tale of how he and five others "reinvent" themselves to be these dark and foreboding characters, as though they stepped right out of some dry, British novel, filled with Irish whiskey, smokey rooms, and nights spent studying the meaning of all things Greek. This was a strong psychological read that kept me up late at night.

    • Was this review
      helpful to you?

    Rating: 4/5

    Engrossing!

    Onessa

    • Top Book Reviewer

    4 years ago

    Donna Tartt's first book. She is a very good writer and leads up to revelations slowly. It began kind of slow but the details of the characters made them very real. The character, Henry, has to be one of the most intereting characters I have read of. I am looking forward to reading Donna's next book when it costs about $5.

    • Was this review
      helpful to you?
    Karen

    Rating: 3/5

    The Secret History

    Karen

    11 years ago

    A great book to see the way guilt affects different kinds of people. The main characters are very real and you learn a lot about the interactions among the characters. One bad thing about the book is that every time the characters were upset they would get drunk.

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Details

From the Publisher

In this brilliant debut novel, Donna Tartt gives us a richly textured and hypnotic story of golden youth corrupted by its own moral arrogance.

Richard Papen recalls, years after the fact, how he came to an upper-crust New England college -- yearning for a life of privilege and intellect -- and was amazed to find himself accepted by the school''s ultimate inner circle, an exclusive Greek class. He is at first unaware of the shadow cast over this group by a past crime in which they all colluded. But then, slowly and inevitably, Richard and the others begin to believe in the necessity of murdering the one friend and classmate who might betray their secret...

Robert Sean Leonard has appeared in such films as Mr. and Mrs. Bridge and The Manhattan Project and was critically acclaimed for his performance in Dead Poets Society.

Audio Book (Cassette)

September 8, 1992

Random House


0679410570
9780679410577

From Community

From the Critics

"The Secret History succeeds magnificently. . . . A remarkably powerful novel [and] a ferociously well-paced entertainment. . . . Forceful, cerebral, and impeccably controlled." --The New York Times

"An accomplished psychological thriller. . . . Absolutely chilling. . . . Tartt has a stunning command of the lyrical." --The Village Voice

"Beautifully written, suspenseful from start to finish." --Vogue

"A haunting, compelling, and brilliant piece of fiction. . . . Packed with literary allusion and told with a sophistication and texture that owes much more to the nineteenth century than to the twentieth." --The Times (London)

"Her writing bewitches us. . . . The Secret History is a wonderfully beguiling book, a journey backward to the fierce and heady friendships of our school days, when all of us believed in our power to conjure up divinity and to be forgiven any sin." --The Philadephia Inquirer

"Enthralling. . . . A remarkably powerful novel [and] a ferociously wll-paced entertainment. . . . Forceful, cerebral, and impeccably controlled." --The New York Times Book Review

"A huge, mesmerizing, galloping read, pleasurably devoured. . . . .Gorgeously written, relentlessly erudite." -Vanity Fair





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