History Literature / TheSecretHistory

** To a lesser extent, [[spoiler:Charles and Camilla's incestuous relationship. Richard is kept in the dark about it for most of the book, but the others in the group are all more or less aware.]]

** To a lesser extent, [[spoiler:Charles and Camilla's incestuous relationship. Richard is kept in the dark about it for most of the book, but the others are all more or less aware.]]

* HalfIdenticalTwins: Charles and Camilla initially appear to conform to this trope. [[spoiler: As the plot unravels and their [[PolarOppositeTwins personality differences]] emerge they lose their united front. In contrast to their earlier descriptions, a minor character remarks that for twins they don't look much alike at all.]]

* HonorBeforeReason: Rather than maintain a sense of loyalty to his peers, [[spoiler: Bunny]] stupidly threatens to reveal the group's secret. It doesn't go to well. This trope could apply to Francis as well, for the exact opposite reason.

* BuyThemOff: The rest of the group spends inordinate amounts of money on Bunny to try to prevent him from calling the police. When it runs out, they resort to [[MurderIsTheBestSolution Plan B]].

* ClassicalMythology and history: Extremely influential. Tartt also took the title from [[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/procop-anec.HTML a classic Latin text of the same name.]] The book's plot parallels the standard line of a Greek tragedy in many ways, right from the first chapter's opening lines:

So says [[CoolTeacher Julian Morrow]], the charismatic and eccentric Classics professor at [[http://www.bennington.edu/ Hampden College]]. [[TheBeautifulElite The six students whom he accepts into his classes]] receive an education apart from any other at the college: in studying Latin and Greek, they mimic an ancient Athenian way of thinking and living. They are [[{{Byronic Hero}} Henry Winter]], the linguistic genius who declares that six men could capture the town of Hampden; [[HalfIdenticalTwins Charles and Camilla Macaulay]], the friendly, enigmatic twins; [[BrilliantButLazy Francis Abernathy]], who looks like a cross between a student prince and UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper; [[TheLoad Bunny Corcoran]], genteel, cheerful and bigoted, and Richard Papen, the story's FirstPersonPeripheralNarrator, a transfer student who, through a series of chance encounters, finds himself in the midst of this strange, mesmerizing group.

* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: While most of the characters are implicitly classist, ''Bunny'' (who makes mean comments about Catholics, Jews, Italians, and the lower-income over the course of the story) ''really'' takes the cake.

----

* BrickJoke: Francis's obsession with hygiene. In-universe, teasing Richard about being a tasteless California boy for Bunny.

''The Secret History'' was Donna Tartt's immensely successful first novel, released in 1992. Donna Tartt years later followed it up with an unrelated second novel, ''The Little Friend,'' which is immensely different in terms of setting, style, and characters. Her more recent book, ''TheGoldfinch'', is a return to some of the themes (such as differences between social classes and the nature of guilt) explored by ''The Secret History''. As an interesting piece of trivia, if you want to know where the film rights to ''The Secret History'' are, they have apparently been in DevelopmentHell for about two decades. Not related to ''Literature/SecretHistories'' by Creator/SimonRGreen, ''ComicBook/TheSecretHistory'', a French comic book by Jean-Pierre Pécau, or the ''Secret History'' by Procopius[[note]]A tell-all and rather nasty account of the ByzantineEmpire during the reign of Emperor Justinian[[/note]](after which all of these are directly or indirectly named).

So says [[CoolTeacher Julian Morrow]], the charismatic and eccentric Classics professor at [[http://www.bennington.edu/ Hampden College]]. [[TheBeautifulElite The six students whom he accepts into his classes]] receive an education apart from any other at the college: in studying Latin and Greek, they mimic an ancient Athenian way of thinking and living. They are [[{{Byronic Hero}} Henry Winter]], the linguistic genius who declares that six men could capture the town of Hampden; [[HalfIdenticalTwins Charles and Camilla Macaulay]], the friendly, enigmatic twins; [[BrilliantButLazy Francis Abernathy]], who looks like a cross between a student prince and JackTheRipper; [[TheLoad Bunny Corcoran]], genteel, cheerful and bigoted, and Richard Papen, the story's FirstPersonPeripheralNarrator, a transfer student who, through a series of chance encounters, finds himself in the midst of this strange, mesmerizing group.

