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The Secret History
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The Secret History Hardcover - 1992

by Donna Tartt


About this book

The Secret History by Donna Tartt is a novel that follows the lives of a group of classics students at a small, elite college in New England. The students, led by their charismatic and eccentric professor, become obsessed with ancient Greek culture and rituals, which leads them to commit a terrible crime. The novel explores themes of guilt, obsession, and the corrupting influence of power. Tartt's masterful prose and richly drawn characters make The Secret History a compelling and thought-provoking read. It has become a beloved classic of contemporary literature since its publication in 1992.

From the publisher

Donna Tartt, winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prizefor hermost recent novel, "The Goldfinch," established herself as a major talent with "The Secret" "History, " which has become acontemporary classic.
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.

"From the Trade Paperback edition.""

First Edition Identification

The Secret History novel was first published in 1992 by Alfred A. Knopf. The original retail price was $23.00. “First edition” is stated on the copyright page. Pictorial boards, spine lettered in black on a white ground, acetate dust jacket with a price of $23.00, and three reviews by John Grisham, Jay McInerney, and Ruth Rendell.

There are two possible variations of the first edition, one with a yellow tone, and another with a gray tone.


Details

  • Title The Secret History
  • Author Donna Tartt
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Edition First Edition
  • Pages 544
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Knopf Publishing Group, New York
  • Date 1992-09-05
  • ISBN 9780679410324 / 0679410325
  • Weight 1.74 lbs (0.79 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.5 x 5.9 x 1.59 in (24.13 x 14.99 x 4.04 cm)
  • Library of Congress subjects Psychological fiction, Vermont
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 92053053
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

Media reviews

"A beautifully written story, well-told, funny, sad, scary, and impossible to leave alone until I finished. . . . What a debut!" --John Grisham

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

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

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

"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

"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

"A long tale of friendship, arrogance, and murder knit together with the finesse that many writers will never have . . . Her writing bewitches us . . . The Secret History is a wonderfully beguiling book, a journey backward to the fierce and heady friendships of our school days, when all of us believed in our power to conjure up divinity and to be forgiven any sin." --The Philadelphia Inquirer

"The great pleasure of the novel is the wonderful complexity and the remarkable skill with which this first novelist spins the tale. And a gruesome tale it is. . . . A great, dense, disturbing story, wonderfully told." --Cosmopolitan

"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

"Donna Tartt has invested this simple and suspenseful plot with a considerable amount of atmosphere and philosophical significance. . . . She's a very good writer indeed." --The Washington Post Book World

"A glorious achievement . . . The Secret History is a grand read--an artful blend of intelligence, entertainment, and suspense that quickens the pulse." --The Virginian Pilot & Ledger-Star

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

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

"Donna Tartt is clearly a gifted writer. . . . The cadence of her sentences, the authority with which she shaped 500-plus pages of an erudite page-turner indicate she has the ability to leave her literary contemporaries standing in the road. . . . The decision to murder has about it the inevitability of classical Greek tragedy." --The Miami Herald

"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

About the author

Donna Tartt won the2014 Pulitzer Prize for her most recent Novel. "The Goldfinch" Her novelsl "The Secret History" and "The Little Friend" were also international bestsellers. She was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, and is a graduate of Bennington College.

"From the Trade Paperback edition.""
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The Secret History
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The Secret History

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ISBN 13
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