Misplaced Pages

#58941

50-490: [REDACTED] Look up secret history in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Secret History or Secret Histories may refer to: Literature [ edit ] The Secret History , a novel by Donna Tartt Ash: A Secret History , a novel by Mary Gentle Secret History (book series) , a fantasy/science fiction series by Simon R. Green The Secret History of

100-458: A debut novel ) and the book became a bestseller. The book has since been credited as popularizing the growth of the dark academia literary sub-genre. Around 1985, Richard Papen leaves his hometown of Plano, California, to study literature at the elite Hampden College in Vermont. Richard finds he cannot enroll in the classes of the sole Classics professor Julian Morrow, who limits enrollment to

150-401: A " howcatchem ", is a murder mystery fiction structure in which the commission of the crime is shown or described at the beginning, usually including the identity of the perpetrator. The story then describes the detective's attempt to solve the mystery. There may also be subsidiary puzzles, such as why the crime was committed, and they are explained or resolved during the story. This format

200-555: A Murderer . When I showed this manuscript to my friend, Chief Detective-Inspector Alleyn of the Criminal Investigation Department, he said: "It's a perfectly good account of the Unicorn case, but isn't it usual in detective stories to conceal the identity of the criminal?" I looked at him coldly. "Hopelessly vieux jeu , my dear Alleyn. Nowadays the identity of the criminal is always revealed in

250-497: A dream meeting Henry in a desolate futuristic museum. After a brief conversation, Henry leaves Richard to contemplate his unhappiness. The Secret History partially draws its inspiration on the 5th-century BC Greek tragedy, The Bacchae , by Euripides . According to Michiko Kakutani , some aspects of the novel reflect Nietzsche's model of Apollonian and Dionysian expression in The Birth of Tragedy . Kakutani, writing for

300-440: A hand-picked coterie: twins Charles and Camilla Macaulay, Francis Abernathy, Henry Winter, and Edmund "Bunny" Corcoran. After Richard helps them with a translation, they give him advice on endearing himself to Julian, and Richard is accepted into his classes. Richard enjoys his new status as a member of the clique, but notices several odd behaviors from the others: they seem to constantly suffer small injuries, boil strange plants on

350-577: A hotel, further incensing Charles. Julian receives a letter purporting to be from Bunny, detailing the bacchanal murder and Bunny's fear that Henry is plotting to kill him. Though Julian initially dismisses it as a hoax, he realizes the truth when he notices the letterhead from Henry and Bunny's hotel in Rome. Instead of addressing the matter, Julian flees campus and never returns, much to Henry's grief and dismay. Charles' alcoholism and enmity towards Henry worsens as Henry begins living with Camilla. When Charles

400-491: A man; the rest of the novel is concerned with whether he will get away with it. The 1954 American film Dragnet uses this format as the viewer witnesses the killing of a small-time hoodlum and watches as police led by Sergeant Joe Friday work to apprehend the man's killer and the criminal leader at its heart. The short stories written by William Edward "Roy" Vickers about the Department of Dead Ends are nearly all of

450-459: A mediocre review, writing: "The story compels, but it doesn't involve...It offers mysteries and polished revelations on every page, but its true secrets are too deep, too unintended to be menacing or profound." Critic Ted Gioia wrote: There is much to admire in Tartt's novel, but it is especially laudable for how persuasively she chronicles the steps from studying classics to committing murder. This

500-479: A murder," "It is in love with Ancient Greece," "It is full of quotations," and "It is obsessed with beauty." The main characters' romantic and sometimes hedonistic lifestyles spiraling into moral ruin has prompted questions surrounding the portrayal of the Classics discipline. Sophie Mills describes Tartt's depiction of the Classics as nuanced: in a 2005 article, Mills said the Classics are portrayed as an "enemy of

550-555: A resurgence of interest in The Secret History . A new adaptation was announced by Miramax Films , to be produced by Harvey Weinstein and headed by Jake and Gwyneth Paltrow , who hoped to star as the characters Charles and Camilla Macaulay respectively. The unexpected death of the siblings' father Bruce Paltrow in October of that year caused the project to be shelved again, and the rights were reinstated to Tartt. At

SECTION 10

#1732764639059

600-480: A suicidal fit, Henry inadvertently shot Richard. With Henry's death, the group disintegrates. Charles descends further into alcoholism and runs away with a married woman; Camilla is left alone caring for her ailing grandmother; and Francis, though homosexual, is forced by his wealthy grandfather to marry a woman he despises and attempts suicide. Richard graduates from Hampden as a lonely academic with an unrequited love for Camilla. The novel ends with Richard recounting

