History Literature / TheSecretHistory

* ForWantOfANail: The only reason Richard ends up embroiled in the plot is that the Ancient Greek class at his community college fit his schedule.

-->'''Julian:''' Well, whatever one thinks of the Roman Church, it is a worthy and powerful foe. I could accept that sort of conversion with grace. But I shall be very disappointed indeed if we lose him to the Presbyterians.

* WorthyOpponentThis: Julian doesn't like anything Judeo-Christian, but makes an offhand mention that he considers the Catholic Church a worthy opponent.

* BeautyEqualsGoodness: DiscussedTrope by Francis

* ChildrenAreAWaste: Bunny is the only one who mentions wanting kids -- 8 at that -- and his friends view this as terribly gauche of him.

* CrazyJealousGuy: We hear it entirely from Francis, who's an UnreliableExpositor, but he says [[spoiler:Charles is extremely possessive of his sister Camilla due to their incestuous relationship. This jealousy did not play nice during the orgy they all had together. Charles forbids her from having relationships. As for evidence outside of Francis's allegation, early on Richard sees Charles goes as far as to assault Francis when he attempted to give Camilla a playful kiss. This is implied to be the reason why Camilla keeps her relationship with Henry a secret. After Bunny's murder drives Camilla and Henry closer together and Camilla is forced to reveal some things such as her secret phone code with Henry, Charles becomes violent and begins torturing Camilla.]]

* CulturallyReligious: Henry, Francis, and the twins were all raised Catholic, while Bunny comes from a WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant background, and Richard has no religious background at all. None of the clique are religious these days -- they're irreverent college students for one, and also being tutored by a man who's trying to impress pagan sensibilities upon them. Nonetheless, the Catholics have enough allegiance to their childhood religion that Bunny's anti-Catholic tirades get under their skin. Where it really shows, though, is the aesthetics. They all have the aesthetics of their religious upbringings stamped into them. The dark academia aesthetic is very Catholic -- old, decadent, dramatic -- and the Catholic kids are the real ''core'' of the clique, the truly aesthetic ones. Bunny is aesthetically very Protestant, and that clashes with the group. This might be traced back to Julian, who doesn't like anything Judeo-Christian but considers the Catholic Church a WorthyOpponent, while he has absolutely no regard for Protestants.

* EverybodySmokes: It's a liberal arts college in the 80s, and smoking is ubiquitous. Henry and Francis smoke constantly. Francis's is CigaretteOfAnxiety. The twins smoke as well, although theirs is narratively mentioned less often. Only Richard and Bunny don't smoke -- or rather, they smoke little enough that it's remarked upon, one more detail to underline their outsider status, but they still smoke a bit. Richard smokes only at parties. Bunny doesn't generally smoke because he was a high-school athlete and a coach impressed upon him the importance of that, but he nonetheless has a cigar when he goes out to lunch with Richard. The fact that neither of them begins smoking to fit in with the group, though, is a slight deviation from SmokingIsGlamorous.

* TrueCompanions: At the emotional high point of the book, Richard may believe his and his new friends are this. It falls apart under the weight of the {{blackmail}}, {{murder|IsTheBestSolution}}, [[BatmanGambit various plots]], [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder general backstabbing]] and a LoveDodecahedron. [[spoiler:And Richard was excluded from their orgies and

* TrueCompanions: Falls apart under the weight of the {{blackmail}}, {{murder|IsTheBestSolution}}, [[BatmanGambit various plots]], [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder general backstabbing]] and a LoveDodecahedron.

