r/TheSecretHistory

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idk i made henry a girl. i think she has tgirl swag <3 ive only drawn these three cuz... idk... i didnt feel like drawing the others

I last read the book four years ago, and my memory of it is hazy, so I'd appreciate if you helped me with this. So after Henry's suicide, Richard goes back to California and finds a position somewhere in the academia. If I remember correctly, he moves on from the ancient Greeks to English lit? Was those authors someone like Milton? Googling didn't help. Thank you.

I've been really entranced by euripides' bacchae for a long while now and when i brought this up to my cousin she really urged me that i should read the secret history because it had similar themes. i wont get into my entire thoughts on the book cuz this is just about it in relation to my obsession with the bacchae but i was kinda... underwhelmed? the parts where the bacchae was invoked were absolutely gripping and it was probably the best description of divine madness ive seen... well, ever. but i was expecting more. dionysus was brought up in the narrative proper once (and then again in the space between book I and book II) and it just all felt like there could have been more in reference to the bacchanal and how it haunted the story.

idk maybe im biased, but i wouldve preferred to see a sacond bacchanal (with richard this time... please... dialogue isnt enough i need this shown not told... please) after bunny's death that henry would claim never ended and the other members thinking it was a one-night thing again that would lead to more and more insanity until the final bit, where we could get that kind of suspended, melancholic moment of henry's death, like the bacchae and its descent into insanity until pentheus' death (wouldve loved to see henry in drag but thats neither here nor there). i just feel like donna tartt underutilised her power with her words because my god was it absolutely enthralling when she described the more dionysian aspects of the story, and if it had just dug into that insanity (thrown in some cannibalism...) i wouldve much preferred it. does anyone else feel this way or am i just kind of Weird?

that being said i genuinely loved this story so much, and i suppose thats why i was disappointed with how little of my favourite parts i got to see. when we really got to see inside henry's head and that pure dionysian ecstasy was really the parts that gripped me (wouldve loved to see the book from henry's POV but thats not a criticism thats just personal taste)

My sister turns 16 and i’m thinking about gifting her the books since I love it so much. And i remember reading some way crazier shit back in my days (we are 10 years apart) but i honestly can’t really judge if this is a book appropriate to give to a 16 years old, especially because of the drugs. What do you think?

The letter to Julian, which was supposedly written by Bunny, was typed out. It is mentioned that Francis had a typewriter and later, Charles said that he had snuck into Francis’ house ‘a million times’ so he could have snuck in to write it, right? He also asked Richard for letter paper when he was in the hospital and it was at one point mentioned that he was good at falsifying documents. He was with Cloke in Bunny’s room, so he could have taken the paper wth the hotel’s heading from there. The letter supposedly also contained a bunch of homophobic stuff and Charles might be judgemental of homosexuals because of Francis, a homosexual, SA’ing him when he was drunk. At this point Charles clearly started hating Henry and it isn’t known when the letter was placed in the mailbox so it is entirely possible that Charles could have written it as revenge on Henry. Does this make sense?

Wow. Just wow. Haven’t read this way for a while; it’s probably the first book in a long long time I’ve finished within a few days of picking it up. Just wanted to go over some thoughts I had and questions I guess I’d love to discuss with anyone!

What is the secret history?
Title could’ve been different imo
Synopsis was not accurate - was this deliberate
Julian’s role could have been more defined or even different. The way he was hyped up, I expected him to be the supervillain even 3/4ths through the book. Were he and Henry in a relationship? Maybe he was at the bacchanal? Did he propose the bacchanal? Did he propose killing Bunny? There was so much potential
What actually happened to the man??? Was it that they killed (sacrificed) him and that’s why all their descriptions varied? But they lie so well so this doesn’t make sense to me.
I read somewhere that the “big cat” that past Richard and Francis later in the car could have been what killed the man and bit Charles.. so did they not kill him?
What was the awakening Henry had after killing Bunny? Is there actual reference to a ritual here? In some religion or tradition?
What the hell actually happened at the bacchanal???
Did Charles abuse Camilla or Henry?
Why do they all kiss each other so flippantly is this a white/rich/American thing?

I recently finished the book, I loved it! And I wanted to share my art :)) (might render it properly later)

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For me, TSH was a completely engrossing read like none other, especially on the first read through. The Goldfinch had a similar, un-put-down-able effect on me, but I know that that’s kind of a polarizing opinion even among TSH lovers. What both books have, imo, are gorgeous prose, a heightened degree of suspense from the very beginning, and this indescribable sense of nostalgia and melancholy that permeates both narratives.