650-519: A taste for ancient languages can evolve, through a series of almost random events, into a killer. Yet convince us she does, and the intimacy with which Tartt brings her readers into the psychological miasma of the unfolding plot is one of the most compelling features of The Secret History . The novel has been optioned by several filmmakers in the decades since its release for a possible film or television adaptation; however, all have been unsuccessful. Producer Alan J. Pakula first acquired film rights at

700-404: Is a difficult transition to relate in a believable manner, and all the more difficult given Tartt's decision to tell the story from the perspective of one of the most genial of the conspirators . Her story could easily come across as implausible—or even risible—in its recreation of Dionysian rites on a Vermont college campus, and its attempt to convince us that a mild-mannered transfer student with

750-531: Is arrested for drunk driving in Henry's car, Henry fears Charles will turn on and expose the group, while Charles fears that Henry may kill him to keep his silence. Charles barges into Camilla and Henry's hotel room with a gun and tries to kill Henry. In the ensuing altercation, Richard is shot in the stomach, and Henry shoots himself in order to cover for the rest of the group. Ultimately, Richard survives and Henry dies from his wound. The police report concludes that, in

800-450: Is based upon Bennington College , where Tartt was a student between 1982 and 1986. Between 2019 and 2021, journalist Lili Anolik interviewed old Bennington classmates of Tartt's and found that several characters are based quite vividly upon real people: the character of Julian upon Bennington Classics professor Claude Fredericks , Henry upon Todd O'Neal, Bunny upon Matt Jacobsen, and Judy Poovy upon Michelle Matland. According to O'Neal,

850-440: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages The Secret History The Secret History is an inverted detective story narrated by one of the six students, Richard Papen, who reflects years later upon the situation that led to the murder of their friend Edmund "Bunny" Corcoran – wherein the events leading up to the murder are revealed sequentially. The novel explores

900-424: Is from the start only one real suspect, whose guilt is more or less taken for granted by the middle of the book and who indeed turns out to be the murderer. In both books—as in some other Sayers detective novels, including her last, Busman's Honeymoon , the mystery to be solved is mainly, "why did this person have any motive to commit this murder" and "how did he or she do it" (which makes this format more similar to

950-470: Is initially portrayed as cold but inherently compassionate but later shown to be near-sociopathic in his plots to murder Bunny and hide the crime. Francis seems aloof and confident to Richard at the start of the novel but is later overtaken by bouts of anxiety and worry. Camilla, initially portrayed as innocent, is later revealed to be deeply calculating, and Charles, first portrayed as kind and amicable, later spirals into drunken violence and chaos. Considering

1000-508: Is the opposite of the more typical " whodunit ", where all of the details of the perpetrator of the crime are not revealed until the story's climax. The first such story was R. Austin Freeman 's The Case of Oskar Brodski published in Pearson's Magazine in 1912. The television series Columbo is one of the best-known example of this genre. R. Austin Freeman described how he invented

1050-565: The New York Times , said "in The Secret History , Ms. Tartt manages to make...melodramatic and bizarre events (involving Dionysian rites and intimations of satanic power) seem entirely plausible." Because the author introduces the murder and those responsible at the outset, critic A. O. Scott labeled it "a murder mystery in reverse." In 2013, John Mullan wrote an essay for The Guardian titled "Ten Reasons Why We Love Donna Tartt's The Secret History ", which includes "It starts with

SECTION 20

#1732764639059

1100-539: The 1970s, most commonly to refer to the United States television series Columbo , perhaps the best-known example of this genre. The 1989 theatrical play Over My Dead Body , by Michael Sutton and Anthony Fingleton, depicts three elderly detective story writers committing a real-life locked room murder in Rube Goldbergian fashion. The audience is in on it every step of the way. In a variation of

1150-399: The 2013 publication of Tartt's third novel The Goldfinch , interest in another adaptation was rekindled, this time for television with Tartt's school peers Melissa Rosenberg and Bret Easton Ellis at the helm (Ellis is the novel's co-dedicatee ). This attempt also fell through after Rosenberg and Ellis failed to find financial backers interested in the project. Tartt's unhappiness with

1200-449: The 2019 film version of The Goldfinch caused some to speculate she would not allow further screen adaptations of any of her novels, making a future project based on The Secret History unlikely. Tartt fired her longtime agent Amanda Urban over the film and stated, "Once the book is out there, it's not really mine anymore, and my own idea isn't any more valid than yours. And then I begin the long process of disengaging." Hampden College

1250-449: The Classics. It is Julian's teachings of the Classics, ethics, and aesthetic philosophy that influence Henry, Camilla, Charles, and Francis to commit an act of Dionysian revelry, which ends with the murder of a farmer and their spiral into moral ruin. In terms of the text's form, Kakutani calls Tartt's prose "supple" and "decorous." Often lying about his working-class past in order to fit in with his wealthier classmates, Richard conforms to

