The Secret History

“Forgive me, for all the things I did but mostly for the ones that I did not.”

Having finished The Secret History by Donna Tartt just yesterday, I am eager to share my thoughts on this novel. I still am not sure whether or not I fully enjoyed it, although I read the novel fairly engrossed in its plot line. What I will note before proceeding is that reader discretion is definitely advised, as there is many dealings with substance abuse, drinking and smoking in this novel that can set quite the dangerous ideal for impressionable audiences.

Often termed a 'modern classic', The Secret History follows five (or six) pretentious college students studying Ancient Greek in a private liberal arts university, the fictional Hampden College in Vermont. We hear the story from the perspective of Richard Papen, who is almost the onlooker in this group, never fully aware or included in the group's bizarre dynamics, but nonetheless a valuable member of sorts.

The novel begins with the group involved in the murder of their friend, Edmund (Bunny) Corcoran, and so the narrative brings us along from the very beginning of Richard's arrival to the college, right down to the aftermath of this group of Ancient Greek students committing murder.

What's really interesting about this novel is definitely the narrative choice taken by the author. It begins by revealing who the murderers are, after which we begin to learn why and how they did it. As Richard Papen is our narrator, we can definitely ascertain that has quite the unreliable perspective, merely due to his own attachment to the people in this group. He has an almost romanticized view of them, he looks at them as divine, but as we follow the novel's happenings we quickly realize it is not the case. Although they are a highly intellectual group of young adults, they also are cold, calculating, manipulative and have dreadful coping mechanisms. They remain isolated from the rest of their contemporaries, and live and breathe in a little bubble of their own believed superiority.

What I disliked about the novel however, is how frightfully detailed it is. Pages and pages are sometimes devoted to the most mundane of things, some events are described for too long than is required, and the most interesting parts that could be explored in greater depth are conveniently skipped over. Another thing worth mentioning is that there are quick mentions of extremely absurd relationship dynamics within the people in this close-knit group, but it isn't dived into fully and really leaves us feeling like we know as little about the main five characters at the end, as we did at the novel's commencement.

At the novel's denouement, the fate that had befallen this group of murderers was quite an interesting contrast to the beginning. Whilst we begin the novel hearing about this group of students in a very idealized and romanticized light, we leave the story realizing how imperfect and almost dangerous their attitudes fraught with pretension were, leaving us aware of the perils of idealizing aesthetics and valuing intellectualism over humaneness.