The Secret History

Name: The Secret History
Author: Donna Tartt

Donna Tartt

— 1992 —

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Whatever else you read on its subject is a footnote to this.

The record

Time
An eveningA season
608 pages, about 12 hours: the length of 1.9 typical books on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climb
Two readers report stalling in the book’s opening chapters.
What it gives
Plot and actionIdeas to live by
In 12 reviews from critics and book blogs, 8 credit the plot and 2 credit the ideas or a change in how they live.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else does
Three reviews compare it to Crime and Punishment, on the shelf at 551 pages, and one calls Dostoevsky’s novel much better.

on the first sentence
“mesmerizing story written with a control and style that captivated me from its first sentence”
Chris Bohjalian · The Burlington Free Press, 1992
on the seven characters
“These seven characters dominate the novel completely”
a book blog
on the Vermont setting
“Tartt captures the changing scenery of Vermont”
four stars · a Substack review
on the pacing
“Tartt does show an impressive ability to pace and pattern her novel”
Natasha Walter · The Independent, 1992

on the whole cast
“There’s plenty of personality, Tartt makes sure of that, but the people are not people.”
Julian Wray · The Michigan Daily, 2023
on the length
“a huge (592 pages) rambling story that is sometimes ponderous”
Publishers Weekly, 1992
on Camilla and the men
“The male characters blurred together for me, and Camilla felt particularly flat.”
four stars · a Substack review
on the Fitzgerald echo
“ersatz-Fitzgerald mix of moralizing and mirror-looking”
Kirkus Reviews, 1992