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  • The Secret History

  • A Read with Jenna Pick
  • By: Donna Tartt
  • Narrated by: Donna Tartt
  • Length: 22 hrs and 3 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (761 ratings)

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The Secret History

By: Donna Tartt
Narrated by: Donna Tartt
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Editorial review


By Kat Johnson, Audible Editor

THE SECRET HISTORY WAS ALWAYS ABOUT THE AESTHETICS

I’m old enough to remember the publication of The Secret History, back in 1992. Like Zadie Smith’s White Teeth almost a decade later, it was one of those rare Publishing Events, when a debut author and novel arrived so authentically entwined that everyone agreed—a literary star was born. Tartt, in men’s pajamas or a necktie and sleek bob, commanded attention. So did the novel, with its premise of murder among classics students at an elite liberal arts college. The Secret History was instantly heralded as an icon of its era. Who knew that, 30 years later, it would perform the same feat for a new generation?

I tore through The Secret History as soon as it came out. Like its narrator Richard Papen, I was a middle-class teenager thrust into a rarified academic world—in my case, a Swiss boarding school instead of a Vermont college—populated by the rich international set. I also wanted to be a writer, and The Secret History set a bar that seemed impossibly high. It’s not one of those novels that makes you think "I can do that"—quite the opposite. It’s simultaneously a complex inverted mystery (like Columbo, it starts with whodunit and then tantalizingly drips out the why and how) and a modern Greek tragedy with characters and prose so compelling, it’s positively hypnotic. I was envious and smitten, and I couldn’t stop reading.

Richard is a California native who is new to both the East Coast and Hampden College, where he’s trying to hide a mediocre background and lack of wealth. In a stroke of luck, he’s invited to join the school’s selective Ancient Greek program, run by charismatic professor Julian Morrow and comprised of five other students. Bunny Corcoran is an all-American preppy type, at home with money and privilege in the style of the Kennedys. Cecilia and Charles are beautiful blond twins with a mysterious relationship and, despite Richard’s love for them, a predilection for offhand cruelty. Henry Winter, tall and reserved, is a polymath and polyglot who’s the smartest and most complicated of the bunch. And there’s red-headed Francis, always wearing a billowing cloak or a pince-nez, who likes boys but is essentially closeted due to the times and his extremely traditional, wealthy family.

These are the main players in a murder that ends with Bunny dead at the bottom of a cliff and buried by snow—hardly a spoiler, since Tartt provides this information in the novel’s exquisitely chilling prologue. In part one, the novel rebuilds beautifully to the climax of the deadly event, while the second part deals with its aftermath, its meditations on beauty, ecstasy, morality, and the taint of murder so seductive that it demands and rewards multiple readings.

Continue reading Kat's review >

Publisher's summary

A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK • INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A contemporary literary classic and "an accomplished psychological thriller... absolutely chilling" (Village Voice), from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Goldfinch.

Under the influence of a charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at a New England college discover a way of thought and life a world away from their banal contemporaries. But their search for the transcendent leads them down a dangerous path, beyond human constructs of morality.

“A remarkably powerful novel [and] a ferociously well-paced entertainment.... Forceful, cerebral, and impeccably controlled.”—The New York Times

©2023 Penguin Random House Audio (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic 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

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What listeners say about The Secret History

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    5 out of 5 stars

Donna is a goddess

I loved everything about it. Made me feel like I was in a season of American Horror Story circa 2014.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Beautiful book.

I have struggled with breaking into things I call more “serious” books because I have been petrified of death my whole life. This book seems like it would be a bad choice, then. However I actually found it very comforting.

Donna tartt does a great job reading her writing, and her voice for bunny is odd but you get used to it.

I don’t know if I will ever read this again, maybe on a rainy day in some time. But this first reading was lovely. I’m so full of gratitude for the person who showed me this book, and for it coming into my life.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars

Compelling story & superb writing

I really enjoy Donna Tartt’s command of the English language. And although I was hesitant at first to like her own voice as the narrator, I really liked it in the end. Her writing gives such a wonderful sense of place filled with details that make it all come to life. She creates full body characters so clearly that after a while you feel like you know them. The events in the book are so horrific all the while the characters
go along like they are solving day to day problems and not dealing with the Murder of two innocent lives.
Then the unraveling begins. It is a visceral descent . And weeks after I finished this book
I am haunted by all that has happened and all that human beings are capable of.

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i am so in love with this book! it’s one of the best i’ve ever read!

i’ve read this book plenty of times, and i just had to get it to listen to at work. it’s so engaging and so intriguing to me, i love the characters, the setting, the beauty in the way she spins the tale and the way you can feel her intellect and her intelligence through everything she writes.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Narrator

Could not get through it. The voice of bunny burned my ear drums. The plot was taking way too long.

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An interesting book

An interesting, if not lengthy, novel detailing the events leading up to a surprising murder. The Dark Academia aspect of this book is palpable, and despite it being long-winded at times, it is a great book.

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Dark academia

Interesting story about six students in a small New England college, murder and the aftermath. I did not like the narrator’s voice. I enjoyed the book more when I had time to just read it instead of listening to it.

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Entertaining and intriguing

It was really interesting. I was always either to start listening. I was curious about what was gonna happen next. The characters were eccentric and curious.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

At this point, a nascent talent

First, let me say that the Goldfinch is one of my favorite books. This early effort showed promise, erudition, and poise, but it was overall disappointing. I also found the author’s narration to be far less professional, than that of most voice talent. in fact, her southern accent, fading in and out, was off-putting to me despite the fact that I have spent most of my life in the south and west. I’m about to download and try another one of her books to recapture the joy I felt after reading the Goldfinch.

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Not sure why i finished the book

Talented writing and character development, it is basically a Who Done it, in reverse. But there was not one central character with any redeeming qualities. You won’t like them at first and you won’t like them at the end. Elite academic brats try for the perfect murder.

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