The snow in the mountains was melting… and thus began the book that captivated the world and skyrocketed its author to supernatural stardom, continuing, now thirty years later, to enchant readers from the cool, gloom-infested atmosphere of its prologue. But since its debut in ‘92, there have been only two books by the author to supersede the legacy created by “The Secret History.” Stranger yet, they were released almost exactly ten years apart. So why has Donna Tartt become a staple on the shelf of any fanatic of cult classic literature? And how did she write a narrative anthem that remains cool and incisive even after telephone booths, lexicons, and old Mustangs have all but vanished from our culture? 

 Tartt’s ability to set a mood is unmatched: she can evoke autumn in a Wes Anderson film with a few sentences and a reference to Euripedes. The characters of the book are distinctive in their voices, despite all sharing a common obliviousness to the outside world: they thrive in their own sphere of archaic beauty, Greek poetry, fine academia, an eternity away from the common existence that the protagonist, Richard, has become accustomed to. Obsessed with their ideas of beauty and death, Richard falls in with the Greek class of Hampden College (inspired greatly by the graduating class of ‘86 at Bennington College, where Tartt attended alongside other literary giants, Bret Easton Ellis and Jonathon Lethem.) From there, his fall from grace is inescapable. 

 Though she is renowned in the literary community, her first work, while madly successful, did not win a single award. She would have to wait until 2013, nearly twenty years to the date since the release of “The Secret History,” to be rewarded for her efforts: her latest novel, “The Goldfinch,” won her the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. 

 It is difficult not to be enchanted by the author’s vision of an alternative college existence; one featuring a cyclical, Byzantine routine, as opposed the freneticism that college typically entails. There are few books that have reached such triumph, inventing in its wake an almost entirely new genre of fiction: where the wonders of Greek theatre meet the modernity of taxi cabs and landlines. One modern reader, Bethany Murphy, had this to say about the book: “The Secret History is a true masterpiece from the first word to the last. No sentence is out of place, and each word makes you want to cling on until your fingers go sore. The Secret History is a book I never thought I would find myself reading, but I'm not sure I'll read anything quite like it again.” 

 Legacy, and an unending swarm of fans through the ages, have proved that whatever Tartt stirs into her plot pot is a winning combination; we wait in earnest for the announcement to arrive of another cracking masterwork.