American writer Donna Tartt: biography, creativity, books and reviews. The book "The Secret History", Donna Tartt: description and reviews

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Modern American writer Donna Tartt has written only three novels in her 25 years of career. But each of her books invariably became an event in the literary world.

Biography of the writer

Future writer Donna Tartt was born in the small town of Greenwood, Mississippi. She was born on December 23, 1963. Already at the age of five, the girl wrote her first poem. The child became interested in literature in earnest. Therefore, it is not surprising that after graduating from school, Tartt decided to get a philological education.

In 1986, the girl graduated from Bennington College in Vermont. For several years, she tirelessly honed her writing skills, learning all aspects of the English language. All this Donna did to fulfill her only dream - to become a writer.

Debut romance

In 1992, Donna Tartt finally published her debut novel, The Secret History. The first edition was released in the amount of 75 thousand copies,which was an unusually large number for books by aspiring writers. But the publisher did not invest in vain. The first edition was sold out instantly, and the public demanded more. To date, the book has been translated into 24 languages. It has devoted readers around the world. The novel was first published in Russia in 1999.

What was so amazing about Donna Tartt's writing? The Secret History has an unusual structure. The story begins at the end of the story. For the reader, this is an important detail, because this book is a detective story with a seemingly classic murder and crime detection. But everything is not as simple as it seems at first glance.

Although the author immediately revealed the identity of the killer, the whole intrigue of reading comes down to the fact that it is completely incomprehensible how the previous events turned out that way, that the tragedy described at the beginning of the book happened.

Main character

The main character is Richard Paypen. Donna Tartt worked especially hard on the development of the personality and character of the young man. "The Secret History" tells the story of a nineteen-year-old boy. He wants to enter a prestigious university, but his family has many financial problems. However, Richard receives a grant to study at a higher education institution in Vermont (in this story line, Donna Tartt took a little from her own biography).

A peculiar point of no return for the protagonist came at the moment when he learned about the existence of a small group of students enthusiastically studying the Greek language. Acquaintance with them becomes the plot of the whole plot,culminating in the book-opening ending.

Features of The Secret History

The style of narration chosen by Donna Tartt is also non-standard. The writer's books have always been distinguished by an extraordinary filling. In her debut, Tartt decided to communicate with the reader through a kind of memoir, the author of which is the protagonist. Richard recalls the events as if he were putting his own impressions on paper.

The writer used all her talent to immerse the reader as deeply as possible into the world of the novel. With this skill, Donna Tartt immediately became famous. "The Secret History" … Readers' reviews of this book and reviews of professional critics allow the opinion to form that in fact the audience is offered not a novel, but a kind of diary of the protagonist. Richard really shares his impressions and feelings about starting his studies at the long-awaited University of Vermont without any taboos.

Storyline

Richard has five friends in his circle. All of them differ from each other in character, which makes the plot only more interesting and richer. Francis is a touching and romantic young man. Henry is unflappable and eccentric at the same time. Bunny is a merry fellow and the soul of the company. The last two are twins Camilla and Charles.

My friends also had a mentor - professor and teacher of Greek Julian. He plunged the guys into the ancient world. The history of ancient European civilizations was the subject that she lovedDonna Tartt. Reviews of experts about her debut novel are full of praise. According to them, "The Secret History" is not only an excellent fiction, but also a guide to ancient culture, full of mysteries and mysteries. Even the title of the novel is a reference to the work of the same name by the Byzantine chronicler of the 6th century.

Decoupling

Students succumb to that mystical atmosphere inspired by Professor Julian. At some point, passion gets out of control. Four friends in a fit of fanaticism kill the fifth comrade, and the sixth becomes an inadvertent witness to the deed. Here begins the main action of the novel and its climax.

