The impact on the students is ultimately destructive, and the potential promise of many young lives is lost to circumstance. The novel undertakes to explore the circumstances and lasting effects of his murder on an academically and socially isolated group of students attending Hampden College in Vermont. In the opening chapter, as the reader is introduced to Papen, the death of student Edmund 'Bunny' Corcoran is revealed, although few details are given initially. One of the six students is the story's narrator, Richard Papen, who reflects, years later, on the situation that led to a murder within the group, implying such at the outset but otherwise revealing events sequentially. Tartt's tale has certain parallels with the unsolved case of Bennington art student Paula Jean Welden who vanished while hiking near the college in 1946. Set in New England, The Secret History tells the story of a closely knit group of six classics students at a small, elite Vermont college, similar in many respects to Bennington College (in Bennington, Vermont) where Tartt was a student from 1982 to 1986. A 75,000 print order was made for the first edition (as opposed to the usual 10,000 order for a debut novel), and the book became a bestseller.

The Secret History, the first novel by Mississippi-born writer Donna Tartt, was published by Alfred A. She's a gorgeous storyteller' Stephen King 'A haunting, compelling, and brilliant piece of fiction. _ 'So irresistible and seductive it's almost a guilty pleasure' Guardian 'Donna Tartt is an amazingly good writer. The Secret History is a story of two parts the chain of events that led to the death of a classmate - and what happened next. But when they go beyond the boundaries of morality, their lives are changed profoundly and for ever. _ '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.' 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. FROM THE PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE GOLDFINCH 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.

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