The Secret History is Donna Tartt’s first novel and was published in 1992, but it is not the first novel of hers that I have read. I read her third novel, The Goldfinch, first, and I love The Goldfinch; however, if I had read The Secret History first, I probably would not have read The Goldfinch. The Secret History is a somewhat interesting novel, but I was surprised to find that there is not a single likeable character in it. The main characters are so insufferable, I almost stopped reading after a few chapters. But I hate to leave a book unfinished, and I was curious enough to know how this novel would end, so I persevered in reading.

The narrator of The Secret History is Richard, a California native who thinks more highly of himself than he should, and who decides he wants to attend a fancy New England college. Richard is from a poor family; he looks down on his parents and does not have a good relationship with them. He gets into Hampden College with the help of student financial aid and is immediately drawn to the Greek professor, Julian Morrow, and his small group of students. Richard wants so badly to be a part of this secretive, pretentious group, that he goes against all sensible advice and gives up all his courses to study classical literature with just Julian. He lies about his background and allows Julian’s group to believe that he comes from a wealthy family, but he is estranged from his rich parents and that is why he does not have any money, just so that he can fit in with this (supposedly) wealthy, well-bred group of people.

Julian’s group consists of Henry, Francis, Charles, Camilla, and the inexplicably named Bunny. Henry, Francis, Charles and Camilla partake in a bacchanal one night and end up doing something horrible. Bunny figures it out, but instead of being horrified by what they have done, he is angry with them for leaving him out of it. He holds the knowledge of what they have done over their heads as he mooches money off them to pay for expensive meals, fancy clothes, and even a trip to Italy, because Bunny’s family does not actually have money and he has expensive tastes. But eventually the knowledge of what they have done begins to get to Bunny and he starts to behave erratically. Henry, Francis, Charles and Camilla bring Richard into the fold and tell him everything that happened, just as Henry is plotting Bunny’s murder in order to silence him for good.

I am not spoiling anything for you by telling you that they murder Bunny. The novel opens with Bunny’s murder in the prologue. The Secret History is about the events leading up to Bunny’s murder, and the events immediately after Bunny’s murder, and how Richard gets involved in all of this. I must remind myself that Richard is just a twenty-year-old kid, apparently impressionable, and lacking my years of experience and knowledge, otherwise how else can you explain his devotion to this group of terrible people, and his inability to see that Julian is full of shit and that Henry is a sociopath. The worst thing about all of them, including Richard, is that they do not feel bad at all for committing murder. I will admit that I did not even feel sorry for Bunny being murdered because Bunny is just awful, a homophobic WASP who oscillates between joviality and savage meanness. But who kills their friend and does not feel at least some guilt towards what they have done? I kept waiting for these characters to become more sympathetic, but they do not because all they care about is not going to jail. Even when you think Richard has finally gained some sense, he just ends up the same as before.

I do like Tartt’s writing, which is another reason that I stuck to reading The Secret History. Richard’s narration and the way the characters speak and behave is like reading a novel written by Charles Dickens or some early 20th century English writer, which seems incongruous for a novel set in the US in the 1980s, but I guess it has to do with East Coast affectation. In any event, I do not think I can recommend The Secret History. I understand that not every novel will have likeable characters, but I would have liked to have seen some redemptive qualities in at least Richard. Richard is no Theo Decker from The Goldfinch, though. Theo is far from perfect, and he does terrible things, but he at least tries to make amends in the end. If you are going to read a Donna Tartt novel, read The Goldfinch before you read The Secret History.