In this work, the detective is carefully mixed with thriller and suspense. All these genres were loved and wanted to be reflected in one book by Donna Tartt. The Secret History, reviews of which encourage reading the full version of the work, is not just an entertaining read. It's exciting! Comments boil down to the following: the book is read in one breath. Someone even called the novel "Crime and Punishment" in the North American manner. Many agree that, despite the fact that the book is full of allusions, quotations from ancient Greek literature and other postmodernist techniques, the text is easily perceived, largely due to the fact that the narrative style is light. There are those who compare reading with watching a movie in a cinema hall, the events taking place with the characters, their experiences, throwing, passions are so vividly and vividly displayed … According to fanscreativity of the writer, the plot of the novel even resembles the cult films directed by Hitchcock, in which the main characters suddenly lose their lives or become witnesses of terrible events.

Little Friend

Tartt is known for the fact that, unlike many colleagues in the shop, rarely publishes new books. Novels with her name on the cover appear on store shelves every 10-11 years. Exactly such a period after the release of The Secret History, the writer finally finished work on her new creation. It was called "Little Friend" and was published in 2002.

Unlike the previous work, there is no familiar storyline that is typical for the novel as a genre (including the debut of "The Secret History"). And even the detective elements of the story, at first glance the most important, eventually fade into the background. So we can say with confidence that the writer decided to test herself in a new creative dimension. In this decision, the author guesses love for the experiments that Donna Tartt constantly conducts. "Little Friend" takes the reader to the early 70s.

The main character is a little girl Harriet. She lost her brother early, who died under tragic circumstances. This event is just a kind of prologue to the novel, which was written by Donna Tartt. "Little Friend" is a book that does not tell about solving a crime (as is customary in detective stories), but shows a child growing up in tragic circumstances.

Growing up Harriet

Harriet's familydid everything to remove her from the dangerous outside world, which had already taken the life of her brother. Because of this, the girl has to grow up in the company of painful relatives. Tartt, as always, in detail and skillfully described the experiences of her character throughout the novel, which only enhances the absurd effect of what is happening in the book.

Harriet, forcibly drawn into her small little world, is trying to find an outlet for her childish energy and curiosity. Finally, she decides to take on the investigation of her brother's death. But that's not even the point of the book. The denouement comes at the moment when the girl grows up and finds herself face to face with the very outside world from which her frightened relatives hid her. Therefore, this work can also be attributed to the genre of an educational novel or a novel of growing up. From the first page to the last page of the book, Tartt artfully depicts how Harriet's inner child dies, having to face unexpected problems outside the comfortable home of books and the memory of a departed brother.

Goldfinch

The third and last novel by the writer - "Goldfinch" - was published in the USA in 2013 (and a year later appeared in high-quality translation in Russia). What did Donna Tartt offer her readers this time? "Goldfinch" received again enthusiastic reviews. The reviews and the warm reception of the public indicate that the American writer has again achieved well-deserved success. In particular, the book won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for 2014.

The author chose the name as a reference to the famouspainting by a Dutch artist of the 17th century. The canvas by Karel Fabritius plays an important role in the fate of the protagonist of another Tartt novel.

According to the plot, Theo Decker woke up after a terrible explosion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art - one of the main cultural attractions in New York. The dying old man gave him a ring and that same painting by Fabritius with orders to take it out of the building. Now Decker needs to decide what to do with the famous painting. To do this, he will have to visit many places in the world - from Holland to gambling Las Vegas.

Donna Tartt returns to many of her favorite artistic techniques in this book. "Goldfinch" (reviews about the novel are mixed, but most are still positive) makes a strong impression. The reader has the opportunity to trace how the fate of a person, a teenager, changes when he is left without the care of his relatives. The street, modern society with its realities and vices… Where can fate take him? Someone did not accept the novel: what can be pleasant in describing the formation of a drug addict? Yes, the idea, they say, is interesting, but the narrative is boring and somewhere drawn out, full of philosophical reflections and long dialogues. Someone penetrated to the depths of the soul, to the tips of the nails. The comments of the latter can be reduced to the following: a good, deep, high-quality book, written in an easy, captivating language.

Be that as it may, the sales success clearly demonstrates that the recognizable style of the American writer is still in demand by the reading public around the world.