The Secret History by Donna Tartt
November 16, 20252 min read
⭐ ⭐ ⭐
I was recommended this book by a friend, and told to read it during winter. I brought it with me on my travels, and read it through South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Botswana, and kept the physical copy on me as I traveled through North Africa and South America.
I believe that the experiences you share with a book also augment how you feel about the book. To that end, this book will be special.
The language used by Donna Tart is floral, and remarkably beautiful. It will undoubtedly stand firmly in the Modern Classic shelf.
We follow Richard who throughout his life has been a chameleon, acting in a way that aggrandises his life and upbringing, such that it washes away the boredom that he faced growing up in the W…
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
November 16, 20252 min read
⭐ ⭐ ⭐
I was recommended this book by a friend, and told to read it during winter. I brought it with me on my travels, and read it through South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Botswana, and kept the physical copy on me as I traveled through North Africa and South America.
I believe that the experiences you share with a book also augment how you feel about the book. To that end, this book will be special.
The language used by Donna Tart is floral, and remarkably beautiful. It will undoubtedly stand firmly in the Modern Classic shelf.
We follow Richard who throughout his life has been a chameleon, acting in a way that aggrandises his life and upbringing, such that it washes away the boredom that he faced growing up in the West Coast suburbs. For some reason, his first real act of rebellion was choosing a distant college in the East Coast.
His aptitude for Ancient Greek led him to join a class, taught by an enigmatic, yet charming teacher called Julian. He was given an ultimatum, that if he was to continue learning Greek, he’d have to drop all of his current courses and subscribe to Julian’s holistic education.
This felt slightly reminiscent of Dead Poets Society.
It was here that he met a gang that he later called his friends. I say this, because the relationship he had with each of them was masked in toxicity, but in the moment he was unable to differentiate this intimacy with its sinister counterpart.
Without revealing too much, each of these characters: Henry, Charles, Camilla, Francis and Bunny, each had gaping flaws but in a way that I’ve never seen manifest in my own life. That’s what made it quite fascinating, to see the possibilities of personalities. To that degree however, I found it difficult to relate to the characters, and the plot itself felt both realistic and comical.
One thing I found fascinating was the dark academia that these young adults were involved in. Concepts in Greek mythology thrown around, to mire a divine quality to what they were trying to achieve. It felt completely disconnected to the real world, but maybe that was the point.
Created by Apurva Shukla.
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