🪄📜 “Χαλεπά τά καλά. 𝑩𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒔𝒉.”

“𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒂 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝑮𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒌 𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒂, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒏𝒆. 𝑩𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒓. 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒖𝒍, 𝒘𝒆 𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒕. 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒇𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒖𝒍, 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑮𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒌𝒔 𝒐𝒓 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒐𝒘𝒏, 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒍 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚? 𝑻𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒘 𝒐𝒇𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒕, 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒔?”


Honestly this book deserves all the hype it gets. And Dona Tartt is an amazing writer, she has her way with the words, it's just like reading a classic from 18th/19th century. 


Some thoughts on the story and characters(may contain spoilers) :

It's an inverted murder mystery so we already know a lot of stuff and this in a way makes reading more exciting as the story unfolds. The book revolves around 6 young students who study Classics and language at the college of Vermont. Henry, Francis, Charles, Camilla, Bunny and Richard. And we also have an important character, their professor Julian Morrow.

“𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒍 𝒊𝒇 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒐𝒃𝒔𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒗𝒆.”

📜Henry: Is he innocent and just a victim of the circumstances or is he just a psychopath manipulating everyone around him? 

“𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒚 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒅-𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒖𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒓?'  
𝑯𝒆𝒏𝒓𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒕 𝒂 𝒄𝒊𝒈𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆. 
'𝑰 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒕,' 𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅, '𝒂𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒃𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓.' ”

Hmmmm.....

📜Francis: hides himself too much? deserves better tbh .

📜Charles: sweet in beginning and then idk what happened and he became a raging alcoholic and fucking ruined everything.

📜Camilla: sweet and cunning, or just helpless?

“𝑺𝒉𝒆, 𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕, 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒖𝒍, 𝒊𝒏 𝒂𝒏 𝒖𝒏𝒔𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒂𝒍𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒎𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒂𝒍 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒖𝒂𝒍 𝒐𝒃𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒓.”

📜Bunny: stupid af 

📜Richard: our narrator. pick me( just kidding)  his parents never gave him any attention so yk🙂👍🏻 or he's just an unreliable narrator?

"𝑵𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒔𝒊𝒄𝒌, 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒐𝒖𝒕. 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒄𝒌 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎, 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎, 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒅."

📜Julian: coward (not my words, iykyk)

“Perhaps, I thought,
his reaction would be similar to my own. Perhaps he would see these
murders as a sad, wild thing, haunted and picturesque (I've done
everything,' old Tolstoy used to boast, 'I've even killed a man'), instead of
the basically selfish, evil act which it was.”

I also have a ton of questions regarding certain parts of the story but I'll be posting them on reddit ig. Well regarding the story it's supposed to feel like a greek tragedy, which it does tbh. It's like the group of students are misfits in the current world and belong to ancient Greek. 

𝑸𝒖𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒔:

“I liked to read – Tom Swift, the Tolkien books – but also
to watch television, which I did plenty of, lying on the carpet of our empty
living room in the long dull afternoons after school”

“I felt my existence was tainted, in some subtle but essential way.”

“Why does that obstinate little voice in our heads torment us so?' he
said, looking round the table. 'Could it be because it reminds us that we are
alive, of our mortality, of our individual souls – which, after all, we are too
afraid to surrender but yet make us feel more miserable than any other
thing?”

“Love? Yes, but as old Cephalus once heard Sophocles say, the least of
we know that love is a cruel and terrible master. One loses oneself for the
sake of the other, but in doing so becomes enslaved and miserable to the
most capricious of all the gods.”

“Aristotle says in the Poetics,' said Henry, 'that objects such as corpses,
painful to view in themselves, can become delightful to contemplate in a
work of art.”

“Death is the mother of beauty,' said Henry.
'And what is beauty?'
'Terror,' 
'Well said,' said Julian. 'Beauty is rarely soft or consolatory.
Quite the contrary. Genuine beauty is always quite alarming.'
”

“Time is something which defies
spring and winter, birth and decay, the good and the bad, indifferently.
Something changeless and joyous and absolutely indestructible.”

“But if I've learned one thing in my short sad life, it is that that
particular platitude is a lie. Love doesn't conquer everything. And whoever
thinks it does is a fool.”


“Some things are too terrible to grasp at once. Other things –
naked, sputtering, indelible in their horror – are too terrible to really ever
grasp at all. It is only later, in solitude, in memory, that the realization
dawns: when the ashes are cold; when the mourners have departed; when
one looks around and finds oneself- quite to one's surprise – in an entirely
different world.”

“And besides, is death really so terrible a thing? It seems terrible to you,
because you are young, but who is to say he is not better off now than you
are? Or – if death is a journey to another place – that you will not see him
again?”

“Except that my life, for the most part, has been very stale and colorless. Dead, I mean. The world has always been an empty place to me. I was incapable of enjoying even the simplest things. I felt dead in everything I did.”


“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.”

“The dead appear to us in dreams, said Julian, because that's the only waythey can make us see them; what we see is only a projection, beamed froma great distance, light shining at us from a dead star…
”