* [[spoiler: {{Twincest}}]]: [[spoiler: Charles and Camilla. It's never clear just how consensual it is on Camilla's part -- Francis says "it's not at all the casual, good-natured sort of thing that one might hope. It runs a lot more deep and nasty."]]
-->'''Bunny:''' Kinda classical, too. Those Greeks carried on with their [[spoiler:brothers and sisters]] like nobody's--

* TheTease:
** DiscussedTrope when in a conversation with Richard, Francis accuses the twins both of being so. The night Camilla comes home from a date with Cloke Rayburn she gives Richard a light kiss, even though she isn't interested in him.
--->'''Francis:''' Certainly they take a perverse pleasure in leading one on--\\

** Camilla and Francis are a weird pairing, neither of whom are interested in each other -- but he's been known to kiss her on occasion. This happens both when Francis arrives at he very first dinner party Richard attends, and in an anecdote Francis tells about a year prior when the group went to a restaurant called the Lobster Pagoda. This may be an OperationJealousy thing.

* AmbiguouslyGay: There is a not-baseless stereotype that Classics students are disproportionately gay. Richard thinks about at least the ''possibility'' of homoerotic behavior from every single one of the clique boys at one point of another -- although that might say more about Richard's own AmbiguouslyBi proclivities than those of his friends.

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 rather nasty and spectacularly exaggerated tell-all account of the UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire during the reign of Emperor Justinian[[/note]](after which all of these are directly or indirectly named).

* InspiredBy: Hampden is based off of [[http://www.bennington.edu/ Bennington College]], the author's school -- [[https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/money-madness-cocaine-literary-genius-110000718.html/ many of the characters and minor incidents described in the book are based directly on Donna Tartt's observations about her classmates]]. The town, though not the college, of Bennington itself makes a couple {{Creator Cameo}}s -- Richard mentions taking day trips with Charles to Bennington, Manchester, and Pownal. There's a mention of one time, in a prior year, when the clique went out to dinner at the Lobster Pagoda, "a ridiculous Chinese restaurant in Bennington," that certainly feels like it's a real place.

** One strongly gets the impression that Bunny was heavily modeled on the personality traits of Creator/BretEastonEllis.

-->'''Henry:''' Charles had a bloody bitemark on his arm that he had no idea how he'd got, but it wasn't a human bite. Too big. And strange puncture marks instead of teeth. [...]\\
'''Francis:''' You've never seen anything like it. Four inches around and the teeth marks just gouged in.

* InspiredBy: Hampden is based off of [[http://www.bennington.edu/ Bennington College]], the author's school -- [[https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/money-madness-cocaine-literary-genius-110000718.html/ many of the characters and minor incidents described in the book are based directly on Donna Tartt's observations about her classmates]]. Bennington likes the notoriety.

* GoryDiscretionShot: Bunny's actual murder goes Henry greeting Bunny -- saying, "Why, looking for new ferns," -- to the clique leaving the scene of the crime. Actually ''pushing'' him, and the fall, are omitted. It's {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d, and Richard {{Converse|dTrope}}s about an autobiography of a serial killer which does the same thing.

-->'''Francis:''' ''[in Ancient Greek]'' There has been much rumor. The mother grieves. Not for her son, for she is a wicked woman. Rather she grieves for the shame which has fallen on her house.

** [[{{AncientRome}} Camilla]] was also the sister of the [[{{SiblingTeam}} Horatii]], who [[{{CombatByChampion}} killed her fiance]].

* EverybodySmokes / SmokingIsGlamorous: It's a liberal arts college in the 80s. Most of the clique smokes like chimneys. Only Richard and Bunny don't -- or rather, they smoke little enough that it's remarked upon, one more detail to underline their outsider status, but they still smoke a bit. Richard smokes only at parties. Bunny doesn't generally smoke because he was a high-school athlete and a coach impressed upon him the importance of that, but he nonetheless has a cigar when he goes out to lunch with Richard.

-->'''Henry:''' If they're going to find us out, that's how it's going to happen.

* PolicePsychic: The police bring in a psychic to investigate Bunny's murder. She's a young woman who got a shock from jumper cables, was in a 3-week coma, and awoke with the power to know things. She's helped the police with a few prior cases. Skeptic Richard thinks nothing of it, but superstitious Henry is nervous she'll figure it out, but also intrigued and really wishes he could meet and talk to her.