The Secret History in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

May 27, 2014 Rincey rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2014

Watch my review: http://youtu.be/JPAfVV7IM8w ...more

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Nov 27, 2023 Deb rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, botm

I was pretty dazzled by this book. I just kept wondering what kind of genius could write such a thing as an undergrad. I get why people complain about the length of Tartt’s books or about not much happening, and it’s true I think the second half of it could have been shorter, but I love her writing. I liked The Goldfinch more, but I really enjoyed this one.

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Jan 05, 2017 Chelsea rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I have been completely immersed...love it. New (old?) favorite.

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Feb 11, 2014 Kate rated it it was ok · review of another edition

More engrossing for the first 345 pages, when it felt somewhat timeless (like it could have been in any of a number of decades over the past half-century), but then the tone and language shifted abruptly. The last ~150 pages just seemed like she was being paid per word, and suddenly was full of time markers and pop references. The end felt both inevitable and a bit of a cop-out. Can't say I hated it as much as some of my friends (I guess over-written-ness is okay with me if it fits a certain moo ...more

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Mar 30, 2008 Maya added it · review of another edition

This is one of my favorite books of all time. Great characters, captivating mystery, impeccable writing. Plus, I learned a lot about Greek mythology...

11/24/22—reread as audio this month because i saw it was available at the library and thought it would be good to revisit a book I think of as my favorite but haven’t read in 20+years. I deleted my original 5 star rating because honestly, my feelings have changed. I still think it’s a great book. It has some unique qualities that I still find exce ...more

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Jun 19, 2008 Jeff Scott rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: overdrive-library, audiobooks

For many, college would seem a waste of time. There are many disciplines to follow that would not lead directly to a job. However, whatever the degree, the college experience is mostly a discover of self. Who are you, who will you be?

In Donna Tartt's book, the same delimna holds forth. Richard Papin doesn't know who he is and what he does know of himself, he would prefer to erase. When he leaves his droll California town for East Coast and New Hampshire, he wants to escape himself.

He also has For many, college would seem a waste of time. There are many disciplines to follow that would not lead directly to a job. However, whatever the degree, the college experience is mostly a discover of self. Who are you, who will you be?

In Donna Tartt's book, the same delimna holds forth. Richard Papin doesn't know who he is and what he does know of himself, he would prefer to erase. When he leaves his droll California town for East Coast and New Hampshire, he wants to escape himself.

He also has no direction in his college studies. He decides to take Classics as his major. The professor seduces him into taking only course from him so that he and his five other classmates may be taught in the ancient Greek way (similar to the days of Plato).

His classmates decide to re-enact a Dionysis orgy and as a result, murder an innocent man. When another classmate discovers them, he threatens to reveal their secret. As a result, they plan his murder.

Favorite quotes:

'It's a very Greek idea, and a very profound one. Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it. And what could be more terrifying and beautiful, to souls like the Greeks or our own, than to lose control completely? To throw off the chains of being for an instant, to shatter the accident of our mortal selves? Euripides speaks of the Maenads: head thrown I back, throat to the stars, "more like deer than human being." To be absolutely free! One is quite capable, of course, of working out these destructive passions in more vulgar and less efficient ways. But how glorious to release them in a single burst! To sing, to scream, to dance barefoot in the woods in the dead of night, with no more awareness of mortality than an animal! These are powerful mysteries. The bellowing of bulls. Springs of honey bubbling from the ground. If we are strong enough in our souls we can rip away the veil and look that naked, terrible beauty right in the face; let God consume us, devour us, unstring our bones. Then spit us out reborn.'

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When I walked home at night, things got white around the edges and it seemed I had no past, no memories, that I had been on this exact stretch of luminous, hissing road forever.

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But one mustn't underestimate the primal appeal - to lose one's self, lose it utterly. And in losing it be born to the principle of continuous life, outside the prison of mortality and time.

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Henry, who generally disliked and was disliked by hoi polloi a category which in his view expanded to include persons ranging from teenagers with boom boxes to the Dean of Studies of Hamp den, who was independently wealthy and had a degree in American Studies from Yale - nonetheless had a genuine knack with poor people, simple people, country folk; he was despised by the functionaries of Hampden but admiredby its janitors, its gardeners and cooks. Though he did not treat them as equals - he didn't treat anyone as an equal, exactly - neither did he resort to the condescending friendliness of the wealthy. 'I think we're much more hypocritical about illness, and poverty, than were people in former ages,' I remember Julian saying once. 'In America, the rich man tries to pretend that the poor man is his equal in every respect but money, which is simply not true. Does anyone remember Plato's definition of Justice in the Republic? Justice, in a society, is when each level of a hierarchy works within its place and is content with it. A poor man who wishes to rise above his station is only making himself needlessly miserable. And the wise poor have always known this, the same as do the wise rich.'

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He hadn't seen it coming at all. He hadn't even understood, there wasn't time. Teetering back as if on the edge of the swimming pool: comic yodel, windmilling arms. Then the surprised nightmare of falling. Someone who didn't know there was such a thing in the world as Death; who couldn't believe it even when he saw it; had never dreamed it would come to him. (I liked this one because it reminded me of the Odyssey. When Odysseus begins to kill his rivals, the first one is written quite poetically, "Did he dream of death?") ...more

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May 27, 2014 Emily Williams rated it liked it · review of another edition

A well-constructed book and an uncomfortable read, but not necessarily one I'd recommend to most friends. I still love Tartt's prose, but this didn't stick with me like the Goldfinch did. ...more

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Jan 04, 2013 Melissa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: overdue-reads

Finished my reread. Caught many more things this time around - reading much more slowly - but it'll likely take a third re-read to get all the bits. ...more

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