* GraduationForEveryone: subverted ''hard.''

*** Leave poor Milton alone, Henry. The man was blind!

* ShoutOut: Camilla goes to see a film that is a fictional equivalent to ''Film/ApocalypseNow'', and ends up CompletelyMissingThePoint.

''The Secret History'' was Donna Tartt's immensely successful first novel, released in 1992. Donna Tartt years later followed it up with an unrelated second novel, ''The Little Friend,'' which is immensely different in terms of setting, style, and characters. Her more recent book, ''TheGoldfinch'', is a return to some of the themes (such as differences between social classes and the nature of guilt) explored by ''The Secret History''. As an interesting piece of trivia, if you want to know where the film rights to ''The Secret History'' are, they have apparently been in DevelopmentHell for about two decades. Not related to ''Literature/SecretHistories'' by SimonRGreen, ''ComicBook/TheSecretHistory'', a French comic book by Jean-Pierre Pécau, or the ''Secret History'' by Procopius[[note]]A tell-all and rather nasty account of the ByzantineEmpire during the reign of Emperor Justinian[[/note]](after which all of these are directly or indirectly named).

* RacistGrandma: The owner of Redeemed Repairs.
** Bunny's pompous attitude and absurd Victorian-style social conservatism make his asinine racist comments more than a little hilarious as well.

* ShoutOut: Camilla goes to see a film that is a fictional equivalent to ApocalypseNow, and ends up CompletelyMissingThePoint.
* SixStudentClique
* SmokingIsCool
* SnowMeansDeath

* ThisIsMyStory

''The Secret History'' was Donna Tartt's immensely successful first novel, released in 1992. Donna Tartt years later followed it up with an unrelated second novel, ''The Little Friend,'' which is immensely different in terms of setting, style, and characters. Her more recent book, ''The Goldfinch'', is a return to some of the themes (such as differences between social classes and the nature of guilt) explored by ''The Secret History''. As an interesting piece of trivia, if you want to know where the film rights to ''The Secret History'' are, they have apparently been in DevelopmentHell for about two decades. Not related to ''Literature/SecretHistories'' by SimonRGreen, ''ComicBook/TheSecretHistory'', a French comic book by Jean-Pierre Pécau, or the ''Secret History'' by Procopius[[note]]A tell-all and rather nasty account of the ByzantineEmpire during the reign of Emperor Justinian[[/note]](after which all of these are directly or indirectly named).

''The Secret History'' was Donna Tartt's immensely successful first novel, released in 1992. Donna Tartt years later followed it up with an unrelated second novel, ''The Little Friend,'' which is immensely different in terms of setting, style, and characters. The film rights to ''The Secret History'' have been in DevelopmentHell for about two decades. Not related to ''Literature/SecretHistories'' by SimonRGreen, ''ComicBook/TheSecretHistory'', a French comic book by Jean-Pierre Pécau, or the ''Secret History'' by Procopius[[note]]A tell-all and rather nasty account of the ByzantineEmpire during the reign of Emperor Justinian[[/note]](after which all of these are directly or indirectly named).

* AmbiguouslyJewish: Bunny speculates that Henry might be, though only because Henry is [[CrowningMomentOfFunny refusing to front him money]].

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: The Isrami "terrorist government" mentioned in passing as part of Julian's backstory.

''The Secret History'' was Donna Tartt's immensely successful first novel, released in 1992. Donna Tartt years later followed it up with an unrelated second novel, ''The Little Friend,'' which is immensely different in terms of setting, style, and characters. The film rights to TheSecretHistory have been in DevelopmentHell for about two decades. Not related to ''SecretHistories'' by SimonRGreen, ''ComicBook/TheSecretHistory'', a French comic book by Jean-Pierre Pécau, or the ''Secret History'' by Procopius[[note]]A tell-all and rather nasty account of the ByzantineEmpire during the reign of Emperor Justinian[[/note]](after which all of these are directly or indirectly named).