The secret history is a novel about friendship, youth, about wanting to belong. And about fatal flaws. The structure of the book is very unusual and refreshing as it tells the outcomes in its very first pages, namely the murder that occurs. From the very beginning we know who has done it. But we don’t know how things got there and what happened afterwards.
It’s not a book in which the ending or outcome really matters, but the heart of the book.
It is not really a thriller or mystery or detective novel, but basically a psychological study of a couple young students and their group dynamic, blinded by their love for each other, and for ancient Greek culture. I find those themes fascinating. An emotional roller-coaster, a book to get lost in with its 628 pages.
The novel is set in a liberal arts college in the northeast of the United States, in Vermont, so northern it is almost in Canada. I know not everyone had the same college experience, but for many of us it was this kind of place where we tried to form our adult identities and to connect to others in a way to help building these identities, because we admired those friends, and found them beautiful and knowledgeable, especially if we are a bit insecure. We thought our our college friends will be in our lives forever. We also do a lot of sh*t at college because we think we’re adults but instead we are still so young and influencable.
I do enjoy campus novels, in general. I think its the first time I read something of the “dark academia” genre, except maybe Harry potter. I didn’t know about this genre before first googling this book, it’s basically a trend whereby people wear black coats, write with fountain pens and admire gothic architecture and cold weather. The secret history is as gripping a novel as Harry Potter (I myself was the same age as Harry when the books came out, 12, which is a big reason of why and how I became a reader).
As I said The prologue of The secret history already tells the reader about death of Bunny, a murder, Henry’s idea. In the main part, Richard our narrator is looking back and retelling the story from a later point in time, and then he notices a lot was actually ominous, a lot of details, pointing in the bad way things went, he had initially overlooked. That’s the reason I don't think I can really do spoilers, because it’s all there being said in the beginning, when you read it you get on the emotional journey with the characters even knowing the basic facts of the plot.
The narrator Richard Papen grew up middle class-poor on the west coast, Northern California but not the picturesque California, more like eternal suburbia, where there are no trees, everything flat and dust colored. He arrives at Hampden College a bit by chance – or fate, as he puts it of course, and tries to fit in with the rich kids. He tells us his worst flaw is a morbid longing for the picturesque – for whatever that means, it’s on the reader to figure that out. In any case his choice to study Ancient Greek, a kind of random decision proofs to be fateful.
He stumbles upon the group of friends in the library, they study Greek, the one thing they have in common. Everyone of them is a bizarre character.
In the first weeks at the college, Richard gets a student job and goes talk to Greek professor to let him in his class. Julian Morrow, the Greek prof, seems weird and eccentric. There are rumors about him, he keeps big arrangements flowers in his office. Richard insists, even after the prof saying his course is complete, five students are the limit, one more what be too many (foreshadowing). He convinces him to be taken in, but Student services warn him, it is an exception to the normal functioning of the college to be taught almost exclusively by his Greek teacher, and not necessarily good, if problems occur, he can’t go back and change, but in the end they let him.
So he makes friends with the Greek class group and gets to know them. Charles and Camilla are twins, very close to each other, 20 years old, orphans from Virginia, very much not poor. Francis is a thin and nervous boy, he has a very young mother with a rich Daddy, he has exotic looks, is a red head and wears false glasses. Bunny, full name Edmund, 24 years old, is blond, badly dressed, loud, outgoing. Bunny had the typical American childhood with 4 brothers living in Cape Cod, going sailing, etc. And finally Henry, serious, tall, with classes, cold and smart, he seems to be very close to the Greek teacher, and he has a car.
Bunny takes Richard out for dinner for 300 dollars and then says he forgot his wallet. Eventually Henry comes to the rescue. Francis’ family has a big old house in the country belonging to some aunt of this, which they use to spend the weekends.
In the first Greek class they talk about the necessity to channel dyonistic forces (more foreshadowing here). I would have loved to have more insight into the Greek classes, but the author doesn’t dive further into that. I will contain myself here to not spoil more of the narrative, here.
In Vermont it is winter through many month, very different from California, it snows and gets freezing cold. On Christmas break school shuts down because heating is expensive, everyone is with their relatives back home, but Richard having no money for a flight back home, nor the will to go there, spends winter in a rented room warehouse with whole in the roof and almost dies of pneumonia.
Some of the hints are phrases that stick into one’s mind, like honesty being a dangerous virtue, or beauty being related to terror. Right in the beginning Richard says that he has a morbid longing for the picturesque, which I think is not the same as beauty.
Then – !- they kill him, and we’re just about halfway of the novel - what a setup.
In the aftermath, contrary to the expected, they all get real nervous, every class Bunny is missing and they sit around waiting for him, the tension builds up, some try to distract themselves with normal college life, alcohol, sex with no luck. Now the four of them are bonded for life for the good or the bad of it.
I devoured the The secret history, I loved it, it blew my mind, absorbed me and still, when I handed it to my friends they didn’t even seem to be able to get into it, to connect and found all characters annoying and little relatable. It’s a not perfect novel, and those are rare, but still a very very good one, one of those I can imagine to re read in a couple of years despite getting a bit long in the second half.
I really enjoyed The secret history. I think it has some minor problems, for example, you could say it is not very realistic, or the characters are not really people you could want to deal with, but for me these were minor hiccups, I did connect with Richard, the narrator, and I think the novel is a masterpiece. The secret history was Donna Tartt’s debut novel. She was only 28 years old by the time she published it, which is very impressive. I already bought her other big novel “The Goldfinch” and I can’t wait to read it.
