The Secret History

In Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, murder, lies, and classical studies blend in a suspense novel of moral questions.

Richard is a California drifter, in an angry working-class way, not a laid-back sunshiney way, who lands at a small, private college in Vermont. Then he stumbles into a tiny Greek class, led by a forceful, charismatic professor who handpicks talented students and leads them to classical knowledge, in a beautiful, private classroom. (My dream is to teach dedicated students, with as little administrative oversight as this guy.) Sure, it’s a little weird how Julian, the professor, demands that Richard drop almost all his other classes, and only take courses with the group, but the students really love him. Later on, when another classics professor subs for him, it’s clear how much the students have learned from him.

The Greek students keep to themselves in a close circle,  attending all the same classes with Julian, enjoying the same anachronisms, exchanging books, and spending most of their free time together. It takes a while for them to develop as individuals, since Richard is the outsider joining the group. Except for Bunny, who stands out pretty quickly.

Caesar Augustus was Bunny’s hero; he had embarrassed us all by cheering loudly at the mention of his name during the reading of the Bethlehem story from Luke 2 at the literature division’s Christmas party. “Well, what of it,” he said, when we tried to shush him. “All the world shoulda been taxed.”

The real drama of The Secret History hinges on the Greek students’ search for ecstasy — not the party drug, the Greek concept of ex stasis. Classics kids are like this, we definitely appointed drinking masters of our historically accurate toga parties, and enjoyed all kinds of ancient anachronisms. One memorable girls’ night, we drunkenly dreamed about maenids ripping certain predatory men limb from limb. So I followed along with the terribly believable classics circle, towards the murders, lies, and deaths.

The Secret History is a suspense novel, as the danger increases, the secrets mount, and the characters show their darker and darker sides. The tension is real, but there’s also a second,  layer of an older Richard considering morality and privilege, what led him to his path and the choices he made.

This post is my addition to this month’s BookWorms Monthly over on AtHomeALot. (With covid, aren’t we all at home a lot these days?)