a book
The Secret History
Donna Tartt · 1992 · 559 pages
ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME • INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A contemporary literary classic and "an accomplished psychological thriller ... absolutely chilling" (Village Voice), from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Goldfinch.
One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years
Under the influence of a charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at a New England college discover a way of thought and life a world away from their banal contemporaries. But their search for the transcendent leads them down a dangerous path, beyond human constructs of morality.
“A remarkably powerful novel [and] a ferociously well-paced entertainment . . . Forceful, cerebral, and impeccably controlled.” —The New York Times
One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years
Under the influence of a charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at a New England college discover a way of thought and life a world away from their banal contemporaries. But their search for the transcendent leads them down a dangerous path, beyond human constructs of morality.
“A remarkably powerful novel [and] a ferociously well-paced entertainment . . . Forceful, cerebral, and impeccably controlled.” —The New York Times
recommended by 8 people
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Nicola Sturgeon
“📚 I don’t re-read lots of books, but making an exception for this modern classic on the 30th anniversary of its publication. I read it back then & loved it. I remember being utterly engrossed but the detail of the plot is sketchy now, so going back in for my Sat night read… 📚”↗
Tana French
“Savage, entrancing, erudite and utterly beautiful. Richard Papen finds himself drawn into an elite group of classics students at his New England college, but gradually he realizes that the intensity and ruthlessness that initially attracted him go much deeper than he thought… There’s no whodunit element, you find out on the first page who killed whom, but that doesn’t matter: you still can’t put the book down. You spend the first half desperate to find out why the murder happened, and the second half desperate to find out what happened next. It’s both an incredible mystery novel and an incredible literary novel; the supposed borderline between the two genres completely dissolves.”↗
Kelly Ellis
“@elanpin @Nicole_Cliffe Like a favorite song, just thinking about this book immediately takes me back to the point in my life when I first read it. I really enjoyed The Goldfinch, as well.”↗
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