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The Secret History

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The Secret History Cover

ISBN13: 9780449911518
ISBN10: 0449911519
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

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Awards

A New York Times Notable Book
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Richard Papen arrived at Hampden College in New England and was quickly seduced by an elite group of five students, all Greek scholars, all worldly, self-assured, and, at first glance, all highly unapproachable. As Richard is drawn into their inner circle, he learns a terrifying secret that binds them to one another...a secret about an incident in the woods in the dead of night where an ancient rite was brought to brutal life...and led to a gruesome death. And that was just the beginning....

Review:

"Powerful....Enthrallling....A ferociously well-paced entertainment." The New York Times

Review:

"A smart, craftsman-like, viscerally compelling novel." Time

Review:

"Entertaining, evocative first novel." Publishers Weekly

Review:

"[A] work of occasionally irritating pretension that is mostly redeemed by its simple virtue as a gripping read....Where it parts company with even the best of its campus colleagues is in the clever evolution of its first-person telling, its many magnificent pages of description and its refusal to let the parochial environs of its setting limit the exploration of its characters." Andrew Rosenheim, The New York Times Book Review

Review:

"[W]ell-written....The book's many allusions, both literary and classical...fail to provide the deeper resonance of such works as Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. Ultimately, it works best as a psychological thriller." Library Journal

Review:

"[A]n elaborately conceived and artistically ambitious thriller....Tartt records the aftereffects of unpunished crime with great skill. But her efforts to transform a chronicle of suspense into a study in sensibility are less successful....Tartt offers the aroma of decadence, not its anatomy; stylish intimations of misbehavior, not visions of hell." The New Republic

Review:

"One of the best American college novels to come along since John Knowles's A Seperate Peace....Immensely entertaining." Houston Chronicle

Review:

"A great, dense, disturbing story, wonderfully told." Cosmopolitan

Review:

"Donna Tartt is clearly a gifted writer....She has the ability to leave her literary contemporaries standing in the road." The Miami Herald

Review:

"An accomplished psychological thriller....Absolutely chilling....Tartt has a stunning command of the lyrical." The Village Voice

Review:

"A thinking-person's thriller....Think Lord of the Flies, then The Rules of Attraction....The Secret History combines a bit of both — the unmistakable whiff of evil from William Golding's classic and the mad recklessness of priviledged youth from Bret Easton Ellis's novel of the '80s....As stony and chilling as any Greek tragedian ever plumbed." New York Newsday

Review:

"Tartt's voice is unlike that of any of her contemporaries. Her beautiful language, intricate plotting, fascinating characters, and intellectual energy make her debut by far the most interesting work yet from her generation." The Boston Globe

Review:

"Beautifully written, suspenseful from start to finish." Vogue

Review:

"The Secret History implicates the reader in a conspiracy which begins in bucolic enchantment and ends exactly where it must — though a less gifted or fearless writer would never have been able to imagine such a rich skein of consequence. Donna Tartt has written a mesmerizing and powerful novel." Jay McInerney

Review:

"Donna Tartt has a real shot at becoming her generation's Edgar Allan Poe....The Secret History pulses like a telltale heart on steroids." Glamour

Synopsis:

Truly deserving of the accolade a modern classic, Donna Tartt's novel is a remarkable achievement — both compelling and elegant, dramatic and playful.

Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality their lives are changed profoundly and forever, and they discover how hard it can be to truly live and how easy it is to kill.

