The Secret History, 30 years on: Looking back on a milestone book 

Marjorie Brennan pays tribute to The Secret History by Donna Tartt, and recalls some of the other books that made waves in 1992 

Marjorie Brennan: Donna Tartt’s compelling and murderous tale of a clique of classics students who fall under the spell of a charismatic professor at an elite American college connected with me in a way that few books have since

There are some books that serve as milestones in our lives, evocations of a particular time and place tucked between the timeworn covers. For me, The Secret History is one of those. 

As a teenage undergraduate on the cusp of adulthood, Donna Tartt’s compelling and murderous tale of a clique of classics students who fall under the spell of a charismatic professor at an elite American college connected with me in a way that few books have since.