The Secret History 1/2.. Under the tutelage and influence of a charismatic professor of ancient Greek classics, a group of socially outcast and eccentric students at a prestigious New England college discover a way of thinking and living in a world isolated from the drab reality of their time. But when they step beyond the bounds of accepted morality, their lives are radically changed forever, and they discover how difficult life really is, and how easy it is to kill.
The Secret History is a captivating blend of part thriller, part coming-of-age novel, and part contemporary Greek tragedy. The novel begins with one of the most famous opening lines in literature: “The snow in the mountains was melting, and it was several weeks after Bunny’s death before we understood the gravity of our situation.” From the book’s chilling opening, we immediately learn that narrator Richard Papen and his friends were tried for a horrific crime. The reader is in on the secret, and so the novel is a two-part story: what led to Bunny’s death, and what happens next.