Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. 'What we did was terrible, but still I don't think any of us were bad, exactly chalk it up to weakness on my part, hubris on Henry's, too much Greek prose composition - whatever you like.' Truly deserving of the accolade Modern Classic, Donna Tartt's bestseller The Secret History is a remarkable achievement - both compelling and elegant, dramatic and playful. 75,000 first printing BOMC and QPB selections.FROM THE PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE GOLDFINCH In the final analysis, however, readers may enjoy the pull of a mysterious, richly detailed story told by a talented writer. On the other hand, the plot's many inconsistencies, the self-indulgent, high-flown references to classic literature and the reliance on melodrama make one wish this had been a tauter, more focused novel. Here her gifts for social satire and character analysis are shown to good advantage and her writing is powerful and evocative.

The best parts of the book occur after the second murder, when Tartt describes the effect of the death on a small community, the behavior of the victim's family and the conspirators' emotional disintegration.

Finally they reveal to Richard that they accidentally killed a man during a bacchanalian frenzy when one of their number seems ready to spill the secret, the group-now including Richard-must kill him, too. Despite their demanding curriculum (they quote Greek classics to each other at every opportunity) the friends spend most of their time drinking and taking pills. Almost too easily, he is accepted into a clique of five socially sophisticated students who study Classics with an idiosyncratic, morally fraudulent professor. Narrator Richard Papen comes from a lower-class family and a loveless California home to the ``hermetic, overheated atmosphere'' of Vermont's Hampden College. Part psychological thriller, part chronicle of debauched, wasted youth, it suffers from a basically improbable plot, a fault Tartt often redeems through the bravado of her execution. Tartt's much bruited first novel is a huge (592 pages) rambling story that is sometimes ponderous, sometimes highly entertaining.

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