1300-604: The Divine Comedy , an album Other uses [ edit ] Secret History (TV series) , a British television documentary series See also [ edit ] [REDACTED] Search for "secret history"  or "secret histories" on Misplaced Pages. All pages with titles beginning with Secret History All pages with titles beginning with Secret Histories All pages with titles containing secret history All pages with titles containing secret histories Topics referred to by

1350-502: The Mongols , a 13th-century Mongol chronicle Secret Histories , a Doctor Who anthology edited by Mark Clapham Secret History , an account of the court of Justinian I by Procopius A Secret History , a 2001 book by Alistair Taylor Mistborn: Secret History , a 2016 novella by Brandon Sanderson Music [ edit ] The Secret History (band) , a New York City-based band A Secret History... The Best of

1400-439: The book's publishing in 1992 but put the project aside to work on The Pelican Brief and later The Devil's Own . He returned to The Secret History in autumn 1998, with Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne hired to write the screenplay, and Scott Hicks to direct. However, Pakula's death in a November car accident caused the project to be abandoned. The 2002 publication of Tartt's second novel The Little Friend caused

1450-481: The circumstances and lasting effects of Bunny's death on the academically and socially isolated group of classics students of which he was a part. The novel was originally titled The God of Illusions , and its first-edition hardcover was designed by the New York City graphic designer Chip Kidd and Barbara de Wilde. A 75,000 print order was made for the first edition (as opposed to the usual 10,000 order for

1500-432: The early chapters." "In that case," he said, "I congratulate you." I was not altogether delighted. One early and prominent example of this subgenre is Malice Aforethought , written in 1931 by Anthony Berkeley Cox writing as Francis Iles. Freeman Wills Crofts 's The 12:30 from Croydon (1934) is another important instance. The 1952 BBC television play Dial M for Murder by Frederick Knott (later adapted for

1550-430: The facts. It would have seemed that there was nothing left to tell. But I calculated that the reader would be so occupied with the crime that he would overlook the evidence. And so it turned out. The second part, which described the investigation of the crime, had to most readers the effect of new matter. This was perhaps more common by the 1930s. Ngaio Marsh included a foreword on the subject in her 1935 novel Enter

Secret History - Misplaced Pages Continue

1600-448: The five students alluring and elite, but he learns of their heinous acts and acts of moral corruption as events unfold and their secrets are revealed. Richard is drawn to the five Classics students due to their air of mystique, exclusivity, and aesthetic appeal, but, by the end of the novel, he has realized their true natures. Bunny, initially portrayed as charismatic and friendly, is later revealed to have been blackmailing his peers. Henry

1650-447: The group since, with Francis and Henry giving Bunny large amounts of money in the hopes of placating him. No longer able to meet Bunny's demands, and fearing that he'll expose them as his mental state deteriorates, Henry convinces the group to kill Bunny. They confront Bunny while hiking, and Henry pushes him into a ravine to his death. The group struggles to maintain their cover, joining search parties and attending Bunny's funeral. Though

1700-496: The hospital. In the new year, tensions between Bunny and the group worsen. Bunny constantly insults the others and begins behaving erratically. Richard learns the truth from Henry: the group, minus Richard and Bunny (and with Julian's approval), held a Dionysian bacchanal in the woods near Francis's country estate. During the bacchanal the group kills a Vermont farmer, although the details of how this death occurred are left ambiguous. Bunny found out by chance and has been blackmailing

1750-399: The influence of his teachings on the students, Julian's character is also a source of disillusionment in the novel. Initially portrayed as an arcane yet assuring mentor figure with a wide breadth of knowledge, after learning his students were responsible for Bunny's murder, he flees the country without warning. The book received generally positive reviews from critics. Michiko Kakutani called

1800-416: The inverted detective story in his 1912 collection of short stories The Singing Bone . Some years ago I devised, as an experiment, an inverted detective story in two parts. The first part was a minute and detailed description of a crime, setting forth the antecedents, motives, and all attendant circumstances. The reader had seen the crime committed, knew all about the criminal, and was in possession of all

1850-479: The inverted type. They deal with the eccentric methods used by Inspector Rason, a detective in a fictional division of Scotland Yard assigned to investigate cold cases , to solve crimes where more conventional methods have failed. Several of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels by Dorothy Sayers , such as Unnatural Death and Strong Poison , come near to inclusion in this category. In both books, there

