for a reported $450,000, plus another $500,000 for the paperback rights (which were sold to a separate publisher) in 1991.

The Secret History caused a stir before it was even released.Īccording to The New York Times, there was a “heated auction” for The Secret History, which sold to Alfred A. In an interview with novelist Jill Eisenstadt, Tartt even said, “It’s not a whodunit at all. In the second paragraph, Bunny’s killers are revealed, making it obvious that the book isn’t about who killed him, but why they did it. The Secret History’s famous opening line (“The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation”) tells the reader that someone died. Tartt described the book as a “whydunit.” Tartt’s original title for her novel was The God of Illusion, but she ended up renaming it The Secret History after The Secret History of the Court of Justinian, which was described by the LA Review of Books as “basically a burn book aimed at the emperor Justinian and his wife Theodora.” Like Procopius, Tartt reveals the ugliness behind the alluring façade of her characters. The book’s title comes from Procopius’s 6th-century history of the Byzantine emperor Justinian. It was described by The New York Times as “a subculture with a heavy emphasis on reading, writing, learning-and a look best described as traditional-academic-with-a-gothic-edge think slubby brown cardigans, vintage tweed pants, a worn leather satchel full of a stack of books, dark photos, brooding poetry and skulls lined up next to candles.” With its lethal plot and stylish scholastic setting, The Secret History perfectly embodies the ideas of the subculture-in fact, the Times called the novel “Dark Academia’s essential text.” 2. The Secret History is considered one of the foundational texts of Dark Academia.ĭark Academia, a moody and literate digital subculture that has taken off in recent years, celebrates old fashioned studious style and media. In honor of the novel’s 30th anniversary in September 2022, here are 10 things you should know about The Secret History. There, he falls in with a strange group of classics scholars and becomes embroiled in a world of rituals, intrigue, and even murder. The Secret History is told from the point-of-view of Richard Papen, a working class college student from California who transfers to an elite college in Vermont. “This is actually a good, even profound novel.” It has since sold more than 5 million copies. “Book publishers, moviemakers, and glossy magazines have already descended upon Tartt in the form of a shower of gold, but don’t be misled by the glitter and clatter,” Entertainment Weekly wrote at the time. Author Donna Tartt’s debut novel, The Secret History, became an instant classic-and an instant success-when it was published in 1992.

The secret life of donna tartt