The "violence and savagery" of Euripides' play is referenced early on in the book, as Julian Morrow discusses Dionysian rituals with the class, impressing on them that "beauty is terror". The students later enact their own version of a bacchanal in the woods – a night of extreme revelry, intoxication and, ultimately, murder. verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ Tartt herself has always brushed off claims that the book is based in any way on her life. "Only in a very mild and minor way. It's really a fantasia about university," she told one interviewer (She has admitted she took inspiration from the unsolved disappearance of a Bennington student in the 1940s). Author Laurie Petrou has read The Secret History "dozens" of times. "I've had so many copies of that book that I've dropped in the bathtub, given away to people or that have just fallen into disrepair," she tells BBC Culture. She first read the novel in school when a friend lent it to her. "I related to it in a way that I didn't really relate to any of the books that I was being told to read in school. Near the start, where Richard is talking about the monotony of adolescence, I remember that hitting such a chord with me. But really, it was the writing. It was just so beautiful and so poignant. The unease, the coldness through it; it was the book that really made me a reader and a writer." Can't remember the title or the author of a book? Our BookSleuth is specially designed for you. Visit BookSleuth

The Secret History by Tartt, Donna - First edition Collecting The Secret History by Tartt, Donna - First edition

In 2019, journalist Lili Anolik wrote an oral history about the three future literary stars' time at Bennington in the 1980s for Esquire – and later developed the idea further into a gossipy 14-part podcast, Once Upon A Time… At Bennington College. She first read and fell in love with The Secret History as a teenager. "It was the first book I stayed up all night to finish," she tells BBC Culture. "All kinds of choices were made on the basis of it. I suffered through four years of Latin in emulation of Richard Papen. I remember wanting very badly to have his experience. I don't mean I wanted to collectively murder one of my close friends. I mean I wanted to go to a college that was old and had ivy-covered buildings and lots of foliage and an illustrious tradition." Love books? Join BBC Culture Book Club on Facebook, a community for literature fanatics all over the world. The Secret History fits into a long tradition of novels set on university campuses – including Petrou's latest, Stargazer, about two friends at a remote Canadian university in the 90s, which she admits is inspired by her love of The Secret History. "There's the obvious parallel, that it's set on a small campus and about intimate friendship, but also the general chilliness, a cruelty that you can't quite put your finger on, that makes you uneasy."Thirty years and millions of readers later, discovering The Secret History still somehow feels like joining an exclusive club. "To experience that book for the first time is see someone at the best in their craft," says Petrou. "I envy those that haven't read it yet." Still, the idea of her as a total recluse is overstated. In an interview with Italian publication Rivista last year, she talked openly about her love of fashion, her favourite contemporary music (Lana Del Rey) and her writing routine ("three hours in the morning") – and hinted that a new book might be on the way. She also declared, to no one's surprise, that she's never used social media. While Bacchae is Tartt's most obvious reference, there are many other, complex ones throughout the book, says Hodkinson, mostly imperceptible to anyone not well-versed in classics. "Ironically, it's creating an inner and outer circle within its readership, like the inner and outer circles among the classics students and the non-classics students in the novel," he says. "Some readers are going to be able to appreciate so much more of the allusions and the layers to it, and be aware that they're in that privileged position; but that's also an uncomfortable position to be in, as it makes that reader more like Henry and some of the other inner clique of classicist." THE SECRET HISTORY | THE LITTLE FRIEND | THE GOLDFINCH; [3 signed books together with 2 photographs of the author]

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Under the influence of a charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at a New England college discover a way of thought and life a world away from their banal contemporaries. But their search for the transcendent leads them down a dangerous path, beyond human constructs of morality. The Secret History succeeds magnificently ... A remarkably powerful novel [and] a ferociously well-paced entertainment ... Forceful, cerebral, and impeccably controlled New York Times

Secret History by Donna Tartt, Signed - AbeBooks Secret History by Donna Tartt, Signed - AbeBooks

Everything, somehow, fit together; some sly and benevolent Providence was revealing itself by degrees and I felt myself trembling on the brink of a fabulous discovery, as though any morning it was all going to come together---my future, my past, the whole of my life---and I was going to sit up in bed like a thunderbolt and say oh! oh! oh!'Throughout her career, interviews have been rare – usually only to promote a new book, of which there have been just two more in the subsequent 30 years, The Little Friend in 2002 and 2014's The Goldfinch. The mystery has only added to her legend. "The Secret History is enduring because The Secret History is so good," says Anolik. "But it certainly doesn't hurt that Donna has brilliant instincts about cult obsession and understands how to manage an enigmatic reputation." When Anolik's podcast aired, Tartt's lawyers issued a letter to the producers, warning them not to use any "false, misleading or otherwise inaccurate statement" about Tartt. Unlike Bret Easton Ellis and Jonathan Lethem, Tartt declined to contribute to either Anolik's oral history or the podcast.