A Dark Academia Masterpiece that Transcends Time – Aadya Paswan's Review
Aadya Paswa, a passionate reader, delves deep into the world of literature. In her latest piece, she revisits Donna Tartt's The Secret History, a novel that has captivated her since she first encountered it during the lonely winter of 2021. As Aadya reflects on her initial experience with the book and how it has shaped her over the years, she offers a thoughtful critique that explores the layers of Tartt’s writing and the timeless appeal of the Dark Academia aesthetic.
"In late November, I decided I was only going to read only two books in the last month of the year. “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and “The Secret History’’ by Donna Tartt. I have read the latter before and it is my favourite of all the books I’ve read over the years.
I first read it in the winter of ‘21. That winter is still the loneliest one I have ever experienced. My mother had just recovered from the new coronavirus and I was not (physically) attending school at that time, similar to many others my age. Doors were closed all around the world and everyone was cooped up inside where they were before the deadly virus hit. Some at their campuses and the lucky ones, in their homes. Their residences became their entire worlds and for some, their prisons. So many did what most do in a time of uncertainty. They turned to the internet. And so did I.
While surfing the web of seemingly endless content, I entered a bubble filled with videos of people recommending and talking about their favourite books. This bubble was called “BookTube”, which is the community of readers on YouTube. Through those videos, I discovered something known as “Dark Academia” or the “Dark Academia Aesthetic”. What is Dark Academia? Dark Academia is an aesthetic that romanticises the pursuit of education and everything that it entails. Reading everything that you could get your hands on, studying ancient languages and using candlelight as your only source of light are some of the favourite activities of so-called ‘Dark Academics”.
Fascinated, I consumed everything linked to this so-called aesthetic. I listened to “Dark Academia '' themed playlists, drank black coffee (and regretted it), and watched endless TikToks. And of course, I looked for genre-specific book recommendations. I searched, and searched, and searched. After a while of doing this, two books stood out to me. Two of which were on every Dark Academia-themed reading list (at that time). “If We Were Villains'' by M.L. Rio and “The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt.
I had a choice to make and I chose to read the latter. The simplest reason I can give for choosing Tartt’s book over Rio’s is because of the history behind it.
Reading a book takes time, and in this case, it was going to take me almost double the time it normally takes me to finish a book. This led me to scour the internet for any information I could find about these books and their mysterious authors. I started with learning about Tartt, intending to learn about Rio later. After reading countless old magazine cutouts and a deep Wikipedia deep-dive, I learned how the story of these Greek students might be rooted in reality in more ways than they appear to be.
Described by Tartt as “(..) not a whodunit at all. It’s a whydunit”, the book is unusual from the start. We learn that the protagonists, a secluded group of students studying greek at Hampden college, killed their friend, Bunny Corcoran, by both physically and metaphorically pushing him off a cliff. The rest of the story is told from the perspective of Richard Papen, a student on financial aid who couldn’t be more different from his wealthy classmates. Through his words, we learn about what led them to commit such a crime and the aftermath of it all.
Conceived while Tartt was attending the prestigious Bennington College, it is a well-known fact among admirers that the novel was written over eight years. On her ability to write novels over a quite long period, Tartt has said, “‘The Secret History’ took eight years. If I could write a book a year and maintain the same quality, I'd be happy, but I don't think I’d have any fans.” But few remember that Tartt was a part of the “literary brat pack” in the ‘80s. Notable members include Tama Janowitz, Jay McInerney, Jill Eisenstadt, and the author of “American Psycho”, Bret Easton Ellis. Notably, Tartt’s debut novel is dedicated to Ellis. Through him, Tartt was introduced to her long-time agent and publishing industry veteran, Amanda Urban. With Urban’s help, Tartt was able to secure a $450,000 book deal, which was unheard of for a debut author at that time.
The more I learned about Tartt and her Bennington education, the more I started to notice how her stories paralleled those of her about attending college. How Bennington is eerily similar to Hampden, the fictional liberal arts college the protagonists attend. How Tartt's experience of feeling like an outsider mirrors that of protagonist Richard Papen’s. And how Julian Morrow, the charismatic Greek professor was (allegedly) inspired by Claude Fredricks, a professor of literature at Bennington.
I was immediately more interested in Tartt’s novel before I even had the chance to learn about Rio’s. With that, I placed my order and waited (not so) patiently. Remember, most in-person bookstores were closed at that time so I had to resort to online ones.
When I opened the package and held the book in my hands for the first time, I was shocked by how huge it was. I knew that was the case when I decided to purchase it, but it was still difficult to wrap my head around this fact. It is still among the biggest books I’ve read or seen. Already overwhelmed by its size and page count, I put it aside, intending to start it sometime later. It sat on my shelf, collecting dust, before I decided it was time to start this long journey.
“Just start!” I told myself. “A few pages wouldn’t hurt, right?”. So I read. Then I read some more. And more. And more till I realised I had finished this brick of a book and that my life had changed because of it. Tartt's writing was unlike anything I had ever read before. Reading about these characters’ adventures and schemes that took place in the dead of winter while I sat on my couch, experiencing similar weather conditions, felt especially surreal.
“The Secret History” is the book that re-ignited my love of reading. I read other books after finishing it, but that one stuck with me in a way I couldn't shake off. “What better idea than to read it again?”, I
thought as I started reading the first page for a second time. Only this time, I was reading along with a new friend.
This time, I knew where to look and what to look out for. With my fear of writing over books now gone, I scribbled, underlined, and annotated till the pages were filled with the ink from my pen(s). The process of meticulously reading and talking about the book took us almost half a year to complete. And it was all worth it because by the end, I understood everything more deeply and my paperback copy of the book looked as if it had been through hell and back. Which it had, in its special way.
From its captivating first lines ("The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation") to its Sherlockian ending. On nights when I have nothing to think about, I think of that book. I think about those characters who I would never want to be friends with in real life (and neither would they want to be friends with me).
I think about those characters who look nothing like me yet I feel what they feel and empathise with them (even though I shouldn’t because they are inherently bad people). It is December at the time I am writing this. A December in which I have chosen to spend my free time reading my favourite book for a third time.
To non-readers, it may seem like re-reading a book is a waste of one’s time. “Why read it again when you've already read it once?”. To them, I want to say this. The world in a book like this is an unfamiliar one. Yes, the characters are eating the same food you do or listening to the same music you listen to. But their worlds are different from yours because you don’t exist in theirs. You are just an observer of their story. But those characters and that book (whichever it may be) exist in yours. You can hold the book, feel its pages and read the words wherever you please.
In the winter of ‘21, I decided to become friends with these characters in a peculiar way. Every time I go back to “The Secret History”, I get to know them in a deeper way than before. Sometimes, I will leaf through the copy I’ve kept with me after all these years to travel back to a very specific time in my life. With those annotations, I can see what was important to a past version of myself. A version that helped shape who I am now.
To read a book again is to travel back in time. To read a book again is to notice details you didn’t notice the first time around. Details which make the story even better than you remembered it to be. To read a book again is to revisit a world that is not your own. (Julian) Morrow said it best, “It is better to know one book intimately than a hundred superficially.”"
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