musings of a hopeless romantic.

This novel had been lingering in my TBR for months before I finally picked it up. Despite its bestseller status, what provoked my desire to read it was actually that incomprehensible mess of a website called Tumblr (sorry not sorry, David); bloggers that I follow are still avidly making gifsets and fan art of the book, even though it was published over two decades ago.

The Secret History is an incredibly compelling tale told from the perspective of Richard Papen, a poor, Californian student attending an elite college in Vermont named Hampden. The plotline runs the course of a year, detailing Richard’s gradual entry into and newfound fascination with the world of the school’s idiosyncratic Classics students— Henry, Bunny, Charles, Camilla, and Francis— as well as their enigmatic instructor, Julian Morrow. Richard finds himself enraptured by them and their unconventional modes of thought, and as they cast their influences upon him, his own morals and thoughts on concepts such as beauty and existence are metamorphosed.

“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.”

Told in the format of an inverted detective story, readers know right off the bat what the big crime— in this case, a murder— entails, and slowly learn how it was committed and why it was committed. Tartt masterfully weaves suspense throughout the story, building a subtle, yet palpable tension. The book’s considerable length does not impair any sense of excitement or anxiety from budding, as her writing style (sometimes winding, other times abrupt) ensures every line is carefully crafted to inspire tangible images of the events in the reader’s mind. The dialogue is usually strong, dynamic, and interesting (though at points, unrealistic); the characters speak in puzzling riddles and hushed Greek, and constantly make reference to classic, high-brow texts or obscure mythos. Their verbal interactions are never boring, but mystifying.

The main characters are brilliantly illustrated, collectively defined by their refined manners and formal way of dress, and individually defined by their speech habits and quirks (as noted by the narrator). As to Richard; he clearly is conflicted, interests swaying between a partiality for alone time (evidenced by the comfort he finds in Dr. Roland’s office on some nights) and the intrigue of the Classics students. His reactions to dark secrets lurking in the plot mainly consist of quiet fascination rather than outrage or horror; he goes along with the flow of events despite moral questions that bubble up from time to time. These aspects make him a very interesting lens to read through, and, because he isn’t originally aware of what’s going on behind the scenes like the others do, the suspense is upped.

Some critiques to make— firstly, The Secret History does start out a bit slow, and I found myself losing focus until things started getting a bit more intense. I felt like too many pages were devoted to trivial matters (smoking cigarettes to no end, drinking, irrelevant parties) or conversations or plot points that never make a recurrence/are never fully explained, particularly in regards to Harry’s relationships with certain characters (Camilla, Julian). Therefore, I think a lot of this unnecessary text could have been truncated to create a briefer yet more suspenseful product.

Secondly— and this is perhaps what bugged me the most— Tartt’s detailed writing style, while very careful and expressive, too many times rubbed off on me as self-conscious and florid. I’m not necessarily referring to the plethora of casual allusions to Greek history and mythology, but in general to the excessive amount of “artsy” metaphors and “witty” descriptions shoved into what seems like every single paragraph. While I wouldn’t necessarily call her style pretentious, I did get the sense that she was overly concerned with trying to make the prose sound elevated and intellectual. Thankfully, this issue is countered by the utterly transfixing tale Tartt weaves, so for the most part I could overlook it.

All in all The Secret History was an engrossing, anxiety-inducing read, despite certain flaws I found with it; there are very stunning meanings concealed in its depths. It’s the first book I’ve read in a while that I simply couldn’t bear to put down.