Kenneth's review
The Secret History
by Donna Tartt
Kenneth's review
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Kenneth's review
rating:
bookshelves:
outstanding
I suspect I'm the only or at least one of the few who picked up The Secret History, read the back, and went looking for some reference to Procopius' work of the same title. Sadly I was disappointed in this regard, the history here is secret not in the matter of some obscure courtier telling dirty stories about his lord - he describes the Emperor Justinian as a demon at one point - but rather in the sense of a history that's been covered up.
This book was recommended to me largely in response to my background in both literature and classical studies as an instance where the two converge. Despite my disappointment at not crossing a Procopius joke I found it to be a delightful novel.
Tartt nails the classics on the head. It's very much akin to philosophy as a field in whose study your sense of the present social mores are steadily broken down. It is true that much of modernity does owe its existence to the innovations of Classical Greece, but to actually study the Greeks ...more
This book was recommended to me largely in response to my background in both literature and classical studies as an instance where the two converge. Despite my disappointment at not crossing a Procopius joke I found it to be a delightful novel.
Tartt nails the classics on the head. It's very much akin to philosophy as a field in whose study your sense of the present social mores are steadily broken down. It is true that much of modernity does owe its existence to the innovations of Classical Greece, but to actually study the Greeks ...more
