The Secret History

SPOILER ALERT!!

The Secret History

Donna Tartt

The Secret History is the story of a murder narrated by one of the accomplices to the crime, Richard Papen. Henry, Francis, Charles, Camilla, Edmond and Richard were students of an elite Vermont college who pursued Classics under a charismatic professor Julian. 

With his charismatic and sophisticated ways Julian, a highly connected and knowledgeable teacher greatly influenced his students. They looked upto him as a father figure and were proud to be his students and formed a cult like association. 

It was Henry who convinced others the need to eliminate Edmond aka Bunny.It was alarming to see how easily others complied!!  It was true that Bunny with his irksome speech and manners irritated everyone of them, and each had reasons to get rid of him. 

Was it Alcohol, drugs or psychological issues that led to the crime? Or was it an urge to Implement violent ancient ways into the modern world? Or was it the interpretation of  ancient Greek and Latin philosophies as to let oneself loose and allowing the primitive urges to take charge at times? 

Or was it just the sick mind of Henry who told Richard later that he felt powerful after the crime and he enjoyed being in control. Henry doubted Bunny was weak enough to expose one accidental murder committed by them. As Henry put it, he regretted the accidental murder, but not enough to spend rest of his life in jail. Henry was in control, he devised, executed and others complied.

It was Julian's reaction when he came to know about the murder that shocked his students. He just fled, obviously unsympathetic to the dead one and not giving away others. As Richard later observed, Julian had the skill to polish and project his good qualities so that when he was not around only his virtues and elegance remained. But the ugly edges do come to light sometimes.

Altogether the book gave an eerie dreamlike feeling. But towards the end, the readers too woke up from the dream with the remaining characters. Waking up to the harsh realities was not easy for the perpetrators as guilt caught their conscience and messed up their lives. 

Preetha Raj