I haven’t had that engrossed feeling in a long while. I’ve read books that interested me, but not any that plunged me into this almost mythical sense of immersion like TSH and the Goldfinch have. The closest are works by Naomi Novik, because of how tightly constructed her stories are; beyond that, I’d have to go back to when I was eleven and finished the entire HP series in two weeks.

I have a long trip coming up, with lots of sitting-in-transport time, and I foresee unbearable boredom ahead. So, I would greatly love some suggestions: Was TSH as captivating an experience for you as it was for me? If so, have you experienced anything similar with any other works of literature, and which, if any, were these?

I know that “books like TSH” is a constant theme on this sub and others, but I think there’s always a different focus each time. Some would like murder mysteries, some would like dark academia, some would like greek tragedy-related works. Hopefully the way I phrased my question puts a slightly different spin on that, and might inspire some unusual answers.

Cheers!

I’m on my second read and i noticed the way he talks about both the murder of the farmer and the murder of Bunny at the start of chpt 6 is kind of crazy.

He talks about how the ‘the first murder seemed to be so simple’ and ‘the second one was also easy, at least at first’ and so on. Basically he speaks about the first murder as if he was there and Bunny’s as if he actually did anything other than just watch Henry push him. I’m not saying hearing about your friends killing someone wouldn’t be crazy and watching your friend be murdered wouldn’t be even crazier but like bro. Saying ‘the first murder seemed to be so simple’ when you literally were not there and didn’t even know about it until weeks later seems so delusional to me.
We know obviously Richard is an unreliable narrator and that he definitely gets fomo with the group but the way it sounds like he’s trying trick the reader into thinking he’s been more involved with everything than he has is so funny to me. Idk Richard just seems a lot more pathetic on the second read than he did on the first lol.

Hey! I'm roughly halfway through The Secret History by Donna Tartt, and have been consistently blown away by the prose and depth of the characters. I was wondering what the general consensus was. Is it considered a modern classic?

Similarly, I'm curious if there are any books/authors that you would place in a similar category. The category being that they will likely be regarded as masterpieces once they age enough. Something about this book felt far detached from its time, much more like reading a critically acclaimed classic. Thanks!

This might be a bit of yelling into the void, as it's a bit of a niche connection. Still, I just finished TSH and could not shake the feeling that the second half of the book felt oddly familiar.

Later, it dawned on me that it's very similar to the game Doki Doki Literature Club! Obviously, DDLC came out long after TSH, and it's unlikely that it's an intentional reference, but I thought the trope was interesting.

Notably, both media have a "mastermind" (Henry / Monika) that, after an initial catalyst death (Farmer or Bunny / Sayori), drives the other characters into madness. Most interestingly, both involve the already bad traits of the characters getting amplified to an unbearable degree. Figured it was an interesting comparison and worth sharing!

Has anyone read King Sorrow by Joe Hill? It’s a large book and I’m not very far into it but it immediately made me wonder if it was somewhat inspired by The Secret History. Set in the late 80s, liberal arts college in New England, small group of academics, including a set of twins and a very intelligent student with money and an estate. The group does a ritual to summon an ancient entity. While not entirely like The Secret History, it is giving me very similar vibes. I’m enjoying the book so far.

Many may disagree with this, but I hated Henry after Bunny’s funeral — mostly during the last 80–100 pages. Not because of the murder, but because his character, for me, was reduced to that of a simp. During the scene where Camilla gets injured while walking and Henry picks her up and bandages her, I had a strong feeling that they were definitely going to date, which was fine by me. But I just couldn’t deal with the fact that, for the rest of the novel, he was either isolated in his house or with Camilla. At that point, he stopped being untouchable, superior, and mysterious. That was when I think the facade fell.

The writing though I felt was good because in the second half, we see Henry's motivation more clearly, he never cared about richard or the group. Many a times it was visible that he was very irritated by Richard which I loved cause richard was irritating

I also felt that Camilla was toying with Henry. I don’t think Camilla was capable of loving anyone in the group; she only chose Henry so that Charles would back off. Even in the epilogue, when she rejects Richard by saying that she loves Henry, I didn’t believe her. To me, it was probably just a better way to reject Richard. But I might be misreading her given she was seen through rose tinted glasses throughout the novel