The Secret History

This article is about the 1992 novel by Donna Tartt. For Procopius's Secret History, see Procopius § Secret History. For other uses, see secret history (disambiguation).

The Secret History

Cover of the first edition
Author	Donna Tartt
Cover artist	Chip Kidd Barbara de Wilde
Language	English
Publisher	Alfred A. Knopf
Publication date	September 16, 1992
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages	544 pp
ISBN	0-679-41032-5
OCLC	26515217
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 20
LC Class	PS3570.A657 S4 1992

The Secret History is the first novel by the American author Donna Tartt, published by Alfred A. Knopf in September 1992. Set in New England, the campus novel tells the story of a closely knit group of six classics students at Hampden College, a small, elite liberal arts college located in Vermont based upon Bennington College, where Tartt was a student between 1982 and 1986.

The Secret History is an inverted detective story narrated by one of the six students, Richard Papen, who reflects years later upon the situation that led to the murder of their friend Edmund "Bunny" Corcoran – wherein the events leading up to the murder are revealed sequentially. The novel explores the circumstances and lasting effects of Bunny's death on the academically and socially isolated group of classics students of which he was a part.

The novel was originally titled The God of Illusions, and its first-edition hardcover was designed by the acclaimed New York City graphic designer Chip Kidd, and Barbara de Wilde. A 75,000 print order was made for the first edition (as opposed to the usual 10,000 order for a debut novel) and the book became a bestseller. The book has since been credited as popularizing the growth of the dark academia literary sub-genre.

Synopsis

In 1983, Richard Papen leaves his hometown of Plano, California, for the elite Hampden College in Vermont to study literature.  Richard finds he cannot enroll into the classes of Classics professor Julian Morrow, who limits enrollment to a hand-picked clique of five students:  fraternal twins Charles and Camilla Macaulay, Francis Abernathy, Henry Winter, and Edmund "Bunny" Corcoran. After Richard helps them with a translation, they give him advice on endearing himself to Julian. Eventually, Richard is accepted into Julian's classes and becomes a member of the group.

Henry seems to have a strained friendship with Bunny, but they spend winter break together in Rome while Richard takes a low-paying campus job and spends winter break in an unheated warehouse. He nearly dies from hypothermia and pneumonia but is rescued and taken to the hospital by Henry, who returns early from Italy.

As 1983 rolls into 1984, tensions between Bunny and the group worsen as Bunny constantly insults the other members and begins behaving increasingly erratically. Richard learns the truth from Henry: during a bacchanal from which both Richard and Bunny were excluded, Henry accidentally killed a farmer near Francis's country estate. Bunny, by chance, found out the truth and has been blackmailing the group ever since. No longer able to meet Bunny's demands, and fearing that he'll expose them as his mental state deteriorates, Henry slowly convinces the group to kill Bunny. They confront Bunny while hiking and Henry pushes him into a ravine to his death.

The group struggles to maintain their cover, joining search parties for Bunny and even attending his funeral. Camilla tells Richard that when the farmer was killed, his stomach was cut open, suggesting that it wasn't an accident at all.

Shortly after, Charles falls into alcoholism and becomes abusive towards his sister. Henry steps in and arranges for Camilla to move into a hotel with him to protect her. Francis tells Richard the twins have had an incestuous relationship with each other, that he himself has occasionally slept with Charles, and that he suffers from panic attacks.

Julian eventually receives a misplaced letter from Bunny detailing the bacchanal murder and his fear that Henry will kill him. Although he initially dismisses it as a hoax, he realizes its truth when he notices one sheet is on letterhead from Henry and Bunny's Rome hotel. Julian gives Henry the letter and leaves the faculty at Hampden and never returns, disappointing Henry, who sees it as an act of cowardice at odds with Julian's praise of Greek and Roman virtues.

Richard begins to fear that Henry intended for him to serve as a patsy, as he was excluded from a false alibi. Henry reveals to Richard that he enjoyed the murders and that he does not have empathy for other people. When Charles is arrested in a drunk-driving incident with Henry's car, Henry fears Charles will turn him in, while Charles fears that Henry may kill him to keep his silence. Charles barges into Camilla and Henry's hotel room and tries to kill Henry with Francis's gun. In the struggle, Charles accidentally shoots Richard in the abdomen. To protect the rest of the group and keep their secrets hidden, Henry kisses Camilla farewell, whispers something in her ear, and shoots himself. The police report concludes that Henry inadvertently shot Richard when Richard tried to prevent Henry's suicide.

With Henry's death, the group disintegrates, and only Richard finishes his studies. Francis, living in Boston, attempts suicide and, though homosexual, is forced by his rich grandfather to marry a woman. Charles flees from rehab to Texas with a married woman and no longer speaks to Camilla, who, caring for her grandmother alone, becomes increasingly isolated. Richard, after recovering from his wounds, becomes a lonely academic with an unrequited love for Camilla. He sees Henry's death as having severed the cord that bound them, setting them all adrift.

The novel ends in 1992 with Richard recounting a dream he recently had. In the dream, he comes across Henry in a museum located in a desolate city. Richard asks, "Are you happy here?". Before leaving, Henry replies: "Not particularly. But you're not very happy where you are, either."

