Episode 1.2: ‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt
Donna Tartt’s ‘The Secret History’ is synonymous with the term ‘Dark Academia’. It was the beginning. And if you did not realise that before reading the book, you could be forgiven for thinking that the author had just taken the Dark Academia checklist and inserted it all into one narrative.
But Donna Tartt created the list. It is a handbook for anyone wanting to understand Dark Academia as a genre as well as an aesthetic.
“It was suffused with a weak, academic light...a light that make me think of long hours in dusty libraries, and old books, and silence.”
In this episode we spoke about:
What makes ‘The Secret History’ a Dark Academia title? - and since it originated the genre, we point out all of the things we will ask other books on the podcast to compare themselves to.
Representation of women and LBGTQ+ people within the narrative among other criticisms of the book
The title - original title, historical implications (Procopius, Nietzsche, the Bacchanal, Ancient Greek philosophy), contemporary interpretations
Close character analysis of Richard and Bunny (plus some discussion of the wider cast; Julian, Henry, Camilla, Charles and Francis)
We recorded a lot of content, and not all of it will make it into the final cut. We will be releasing the extended episode for our Patreon members to enjoy. So if you want to hear the whole thing, you can sub here.
So, here it is. Get settled in with a cuppa and give it a listen.
TEXTS MENTIONED
A/N: the full bibliography and references are also available to Patreon subs as well as show notes.
‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt
‘The Secret History’ by Procopius
‘The Birth of Tragedy’ by Friedrich Nietzsche
‘The Greeks and the Irrational’ by E. R. Dodds
‘The History of Rome’ by Titus Livius (Livy)
‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
‘If We Were Villains’ M. L. Rio
If you’d like to grab a copy of ‘The Secret History’ for yourself, consider using Bookshop.org which supports local bookshops and gives us a little thank you through their affiliate program.
TRANSCRIPT (in progress)
Welcome to ‘The Dark Academicals’, the podcast where we delve into the mythos of dark academia one book at a time.
I'm Sophie Waters.
And I'm Sarah Purnell.
Today we're going to be looking at ‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt. ‘The Secret History’ is the classic and the original dark academia novel, recounting Richard Papen’s time at the exclusive liberal arts college Hampden College in rural Vermont. When California-born Richard joins the college, he becomes enamoured with the wealthy privileged class of the Greek students and their charismatic teacher secluded at the top of the school. Once invited into the fold, Richard joins Henry, an enigmatic genius; the loud coarse Bunny; sweet, fragile, Francis; and unnervingly close twins Charles and Camilla, on a path to murder and ruin.
‘The Secret History’ was Donna Tartt’s debut novel published in September 1992. The novel took eight years to write, and it's thought to be inspired by her years at the prestigious liberal arts college, Bennington College, which is also in Vermont.
So before we dive into the analysis of the novel, we're going to do a quick recap on the kind of selling points of what a dark academia novel is. We did go through all of this in our introduction episode, which you can find wherever you have found this episode, which will go through all of the points in a little bit more detail, but we're just going to run through them quickly just as a quick reminder before we dive into the novel.
There are going to be spoilers throughout so I you haven't read ‘The Secret History’ but intend to, I recommend going and picking up book, reading and then coming back because, you know, there are going to be spoilers throughout. No holds barred here! These are the points of dark academia that we're going to be looking at.
In our last episode, we detailed a few key elements that we feel make up a dark academia title. Now for most dark academia titles that we actually look at in this podcast, they won't necessarily have all of these, but they'll have some. The thing about ‘The Secret History’ is because it is the seminal text, it's got pretty much all of them. Tick! Tick! Tick! across the board really, isn't it.
Yeah, it's kind of what we've based our parameters of dark academia route. That's why it's our first novel because every book is going to jump off from the novel. So the list looks as follows. We have a higher education setting; old Gothic, imposing architecture; a preoccupation with classical studies; murder; a dark, moody/haunting vibe; old money, particularly when it clashes against new money or no money; hero worship; weather; and a character as an outsider looking in, And ‘The Secret History’’s got them all.
Before we launch into that, I think this is a good opportunity to discuss any general observations that we have about the book before we start picking it apart more closely. I mean, for me, I mean it’s cerebral right out of the gate. Yeah. Right from the get go, one of the first thing Richard says is “Does such a thing as a fatal flaw that shows a dark crack running down the middle of life exist outside of literature?” and that kind of sets the tone, doesn't it for the discussions between the characters and the focus of the novel? Like I was kind of looking at the fatal flaw within literature, and it's something called hamartia. I think that's how you say it… Associated with Greek tragedy, which can be interpreted as a character flaw or an error in judgment, which I also think is really interesting in regards to all the characters in ‘The Secret History’.