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About the Author

Donna Tartt is a novelist, essayist, and critic. The Secret History has been translated into twenty-four languages and is available in hardcover from Knopf.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 4 comments:
thirdwavegrrrl, April 16, 2013 (view all comments by thirdwavegrrrl)
I really enjoyed this suspenseful and beautifully written novel. I highly recommend it!
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ememily, August 4, 2012 (view all comments by ememily)
The Secret History is wonderful in so many ways. I'm pretty picky when it comes to novels, and I also rarely read a book more than once. But this one is magical in some way. It's a lengthy book, but it's completely engaging the whole way through. I've read it several times, and know I'll read it again. Every person I know that has read it has loved it too. It's hard to describe what's so perfect about it, but it has characters that draw you in, a mysterious plot, and it's written beautifully. It's definitely a book you want to savor, but can't stop reading until you've reached the end.
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Rebekah, March 10, 2007 (view all comments by Rebekah)
I stayed up all night reading this book! "The Secret History" is one of those novels you want to race through because the author has built up such a strong sense of anticipation, but you also want to read v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-ly so that you can savor every part. Tartt explores the human fascination with violence and escapism in intellectual prose that both tantalizes and shocks. This is an indulgent yet edifying read from which you might even learn a thing or two about classical literature and philosophy.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780449911518
Author:
Tartt, Donna
Publisher:
Vintage
Author:
Tartt, Donna
Location:
New York :
Subject:
General
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Murder
Subject:
College students
Subject:
Teacher-student relationships
Subject:
Murder -- Fiction.
Copyright:
1992
Edition Description:
Trade paper
Series:
Vintage Contemporaries
Series Volume:
107-630
Publication Date:
August 1996
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Yes
Pages:
576
Dimensions:
9.95 x 5.2 x 1 in .9 lb
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Related Subjects


Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z
Fiction and Poetry » Mystery » A to Z

The Secret History Used Trade Paper
0 stars - 0 reviews
$3.50 In Stock
Product details 576 pages Fawcett Books - English 9780449911518 Reviews:
"Review" by , "Powerful....Enthrallling....A ferociously well-paced entertainment."
"Review" by , "A smart, craftsman-like, viscerally compelling novel."
"Review" by , "Entertaining, evocative first novel."
"Review" by , "[A] work of occasionally irritating pretension that is mostly redeemed by its simple virtue as a gripping read....Where it parts company with even the best of its campus colleagues is in the clever evolution of its first-person telling, its many magnificent pages of description and its refusal to let the parochial environs of its setting limit the exploration of its characters."
"Review" by , "[W]ell-written....The book's many allusions, both literary and classical...fail to provide the deeper resonance of such works as Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. Ultimately, it works best as a psychological thriller."
"Review" by , "[A]n elaborately conceived and artistically ambitious thriller....Tartt records the aftereffects of unpunished crime with great skill. But her efforts to transform a chronicle of suspense into a study in sensibility are less successful....Tartt offers the aroma of decadence, not its anatomy; stylish intimations of misbehavior, not visions of hell."
"Review" by , "One of the best American college novels to come along since John Knowles's A Seperate Peace....Immensely entertaining."
"Review" by , "A great, dense, disturbing story, wonderfully told."
"Review" by , "Donna Tartt is clearly a gifted writer....She has the ability to leave her literary contemporaries standing in the road."
"Review" by , "An accomplished psychological thriller....Absolutely chilling....Tartt has a stunning command of the lyrical."
"Review" by , "A thinking-person's thriller....Think Lord of the Flies, then The Rules of Attraction....The Secret History combines a bit of both — the unmistakable whiff of evil from William Golding's classic and the mad recklessness of priviledged youth from Bret Easton Ellis's novel of the '80s....As stony and chilling as any Greek tragedian ever plumbed."
"Review" by , "Tartt's voice is unlike that of any of her contemporaries. Her beautiful language, intricate plotting, fascinating characters, and intellectual energy make her debut by far the most interesting work yet from her generation."
"Review" by , "Beautifully written, suspenseful from start to finish."
"Review" by , "The Secret History implicates the reader in a conspiracy which begins in bucolic enchantment and ends exactly where it must — though a less gifted or fearless writer would never have been able to imagine such a rich skein of consequence. Donna Tartt has written a mesmerizing and powerful novel."
"Review" by , "Donna Tartt has a real shot at becoming her generation's Edgar Allan Poe....The Secret History pulses like a telltale heart on steroids."
"Synopsis" by , Truly deserving of the accolade a modern classic, Donna Tartt's novel is a remarkable achievement — both compelling and elegant, dramatic and playful.

Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality their lives are changed profoundly and forever, and they discover how hard it can be to truly live and how easy it is to kill.

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