And while her protagonists never escape their ghostly insubstantiality, she displays some searing observations of their social milieu that leap from the page. Its flavour is less the charmed amorality of The Great Gatsby, more the cold lovelessness of Hitchcock’s Rope, a cool Forties number about two students who kill a colleague to prove their mettle.īut although she is too overwhelmed by her models-Scott Fitzgerald, primarily-to find her own voice, Tartt does show an impressive ability to pace and pattern her novel, keeping the plot tightly under control throughout the search for Bunny’s body, the funeral and the aftermath. As she is unable to show us the joys of the rather dull times that Richard spends with the group, she tells us, with unnatural breathlessness … Her recourse to such poses at moments of emotional heat brings out the book’s lack of heart, its drably inhuman cast. “Throughout, one is uncomfortably aware that Tartt’s talents are not quite up to her intended effects. The Secret History has been added to your Cart Buy new: 60.0060.00 FREE delivery: Monday, May 8 Ships from: Amazon Sold by: Mesom Book FREE Returns Return this item for free Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. A highly readable murder mystery a romantic dream of doomed youth and a disquisition on ancient and modern mores all served up in a sugary, over-refined style that has already won Tartt a puzzling amount of media attention. “Donna Tartt’s first novel, The Secret History, is an odd confection. Haunting The Secret History, though never explicitly named, is the figure of Silenus, the companion to Dionysus, whose experiences alongside the god lead him to conclude that it is best for.

The secret history 1992