1900-533: The lavish lifestyles of his peers. Richard is the only student on scholarship in his social circle, which pressures him to conform with his classmates to the point of idealization. This is successful, considering his eventual mobility in the group as a trusted peer after Bunny's death. However, this closeness later leads him further along the path of what Kakutani calls "duplicity and sin." Limited to Richard's perspective of his classmates, readers follow his gradual discovery of their true motives. At first, Richard finds

1950-501: The majority of police investigations). Also, the short story " The Abominable History of the Man with Copper Fingers " had the villain not only discovered, but dead at the beginning. Lord Peter explained his investigation in detail, complete to the villain's stumbling into a vat of cyanide-and-copper-sulphate electroplating solution. The term "howcatchem" was coined much later, by Philip MacDonald in 1963. It later became more widely used in

2000-481: The novel "ferociously well-paced entertainment", which "succeeds magnificently" and heavily attributed the success of the book to Tartt's well-developed writing skills. Sophie McKenzie , writing for The Independent , called it "the book of a lifetime", stating that it was "perfectly paced" and the characters are "fascinating and powerfully drawn". However, James Wood of the London Review of Books gave it

2050-561: The novel is "a work of thinly veiled reality—a roman à clef ."  According to O'Neal, "Claude considered it a betrayal—not a personal betrayal so much as a betrayal of his teachings. He wouldn't talk to Donna for years." At 1980s Bennington, there were students playing at the aesthetic of BBC's 1981 TV series Brideshead Revisited , which the book also draws upon. Charles is inspired by both classmate Mark Shaw and Brideshead Revisited character Sebastian Flyte. Inverted detective story An inverted detective story , also known as

Secret History - Misplaced Pages Continue

2100-483: The ordinary: intriguing, stimulating, and individualistic, perhaps, but even more, exclusive, curiously cold, and impractical." Hailed for its stylistic qualities and atmospheric prose, "beauty is terror" is a recurrent idea throughout the text. Richard admits he has a "morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs", a reason he is drawn to the aesthetic appeal and mystique of the Classics students upon his arrival at Hampden and chooses to change his academic interest to

2150-513: The police presence eventually dies down, the group begins to crack under the strain: Francis's hypochondria worsens, Charles descends into alcoholism and abuses Camilla, Richard becomes addicted to pills, and Henry realizes he has no moral objections to murder. Richard learns that Francis has had sexual encounters with Charles; Francis believes the twins have also slept with each other. As Charles becomes even more possessive of his sister, Henry arranges for Camilla to move from their shared apartment to

2200-425: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Secret History . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Secret_History&oldid=1222558985 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

2250-424: The stage and then adapted again in 1954 as a theatrical film by Alfred Hitchcock ) is another example. Tony Wendice outlines his plans to murder his wife Margot in the opening scenes, leaving the viewer with no questions about perpetrator or motive, only with how the situation will be resolved. In Alfred Bester 's 1953 novel, The Demolished Man , the reader learns in the first chapter that Ben Reich plans to murder

2300-455: The stove, and attempt to hide bloody clothing. The group is devoted to Julian, who requires his students to only take classes with him and asserts sole control over their academic careers. Though Henry seems to have a strained friendship with Bunny, they spend the winter break together in Rome, while Richard lodges in an unheated warehouse. He nearly dies from hypothermia and pneumonia, but is rescued when Henry returns unexpectedly and brings him to

2350-469: The suspect committed the crime. Instead, the investigation involves teasing out the complicated backstory and motives for the crime. Both Poker Face and Elsbeth are modern takes on the genre. In the film Sheriff (2024), directed by Syafiq Yusof , the howcatchem concept is used instead of the usual "on his first try" by revealing the Meth Killer (portrayed by Syafiq Kyle ) right away in

2400-451: The title). Each episode begins with scenes introducing and revealing the killer and the victim, and the rest of the episode shows the aftermath and the investigation before revealing the circumstances surrounding the murder. The first two seasons of the TV show The Sinner can be considered a howcatchem. In each case there are either multiple witnesses or incontrovertible physical evidence that

2450-434: The typical inverted form, in this case the miscreants want to be caught and made to pay their debt to society. In the 1990s, some episodes of Diagnosis: Murder were presented in the howcatchem format, usually when featuring a "big name" (or at least recognizable) guest star. TV shows Monk , Criminal Minds , and Law & Order: Criminal Intent have frequently featured episodes structured as howcatchems, in which

2500-492: The viewer typically witnesses the killer commit the crime (during which the killer's identity is revealed to the audience), and then watches as the detectives try to solve it. (In at least one Monk episode, they had to prove that a crime has been committed). The shows have also used the whodunit format at times. The British television crime series Luther also made regular use of the inverted detective story structure. The TV show Motive uses this format exclusively (hence

#58941