An edition of The Secret History (1992)

Le maitre des illusions

roman

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  • 4.03 ·
  • 63 Ratings
  • 1247 Want to read
  • 52 Currently reading
  • 98 Have read

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Last edited by Tom Morris
October 22, 2023 | History
An edition of The Secret History (1992)

Le maitre des illusions

roman

  • 4.03 ·
  • 63 Ratings
  • 1247 Want to read
  • 52 Currently reading
  • 98 Have read

Par sa surprenante erudition et son sens percutant du suspense psychologique, par sa richesse des sentiments, des idees et de la langue, Le Maitre des illusions fait une entree remarquee dans le domaine du roman d'aventures. Il s'agit des confessions, des annees plus tard, d'un jeune etudiant d'une petite universite du Vermont ayant enfin accede a cette vie intellectuelle privilegiee tant convoitee.Introduit dans le cercle tres ferme de cinq etudiants surs d'eux-memes et du monde, choisis par un professeur charismatique de lettres classiques, Richard Papen s'initie avec eux aux mysteres de la culture grecque ancienne et passe en leur compagnie de longs week-ends a lire, faire du bateau et jouir des journees ensoleillees de l'ete indien. Magnetise par ses nouveaux compagnons, Richard n'a pas connaissance du crime qu'ils ont commis au cours d'une bacchanale.Mais une fois mis dans la confidence, il s'incline devant l'ineluctable necessite d'assassiner leur camarade de classe et ami qui pourrait trahir leur secret et compromettre leur avenir. D'une lecture irresistiblement prenante, cette chronique de l'illusion et de la complicite, de l'abandon aux rites dionysiaques, de l'innocence corrompue par l'egoi˜sme et l'arrogance morale est aussi une histoire de culpabilite et de responsabilite. Ce premier livre audacieux revele en Donna Tartt une jeune romanciere de grand talent. "Comme roman policier, c'est un des meilleurs que j'ai jamais lus.Mais comme premier roman, il m'a coupe le souffle, tant il est maitrise." Ruth Rendell

Publish Date
Publisher
Plon
Language
French
Pages
705

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Previews available in: Spanish English French Dutch Italian

Edition Availability
Cover of: El secreto
El secreto
2015, Vintage Español
in Spanish
Cover of: El secreto
El secreto
2014, Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, S.A. de C.V.
in Spanish - Primera edición en México.
Cover of: The secret history
The secret history
2007, Penguin
in English
Cover of: The secret history
The secret history
2004, Vintage Books, Vintage Contemporaries
in English - 1st Vintage Contemporaries ed.
Cover of: Le Maître des illusions
Le Maître des illusions
May 24, 2002, Pocket
Mass Market Paperback in French
Cover of: De verborgen geschiedenis
De verborgen geschiedenis
2002, De Bezige Bij
in Dutch - 40e dr.
Cover of: El Secreto
El Secreto
January 1, 2000, Plaza & Janes Editores, S.A., Plaza & Janes Editores
Paperback in Spanish
Cover of: Dio di illusioni
Dio di illusioni
1995, Rizzoli
in Italian
Cover of: Le maitre des illusions
Le maitre des illusions
1994-01-01, Pocket / Best
Cover of: Le maitre des illusions
Le maitre des illusions: roman
1993, Plon
in French

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Book Details


Edition Notes

Published in
Paris
Series
Feux croises, Feux croises

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
813.54
Library of Congress
PS3570A657S44 1993

The Physical Object

Pagination
705, [1] p.
Number of pages
705

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL26499769M
ISBN 10
2259025935
ISBN 13
9782259025935
OCLC/WorldCat
300658958

Work Description

Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at last - inexorably - into evil.

Excerpts

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.
Page 1, added by jj.jjames.

The opening line.

Does such a thing as ‘the fatal flaw’, that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside of literature? I used to think it didn’t. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.
Page 7, added by jj.jjames.

The opening of the first chapter.

I was charmed by his conversation, and despite its illusion of being rather modern and digressive (to me, the hallmark of the modern mind is that it loves to wander from its subject) I now see that he was leading me by circumlocution to the same points again and again. For if the modern mind is whimsical and discursive, the classical mind is narrow, unhesitating, relentless. It is not a quality of intelligence that one encounters frequently these days. But though I can digress with the best of them, I am nothing in my soul if not obsessive.
Page 29, added by jj.jjames.

A characterization of Richard, Julian, and Henry.

An old shoe was lying on the asphalt in front of the loading dock, where the ambulance had been only minutes before. It wasn’t Bunny’s shoe. I don’t know whose it was or how it got there. It was just an old tennis shoe lying on its side. I don’t why I remember that now, or why it made such an impact on me.
Page 376, added by jj.jjames.

A reflection by Richard on Bunny's murder.

"There is nothing wrong with the love of Beauty. But Beauty - unless she is wed to something more meaningful - is always superficial. It is not that your Julian chooses solely to concentrate on certain, exalted things; it is that he chooses to ignore others equally as important."
Page 511, added by jj.jjames.

Georges Laforgue on Julian Morrow.

"Well, you know what Julian would say," said Francis. "There are such things as ghosts. People everywhere have always known that. And we believe in them every bit as much as Homer did. Only now, we call them by different names. Memory. The unconscious."
Page 553, added by jj.jjames.

Francis, talking with Richard and Camilla, in the epilogue.

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October 22, 2023 Edited by Tom Morris Merge works
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September 29, 2018 Created by ImportBot Imported from Internet Archive item record.