explaining The Secret History by Donna Tartt so you don’t have to read 500+ pages 📚

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hello my angels! today we're doing something totally different! the secret history is one of my favorite books and I'm always telling my friends they need to read it SO, why not spend 3 hours explaining it for y'all so you don't have too? are we all ready to leave the phenomenal and enter the sublime?

also while you're here, this is a list of petitions to sign, numbers to call, and charities to donate to:

[moeblackx]

don’t forget to follow me on my other socials 😙

[oftheearthbutfromthestars]

"We have Charles and Camilla, the twins. When Richard first sees them he thinks they're dating, which, remember I told you that." I CACKLED OH BOY

[swanlake]

The only thing I'm 99% sure of with Richard is that he was hot. Judy immediately likes him for no apparent reason, Francis immediately demands if he wants to sleep with him, and the two girls that Richard sleeps with while at Hampton hit on him, not the other way around. Either he made all this up or this boy was fine as hell.

[prettynpetty]

My messed up brain was thinking that Julian was sleeping with Henry, a very impressionable young man who's able to lead, and was controlling him in order to carry out his deepest desires (like murder) without having to get his hands dirty. I'm kind of disappointed that the professor wasn't the antagonist. No, we got inscmest instead.

[lisaswenson]

I feel like Richard and Julian are similar. Julian views the Greek club members as pieces in his collection of rare and interesting things, and that's really how Richard views them too. I wouldn't be surprised if Julian had a similar background to Richard (I don't remember the book mentioning his background, but I only read it once...) of growing up with an unimpressive family, and then just going out into the world, infiltrating other spaces and collecting new identities. They both also have pretty bad perceptive abilities; neither of them picked up on what the group did (to Bunny/the farmer) until it was explicitly laid out in front of them. Kind of adorably unaware. Or maybe it's willful ignorance because they prefer things to be enigmatic and alluring instead of facing the ugly truth.

[oliviagraham]

The fact italian renesainsse is so heavily based on greek mythology and henry can read hieroglyphics but not speak italian is wild

[inestome]

did i read the book? yes. did i watch all of this even tho? yes. loved it, this really is the vibe ahahahah

[taintedqueen]

Julian is a massive red flag omg like seeing the story laid out like this there are so many signs

[astelius]

*’Symbolic, symbolic, we see it Tartt…’*

*me throughout the entire book*

[XSugarRoseStudiosX]

“Brother, sister, gay, you, like what’s going on” 😂

[robertborland]

For folks who want to read or reread The Secret History, I would recommend reading the following first (in no particular order):
1.) The Rules of Attraction (1987) by Brent Easton Ellis
2.) Either the Bacchae by Euripides or the Oresteia by Aeschylus (or both -- they are fascinating works & I am not judging.)



The reason I pose these works is that they might help someone get in the right headspace for trying to pick up what Tartt is putting down. Ellis is a comparable writer to Tartt not only due to having a shared background but also that The Rules of Attraction & The Secret History are very similar in terms of plot, deliberately confusing style, & how they relate to the "campus novel" genre. The characters try to fool the audience to buying into a particular perception of themselves when in actuality it does not line up with reality, which is much more like Rules of Attraction. The second group are there to help the reader pick what even the characters in the story do not recognize; despite presenting these characters as epic heroes & heroines, they are actually in a Greek Tragedy. Euripides's Bacchae is included for somewhat obvious reasons, but I also included The Oresteia as the archetypical tragedy but also because the "curse" of House Atreus is as much of a cycle of violence by broken characters believing they will be the ones to break the curse as it is an actual curse.

EDIT: Also, if you want a good film to go with The Secret History, I would highly recommend Rope (1948) directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The reasons should be obvious.

[StrangerReads]

"He got lieabetes" absolutely SENT ME

[mariemadlenek]

wish Francis and Richard would've ended up together lmao

[ThyraM]

Listening to you I realize that I romanticided this book, better yet, all characters waaay too much. Gotta read it again, but not yet, just finished it 3 days ago. Thank you!

[stellep]

Objectively the best retelling I have watched. It was incredible hearing it put into "vibes" so I can talk about this book and feel smart <3

[kkat]

it took me literally a year to read this because I was living in a really shitty apartment in the dead of winter and I had to keep the window open cause if I didn't literally MOLD would grow on my walls, and this coincided with Richard living with the hippy and it was like way too real so yeah I had to pause and wait till the warmer months

[niaaaaaa.]

great recap🎀
i couldn’t stop thinking about this book so this helps with closure. I just wish Camilla was a more prominent character and that we knew her better, but it’s probably on purpose to symbolize that richard just romanticized her and that she was pretty much a concept in his mind, rather than a real person. also i am so mad at henry for some reason, i can’t stopppp he really annoyed me at the end

[oftheearthbutfromthestars]

i always thought Julian knew about the bacchanal and that they were attempting it but he never knew about the farmer. when richard asked didn't henry say theres no need to bother julian with things that might affect him or something like that? that's why i think at the end, henry was the "god of illusion" which was supposed to be the original title of the book. Because he's the one withholding the information as and when he likes, holding on to the illusions his intellect and appearance provide. why Julian finding out the truth about his star pupil really dishevels him because he's lost control of the illusion. it was henry who pushed the group to try out the bacchanal, he who debated which book would portray a better illusion of innocence and morality and ethics. Even his end was an illusion for the rest of the world.

edit: yup yup i checked sparknotes and even there ch 5 summary says that julian didnt know about the farmer only that the bachanal was a success. which makes sense as to why he left when he found out (my brain is processing the story half a month later) because 1: he realised for the first time that the people he was talking to, indulging in "play" with, not work, weren't educated adults whom he usually dealt with. they were young minds capable of molding and bending to an idolised person's will. it was the end of julian's own childlike fascination with everything mystic and mythic and realising how his words had real life consequences. and also why he didn't report to the police because 2: he realized that once the entire letter was submitted the truth about the farmer would come to light, and of course the reason behind it, the bacchanal, also would come to light and who else would be to blame but the elusive tax evasive man in the college who forced his students to only study with him and isolated the students to only be surrounded by his opinions, not letting them mingle with the normal crowd so they're able to see through the intense emulation julian was putting the students through and how unhealthy it was. that's why henry was also so offended at his cowardice because a man who spoke about living forever couldn't live one day in the presence of the consequences of his own actions. WOW WHAT AN END TO MY THOUGHT I HAVE COMPLETED EDUCATION GOOD NIGHT>

[michellecgb]

You did the lord’s work with this video because I like to watch summaries after I read super long or interesting books to make sure I’m not dumb and I got everything 😂. Thanks for the content!

[ymz]

this is one of the best video essays on the secret history ever it's so in depth and well-explained and your commentary adds a fun element so it's never boring. def gonna watch all your other vids lol