"Death is the mother of beauty," said Henry. "And what is beauty?" "Terror."
"I hope we're all ready to leave the phenomenal world, and enter into the sublime?"So says Julian Morrow, the charismatic and eccentric Classics professor at Hampden College. 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 Henry Winter, the linguistic genius who declares that six men could capture the town of Hampden; Charles and Camilla Macaulay, the friendly, enigmatic twins; Francis Abernathy, who looks like a cross between a student prince and Jack the Ripper; Bunny Corcoran, genteel, cheerful and bigoted, and Richard Papen, the story's narrator, a transfer student who, through a series of chance encounters, finds himself in the midst of this strange, mesmerizing group.Their search for the sublime leads them, inevitably, to a collision with the real world. Left to deal with the consequences of an accidental murder, the group slowly starts to plan a deliberate one.The Secret History was Donna Tartt's immensely successful first novel, released in 1992. Not related to Secret Histories by Simon R. Green, or The Secret History, a French comic book by Jean-Pierre Pécau.
This work provides examples of:
Ambiguously Gay: Richard has suspicions about Francis (which are confirmed), Charles (which are partiallyconfirmed), Bunny and Julian (which are not).
Batman Gambit: No one really understands Henry's many, convoluted plots. If you think you've reached the bottom, you've only scratched the surface.
The Beautiful Elite: Richard is fascinated with Julian and his students even before he manages to join them, and idealises persistently through the first part of the book.
It's played straight early in the book and subverted more and more as the book progresses. Near the end Richard realises that a lot of his assumptions about the group have been wrong (particularly his assumptions regarding their wealth and inherent superiority).
Bilingual Bonus: Untranslated passages and phrases appear in Latin, Greek, French, and German.
Born in the Wrong Century: Modern day college is not 5th century Athens, however the characters might wish it were.
Most of the main cast are also entrenched in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century as far as their lifestyle is concerned, though this comes across more than anything as an result of their upper-class upbringing.
Bridal Carry: Henry gets to do one of these after Camilla steps on a piece of glass in the lake. Lovingly described.
Broken Pedestal: Julian, whom his students revere. After he finds out about Bunny's murder, he flees the school (and probably the country), never to be heard from again.
Buy Them Off: 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 Plan B.
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: By the end of the book, Henry has accidentally killed a farmer, murdered Bunny, tried to kill Charles and was apparently planning something for Richard.
Classical Mythology and history: Extremely influential. Tartt also took the title from 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:
"Does such a thing as 'the fatal flaw', that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn't. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs."
Different as Night and Day: Charles and Camilla, who at first seem very similar. Their personality differences intensify over the course of the book, and at the end, years after the resolution of the main plot, they barely speak to each other anymore.
Establishing Character Moment: Very carefully done. First we get Richard's first impressions of all the main characters—making sure to highlight the similarities between Henry and Bunny. We also hear about Julian before we meet him. As Richard meets everyone in person, their first scenes are often telling for the contrast between their public faces and Hidden Depths. Richard, as the narrator, consciously points out the establishing moments for his own character as he goes along.
Everybody Smokes and drinks nonstop. Well, it is a liberal arts college in the eighties.
Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The Isrami "terrorist government" mentioned in passing as part of Julian's backstory.
Freak Out: Towards the end, all the characters suffer some sort of mental crisis or breakdown, as a result of their stress and guilt over Bunny's murder. Francis's hypochondriac and nervous tendencies skyrocket. Richard becomes addicted to pills. Charles becomes an abusive alcoholic, forcing Camilla to take refuge with Henry. Years after Henry's suicide, she's still in love with him, and has virtually no life outside caring for her elderly grandmother.
Half-Identical Twins: Charles and Camilla initially appear to conform to this trope. As the plot unravels and their 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.
Honor Before Reason: Rather than maintain a sense of loyalty to his peers, 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.
Inspired By: Bennington College as Hampden. (Bennington likes the notoriety.)
Ivy League For Everyone: Subverted in that of the surviving main cast, all but Richard have burnt out of school by the epilogue.
Love Dodecahedron: Henry, Richard and Charles all want Camilla. Francis wants Charles and makes several passes at Richard. Charles sleeps with Francis repeatedly but refuses to acknowledge it afterwards. Camilla implies that she refused to sleep with Bunny.
Bunny's pompous attitude and absurd Victorian-style social conservatism make his asinine racist comments more than a little hilarious as well.
Relative Error: Before he knows they are twins, Richard first assumes that Charles and Camilla are boyfriend and girlfriend. He has no idea how right he was until much later.
Religion Is Wrong: Modern religion, according to Julian. Bunny just hates Catholics and Jews.
"And if love is a thing held in common, I suppose we had that in common, too, though I realize that might sound odd in light of the story I am about to tell."
"Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The epilogue accounts for all the major and minor characters, right down to a feral cat mentioned once, about eight years later, which is when Richard is writing it all down. It also includes Francis, Camilla, and Richard's bittersweet meeting, after Francis's attempted suicide, about three years after the main events of the story.
With Friends Like These: Henry and Bunny were freshman roommates and thought to be best friends. It didn't end well for either of them. After Bunny's murder, Henry tries to kill Charles and may have been about to give Richard's name to the FBI. Charles, in turn, attempts to kill Henry, and ends up shooting Richard.
Wrong Genre Savvy: The entire clique want their lives to be wild and epic, taking inspiration from the classics. It doesn't go over too well.
. 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 Henry Winter, the linguistic genius who declares that six men could capture the town of Hampden; Charles and Camilla Macaulay, the friendly, enigmatic twins; Francis Abernathy, who looks like a cross between a student prince and Jack the Ripper; Bunny Corcoran, genteel, cheerful and bigoted, and Richard Papen, the story's narrator, a transfer student who, through a series of chance encounters, finds himself in the midst of this strange, mesmerizing group.Their search for the sublime leads them, inevitably, to a collision with the real world. Left to deal with the consequences of an accidental murder, the group slowly starts to plan a deliberate one.The Secret History was Donna Tartt's immensely successful first novel, released in 1992. Not related to Secret Histories by Simon R. Green, or The Secret History, a French comic book by Jean-Pierre Pécau.
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