Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780449911518
ISBN number: 0449911519
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 592
Printing Date: September 29, 1996
Publishing house: Ballantine Books
Release Date: September 29, 1996
Sale Popularity Level: 157375
Studio: Ballantine Books
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
'Powerful...Enthrallling...A ferociously well-paced entertainment.'
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Richard Papen arrived at Hampden College in New England and was quickly seduced by an elite group of five students, all Greek scholars, all worldly, self-assured, and, at very first glance, all highly unapproachable. As Richard is drawn into their inner circle, he learns a terrifying secret that binds them to one another...a secret about an incident in the woods in the dead of night where an ancient rite was brought to brutal life...and led to a gruesome death. And that was just the beginning....
'A smart, craftsman-like, viscerally compelling novel.'
TIME
Selected by the Book-of-the-Month Club
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK
From the Paperback edition.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
Richard Papen grew up in Plano, CA; a small silicon village in the north. An only child, he was extremely unhappy there--his father ran a gas station, and his mother had to join the work force to make ends meet. After high school, Richard went to a small college in his hometown--against his parents wishes--and studied ancient Greek on his way to a pre-med curriculum.
He excelled in Greek, not so in biology and science classes. One night during a long Thanksgiving Holiday, he finds in his room a brochure from Hampden College, Hampden, Vermont, established in 1895.
For the hell of it he applies and is accepted after getting a huge package of financial aid.
So he gets on a bus and arrives in Vermont.
As he tries to pursue his Greek studies, he encountered a roadblock--the Greek professor: Julian Morrow, who only takes a few students.
He out of curiosity decided to find and study these particular students. Two of the boys wore glasses, curiously enough the same kind: tiny, old fashioned, with round steel rims. The larger of the two, well over six feet, was dark haired, wore English suits and carried an umbrella--unusual for Hampden--his name was Henry Winter. The smaller of the two, was a sloppy blond boy, rosy cheeked and gum chewing. He was Bunny Corcoran--short for Edmund--and he wore the same jacket everyday and had a voice that was loud and honking.
The third boy was the most exotic of them all. Angular and elegant, precariously thin, with nervous hands and a shrewd albino face with a short fiery mop reddish hair. Francis Abernathy was his name.
The last two turned to be twins--they looked much alike, with heavy dark blond hair and epicene faces as clear, as cheerful and grave, as a couple of Flemish Angels. Their names were Charles and Camilla Macaulay.
Richard, overhearing an assignment by the group in the library, is able to solve a Greek problem, so he is invited to join the group.
As it turns out, Julian Morrow is, like Aristotle, a complete education teacher. Richard is forced to quit all his classes, except French and Julian will teach him all of his curriculum for the year.
The book is short on plot--as a matter of fact, the plot is given away in the two page introduction. The group kills Bunny Corcoran.
But what it lacks in plot, is overwhelmed by character development. Donna Tartt is able to get inside these people's heads to a point where we feel we are there with them. We know what they do, what they think, why they drink; what they like and dislike about each one of them--and how they interact as a group, which will explain why they did what they did.
These are confessions, years afterwards of a young man who found at a small Vermont college the life of privilege and intellect he'd long coveted--and rarely has the glorious experience of youth infatuated with knowledge and with itself so achingly realized.
Hugely ambitious and compulsive readable, this is a chronicle of deception and complicity, of Dionysian abandon, of innocence corrupted by self love and moral arrogance; and finally this is a story of guilt and responsibility.
A great read for those who love to explore the human psyche.
Rated by buyers 
-
I bought this book for Book Club and it was not at all what I was expecting. It took awhile to get into it but get better along the way. It's not the typical read I prefer and definitely dark and disturbing in parts. I suppose I would recommend it but not for a happy reading. It helps to devote time to reading and not just reading here and there before bed - you will not follow the story as well.
Rated by buyers -
I read "The Secret History" because it has been compared favourably with, and inspired, "Special Topics in Calamity Physics"
The whole novel consists of "sound bites" that simply don't connect except as elements to drive the plot.
For example, the idea of a "Bacchanalian" is advanced to justify one murder, and is set up in some detail in the very first half of the book. After it has served its purpose, the concept is abandoned as the book disappears into a sordid world of FBI agents, drug-taking, incompetence and standard Hollywood morality paybacks.
I read this book because I enjoyed Calamity Physics so very much. Marisha Pessl's effort still seems to be to be the superior read.
Rated by buyers -
I was turned on to this book after reading The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. She says that this book was the reason she began writing. I loved the Historian so much that I decided to read this one as well. needless to say, I was not disappointed. It's a nice little murder mystery with a twist. It's a really easy read - let's hope Hollywood doesn't find out about it and ruin it.
Rated by buyers -
I love this book. I bought it many years ago and recently gave a copy to my best friend and teenage daughter. They both thought it was a remarkable book as well. I won't go into detail about the characters or plots, as others have done, but it is a FAVORITE book of mine.
Find other books like this one:
