It's like Donna Tartt is that ex you can't get over. She showed me this beautiful story and then just left me in a mess out on the streets. Can't seem to fill the void. I've read her other novel The Goldfinch after that. But I feel like nothing comes close to the writing, characters, and scenery like it does in The Secret History. When Richard was cold, I was cold. When Richard was confused, I was confused. I even miss Bunny's questionable chaotic actions. The story lives rent free in my head. I keep searching for something similar everytime I pick up a new book, it's kinda sad honestly.
Did you guys feel this too?
by Localaw
28 Comments
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ABSOLUTELY YES
I too read THE GOLDFINCH, which I really liked while I was reading it but zero percent stick w me
THE SECRET HISTORY has one of the literal funniest passages I’ve ever read…the bit where Bunny is writing the paper about John Donne, and keeps talking about “metahemeralism” – just kills
in such a dark and frightening book, really something to get those little funny moments that somehow fit and aren’t jarring
just an A1 thing
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It’s such an incredible book. I love it. Have you ever tried “The Likeness” by Tana French? I read it first but it felt like it was heavily influenced by “The Secret History”.
Ok, randomly I happened to read The Secret History and The Magicians back to back reading them both for the first time and I was sort of shocked by how much writing style in a few parts, characters and setting were super similar. (Just in a “how the heck did I manage to pick a book and a book that clearly influenced that book to read at the exact same time??” Dumb luck, grabbed two books to stuff in my bag for travel reading on a trip)
There are parts that are still sort of difficult to disambiguate in my head.
I’m not saying you should read The Magicians on these grounds but I really want to know if anyone else besides me picked that up or noticed how very much The Magicians borrows from The Secret History. It’s super obvious to me and I never once heard anyone else say it, instead making the obvious parallels between Narnia and Harry Potter, but I actually thought Magicians borrowed more in style, setting and characters from The Secret History than any fantasy work.
These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever! Highly recommend as the true successor to The Secret History. I recommended it to someone else here on those grounds and they looooooved it (and I do too).
I actually feel exactly the opposite. I adore the goldfinch and have read it multiple times. The characters truly touched my heart, but the secret history was nowhere near as good to me.
The Secret History is my favorite book of all time! It is literally seductive and bewitching, and it makes me sad that I didn’t get to attend Bennington college with Tartt and all of her literary peers. There’s an excellent podcast about this book, and Bennington, and other writers who went there like Jonathan Lethem and Bret Easton Ellis, etc called “Once Upon a Time at Bennington.”
Off topic but I just finished The Little Friend. Completely different than Goldfinch and Secret History. Loved both but this one felt like she was trying to channel Harper Lee + Stephen Hunter. Such a weird book. Felt like it needed a tighter edit too.
My all-time favorite book.
The Secret History was such a different book than I’ve ever read. I couldn’t tell if I liked it or not at first, but it gripped me by about halfway through.
I hate this book for making me sympathize with Bunny.
I absolutely love The Secret History.
I feel like the novel manages a scathing satire of elitism in academia while simultaneously showcasing its appeal in a relatable way.
Richard is pretentious and arrogant. But he is also extremely human. It is very hard not to be drawn into the mysterious and exclusive circles in the same way he is.
It’s amazing that despite how thoroughly The Secret History shows us that these academic elites are miserable, Tartt still manages to make it seem desirable.
Ok so this has been on my to-read list for a long time. Now I really want to start it! Would you recommend for a book club?
Is this the one with the incestuous twins?
I read it & still wonder what was the Secret History. The claasics prof left me cold. Donna should have elaborated more on the classics & the Bacchanal. Other than drugs & alcohol induced, what was it about.
I read the Goldfinch first and loved it and read the Secret History second. While I liked the weird timelessness of Secret History’s narrative, I enjoyed the Goldfinch more. A Secret History literally made me feel I’d actually been privy to a crime…
I really wanted to like it, however at around the halfway mark it became more and more apparent that all the potential and expectations that the first chapters introduced to you were pointless.
Have in mind — I was VERY engaged until that halfway mark and there’s not really anything in particular that happened in the story which was a turn off, it was just not as good as it started and I slogged to the end with a new mindset in which I anticipated what I thought would be lazy and surely enough — that’s the direction the story went in.
I cared for every single one of the main group and was looking forward to get to know them… at the start. Yeah Richard is an unreliable narrator, but just because he’s boring and suffers from a severe lack of personality it doesn’t mean that the rest of the group should therefore all be lifeless and copies of one another.
It’s like Donna knew how to write one (1) person and just copy pasted a sort of template among the main characters.
I’ll try the Goldfinch, as I’ve heard a lot of acclaim for that one as well and the first 1/4 of The Secret History was good enough so that I don’t give up on Tartt completely.
This thread is a goldmine of recommendations!
After finishing The Secret History I read Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis and while they don’t have the same feel, there’s a bit of a crossover because they inhabit a similar place and time (plus the authors were classmates at Bennington). Also I found the feeling of The Magus by John Fowles a lot like The Secret History. I had read The Magus years prior and was reminded of it when reading The Secret History, particularly the student and teacher/mentor dynamic.
🎶Donna Tartt tutuu tudu tudu🎶
I read it in French translation and the book title is far better : “Le maître des illusions” so “The master of illusions” which is the status of Dionysos.
I enjoyed my time with the book too !
The Secret History used to be my favourite for the longest time before I discovered The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.
In comparison, while it had its own charm, The Goldfinch seemed boring. It was enjoyable, don’t get me wrong, I liked it overall, but I guess I had my expectations way too high after The Secret History. The mystery throughout the entire story, the detailed interesting characters, the story itself all together made the experience of reading the book magical.
I just realised I barely remember it too, just the emotions left. God I need to go back and re-read it.
I listened to it on audio, read by Donna Tartt, and Bunny’s voice lives in my head rent free. Such an amazing book!
I feel Jeffrey Eugenides has a similar pull for me as Donna Tartt. The way they’re able to make you cringe from mundane humanity is fascinating to me.
I must’ve read a different book. I hated it from start to finish.
Truly one of my least favorite books of all time. Top ten. Read it for a book club. Wouldn’t recommend it again.
I’m currently in the last few pages of the secret history and I don’t want to finish it. I hated it to start, I just couldn’t get into it. But now I feel so engulfed in the book, in the group dynamics, in Richard trying to fit in where he doesn’t