Characters

• Julian Morrow: an eccentric classics professor at Hampden who teaches only a small group of students whom he selects for their intellect, connections, and wealth. Julian was a prominent socialite in the 1940s, associated with T. S. Eliot. The independently wealthy Julian donates his salary to Hampden, with which he has a strained relationships. Julian extols the virtues of Greco-Roman society, and is viewed as a father figure by his students, who are taught nearly exclusively by him.
• Richard Papen: a transfer student of modest means from California, he is insecure with his background and so embellishes it to fit in with his fellow classics students. Richard reluctantly follows Henry's plans but does not put up serious resistance.
• Charles and Camilla Macaulay: Charming but orphaned fraternal twins from Virginia. The complex relationship between the twins is characterized by jealousy and protectiveness. The twins frequently host the group for dinner. Camilla is a love interest of both Richard and Henry.
• Henry Winter: a polyglot intellectual prodigy and published author with wealthy new money parents and a passion for the Pāli canon, Homer, and Plato, he is the unofficial leader of the group and is Julian's favorite student. Despite his intellectual talents, Henry did not graduate high school due to injuries from an accident.
• Francis Abernathy: a generous and hypochondriac student from an old money background, whose secluded country home becomes a sanctuary for the group. Francis has an overprotective mother with a history of drug addiction who sent him to several elite European boarding schools.
• Edmund "Bunny" Corcoran: a jokester who despite appearances of wealth, is in fact penniless and unabashedly takes advantage of his friends. Bunny's bigoted attitudes such as anti-Catholicism antagonize other group members. Bunny is the least academically talented of the group; he has severe dyslexia and did not read until age 10. Unlike other group members, Bunny has a girlfriend and friends outside of the group.

Themes

According to Michiko Kakutani, some aspects of the novel are reflective of Nietzsche's model of Apollonian and Dionysian expression in The Birth of Tragedy. Kakutani, writing for the New York Times, said "in The Secret History, Ms. Tartt manages to make...melodramatic and bizarre events (involving Dionysian rites and intimations of satanic power) seem entirely plausible." Because the author introduces the murder and those responsible at the outset, critic A. O. Scott labeled it "a murder mystery in reverse." In 2013, John Mullan wrote an essay for The Guardian titled "Ten Reasons Why We Love Donna Tartt's The Secret History", which includes "It starts with a murder," "It is in love with Ancient Greece," "It is full of quotations," and "It is obsessed with beauty."

Reception

The book received generally positive reviews from critics. Michiko Kakutani called the novel a "ferociously well-paced entertainment", which "succeeds magnificently" and heavily attributed the success of the book to Tartt's well-developed writing skills. Sophie McKenzie, writing for The Independent, called it "the book of a lifetime", stating that it was "perfectly paced" and the characters are "fascinating and powerfully drawn". However, James Wood of the London Review of Books gave it a mediocre review, writing: "The story compels, but it doesn't involve...It offers mysteries and polished revelations on every page, but its true secrets are too deep, too unintended to be menacing or profound." Critic Ted Gioia wrote:

There is much to admire in Tartt's novel, but it is especially laudable for how persuasively she chronicles the steps from studying classics to committing murder. This is a difficult transition to relate in a believable manner, and all the more difficult given Tartt's decision to tell the story from the perspective of one of the most genial of the conspirators. Her story could easily come across as implausible—or even risible—in its recreation of Dionysian rites on a Vermont college campus, and its attempt to convince us that a mild-mannered transfer student with a taste for ancient languages can evolve, through a series of almost random events, into a killer. Yet convince us she does, and the intimacy with which Tartt brings her readers into the psychological miasma of the unfolding plot is one of the most compelling features of The Secret History.

Planned and cancelled screen adaptations

The novel has been tapped by several filmmakers in the decades since its release for a possible film or television adaptation; however, all have been unsuccessful.

Producer Alan J. Pakula first acquired film rights at the book's publishing in 1992, with a planned screenplay by writers Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne. Work was set to begin in late 1998 (director Scott Hicks was rumored to have already been hired) when Pakula's death in a car accident in November caused the project to fall through.

The 2002 publication of Tartt's second novel The Little Friend caused a resurgence of interest in The Secret History. A new adaptation was announced by Miramax Films, to be produced by Harvey Weinstein and headed by siblings Jake and Gwyneth Paltrow, who hoped to star as the characters Charles and Camila Macaulay respectively. The death of the siblings' father Bruce Paltrow in October of that year caused the project to be shelved again, and the rights were reinstated to Tartt.

At the 2013 publication of Tartt's third novel The Goldfinch, interest in another adaptation was rekindled, this time for television with Tartt's school peers Melissa Rosenberg and Bret Easton Ellis at the helm (Ellis is the novel's co-dedicatee). This attempt also fell through after Rosenberg and Ellis failed to find a network or streaming platform interested in the project.

Tartt's unhappiness with the 2019 film version of The Goldfinch caused many to speculate she would not allow further screen adaptations of any of her novels, leaving The Secret History in limbo. Tartt fired her longtime agent Amanda Urban over the film and stated, "Once the book is out there, it’s not really mine anymore, and my own idea isn’t any more valid than yours. And then I begin the long process of disengaging."

External links

• NPR: Talk of the Nation: Donna Tartt interviewed by Lynn Neary (November 5, 2002)
• NPR: Talk of the Nation: Donna Tartt and Anne Rice interviewed by Ray Suarez (October 30, 1997)
• Esquire: The Secret Oral History of Bennington: The 1980s' Most Decadent College: The prototypes of The Secret History's characters interviewed by Lili Anolik (May 28, 2019)