Yeah, because they very clearly all have one. It does kind of bring them apart at the end, doesn't it? Yeah, and they definitely have an error in judgment.
Multiple, some would say.
Yeah, I think that's really interesting as well, in terms of tying in the connections to the Greeks. It's not just a placeholder, like the, the presence of the ancient Greeks and classics. It's not just there. It's an intrinsic part of the story and the characters, isn't it? It's woven into the entire book.
Yeah, and, if you ever wanted a definition of the aesthetic for dark academia, I found it for you on page 10.
So firstly, he goes: “Radiant meadows, mountains vaporous in the trembling distance; leaves ankle-deep on a gusty autumn road; bonfires and fog in the valleys; cellos, dark windowpanes, snow.” It's basically a mood board for Pinterest for dark academia. And then he even goes on to say “It was suffused with a weak, academic light...a light that make me think of long hours in dusty libraries, and old books, and silence.” If it wasn't the beginning of dark academia, you'd think that Donna Tartt had sat there and gone Tick! Tick! But actually, she was just establishing the genre. So it's all good.
Yeah, I think that kind of leads us on nicely into looking at the higher education setting in the novel. One of the first things that struck me, and this is really obvious okay, but it's like, it became so clear where the social media aesthetic came from, in this kind of nostalgia for old academia, just in the way that they dress and in the way that they conduct their academics. Obviously, it's set in the 80s, well it's never like explicitly stated that it's set in the 80s, but there are lots of like drip fed notions, and it's kind of generally accepted that it's set in the mid-80s. So they don't have mobile phones, they don't have laptops, they don't have computers.
They hardly even have a television. No, because they have to go and get it from the attic, don't they, of Monmouth House, which is Richard’s dorm, so they can go and watch the news when they're trying to look up… Or no, no, they have one in Monmouth House. It's They go and get the TV set from Francis's, the attic in Francis's apartment. But even so I think the TV is described as something… but even so, like it's not… You see Bunny watching it, which makes sense for Bunny but for the rest of them television, and they're even quite disdainful of cinema, even like technology is not it for them.
No, like, they use like glass pens and ink pots, but they're not in general use, and they wear big great coats and fine suits, and blazers with elbow pads and wool coats. And it's just, that's the aesthetic in a nutshell, it’s like, put the weak academic light over the top and you've got a perfectly set up Instagram shot. That is pure dark academia. And I think because I've the last time I read this book, I looked back in my records was 2017, so TikTok didn’t exist.
Yes. 2017 for me too.
And I mean, Instagram was around, but I don't remember, dark academia being a thing in the same way. So it was really interesting to re-read it with that kind of social media knowledge of it. But I think it always makes it a bit timeless. And yet it still thoroughly dates it.
Yeah, it's a weird combination.
It's like suspended in time isn't it, this campus? I guess that's also reflected in one of the other big signposts of old Gothic architecture. I mean, I don't know a huge amount about, like, that kind of architecture in America, but it's a lot more common here than it is in America, because America is so much newer.
I think some of the settings themselves kind of take on characters of their own, which is in the Gothic tradition, isn't it? Absolutely. There's definitely a gothic undercurrent to how certain things are described. So the “commons clock tower; ivied brick, white spine, spellbound in the hazy distance”, like it's very Gothic, even if the actual structure itself isn't Gothic. Yeah, but even with Francis’s country house as well, and we don't actually really know much about the building other than that it's huge and very ornate inside; lots of rooms and secret passages. Again, very Gothic. It reminds me of the Addams Family house.
Oh, yeah, that's true. I can see that, can definitely see that.
And also with like the country house, it's the things that happen at that house that makes it Gothic too, and the kind of spell that's woven over them while they're there. It's almost like a microcosm of summer, isn't it? Like that ideal summer, perpetual summer at Francis's country house.
Endless summer which even though you know it's not summer feels like summer. Yeah, ‘cause it's actually set in in the fall, isn't it, when they've spent a long time at the house?
Yeah. There's even a bit where they mention that Bunny is going around saying that the snow is falling, like going from bed to bed, from room to room, saying that the snow is falling, but it still doesn't feel like it's winter or like late autumn. It feels like summer.
Yes. That kind of slow, languid, lazy summer, which is a very romantic idea. Isn't it? So very romantic, isn't it at the country house. Yeah, definitely. I think that's a part of like, classical studies as well. And Greek, Roman and Latin philosophy. All kind of ties up together. Yeah. There's when Richard and Julian are talking and when Richard is explaining to Julian the California that actually doesn't really apply to Richard, but is that romanticised movie version of California And Julian calls California romantic and Richard, kind of going back to his own experience of California says, “if by romantic you mean solitary and introspective”, I said, “I think romantics are frequently the best classicists.” Which I think is it's just really nice kind of merging of that wistful wiling away the afternoons discussing Ancient Greek.
