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Customer Reviews of Secret History

Deserves All The Hype
First of all, I am not a Greek or Latin scholar or a student of comparative literature. Nor did I attend a highfalutin New England Ivy League school. I didn't understand the occasional lines of Greek, Latin, and French in this book, and I'm not an intellectual snob. But these small details don't detract from the thoroughly enjoyable experience of reading the Secret History. If you appreciate a well-written, well-told story that entertains, has good character development, an intriguing story, and reveals more than a little about human nature, you're going to like this book. As if that weren't enough, there's also a liberal dose of contempt for the rich, and who doesn't enjoy that?! For those who've studied Greek, Latin, French or the classics, the story will be even more rewarding.

Tartt uses Richard, the most accessible character, to tell the story with ease and authenticity. The six main characters (all in their early twenties) live in their own insular world at a small New England upper crust college, studying the classics with one solitary professor. There's Henry, the leader and probably the one most likely to succeed as a true scholar; Francis, the skittish hypochondriac; Charles and Camilla, the twins; Bunny, the obnoxious and ill-fated one of the bunch; and Richard, the California kid from the most humble background of all. At first, Richard can't believe his great luck to fall in with such a gilded clique, but as usual, things are not as they appear. Soon, the outer world intrudes (they bring this upon themselves, of course) and things fall apart. It's the telling of the unraveling that grips you as Tartt deftly controls how much to tell and when. I marveled at her lush descriptions that rival a poet's, her skill at narrative and dialogue, and her most revealing descriptions of human mannerisms and behavior. She repeatedly builds intrigue and tension all the way to the end of the 500+ pages of the novel. This is no easy task, but she makes it look effortless. While reading it with an eye on technique, I think, "of course that's how it's done."

When this book came out 10 years ago, Donna Tartt was reported to have been paid the highest publishing advance ever for a first book, over $400,000. I don't know if the book is worth that or not, not knowing how worth is calculated in the publishing industry. Still, having read the Secret History, I can see what all of Tartt's fans have been waiting for these past 10 years, and the Little Friend is now on my list of must-reads.

Secret History is "definitely cinematic, baby." Images of The Bad Seed, Village of the Damned, and the Talented Mr. Ripley came to mind early in the story as Tartt developed the characters. The setting is so clearly drawn in some parts that I suspect Tartt wrote them with an eye on cinematic rendering. A top Hollywood director currently holds the rights and I'm looking forward to the movie.

The Ballantine Books Reader's Circle edition contains "A Conversation with Donna Tartt" along with "Questions and Topics for Discussion" for those fortunate enough to read this book in a group setting. I loved reading Tartt's list of authors she admires. It's no surprise that her list of poets is even longer. All of her interests are well represented in the Secret History, and if you share any of these, reading the book will be an even more fulfilling experience.

Don't be put off by the setting and character types in this book. You don't have to be a literary snob to understand or enjoy the story. It's worth the time to read the book, and if you're an aspiring writer, there is much here to educate and marvel at. I highly recommend the Secret History.

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Brilliant and beautiful; destined to become a classic
Tartt's _Secret History_ is a novel of rare beauty. Dealing with the events surrounding the lives of six classics students at a small college, the book deals with the nomos-physis relationship, the need to remain connected to our literary tradition, the ties which hold friends to one another, madness, and a treatment of nature which proves that Tartt is endowed with a truly classical mind. Her prose is carefully rendered, and the book is filled with passages which are heart-rending in their awe and wonder at the world. Her descriptions of Hampden in winter, of time spent in the country, even of death...these are some of the most beautifully rendered passages of the decade's fiction. Yet these passages recall classical descriptions in their terrible starkness. Julian, the students' teacher, explains the terror inherent in beauty quite eloquently in one of my favorite passages from the novel:

"It's a very Greek idea, and a very profound one. Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it. And what could be more terrifying and beautiful, to souls like the Greeks or our own, than to lose control completely? To throw off the chains of being for an instant, to shatter the accident of our mortal selves? Euripides speaks of the Maenads: head thrown back, throat to the stars, 'more like deer than human beings.' To be absolutely free! One is quite capable, of course, of working out these destructive passions in more vulgar and less efficient ways. But how glorious to release them in a single burst! To sing, to scream, to dance barefoot in the woods in the dead of night, with no more awareness of mortality than an animal! These are powerful mysteries. The bellowing of bulls. Springs of honey bubbling from the ground. If we are strong enough in our souls we can rip away the veil and look that naked, terrible beauty right in the face; let God consume us, devour us, unstring our bones. Then spit us out reborn."

I've returned to this book in times of distress and jubilation alike, and always it acquires new associations, new memories of the events surrounding each re-reading. Buy this book and read it immediately. It will remain on your shelf forever.

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My Personal Favorite
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.