Donna Tartt Trivia

1. Why did the rest of the Classics group want to murder Bunny?

From Quiz Take a Walk

Answer: He knew too much about Henry's accidental murder of a farmer and they were worried he'd give them away.

Henry, Francis and the Macaulay twins have a bacchanal in the woods and Henry accidentally kills a farmer. The group claim they ran over a deer when Bunny sees them in their bloodstained clothes, but Bunny is suspicious and keeps making remarks about 'deerslayers'. He becomes even more suspicious when he sees a newspaper article about the murder and realises it occurred on the night when the rest of the group were in the woods. While he and Henry are on holiday in Italy, he reads Henry's diary - which Henry has written in Latin - and realises that Henry was responsible for the farmer's death. Bunny torments the rest of the group by singing 'the farmer's in the dell', although at the time, Richard does not understand why they react so badly to it. The group have also been spending copious amounts of money on Bunny in an attempt to pacify him. One night in April, Bunny gets drunk and tells Richard what happened, and Richard tells Charles and Henry in turn, which makes Henry conclude that Bunny needs to be dealt with before he can give them away to the police.

From Quiz My Little Friend has a Secret Goldfinch

Answer: Harriet

In "The Little Friend", a nine year old boy is found hanged and no-one knows who did it. Unsolved crimes seem to be a bit of a theme for Donna Tartt and in this book it is the young boy's sister Harriet who becomes obsessed with finding out who did it. Twelve-year-old Harriet is smart and stubborn and intent on solving the mystery, so she embarks on a number of dangerous activities including going after one of the more menacing families in the town where they live.

From Quiz Obscurities In: ' The Secret History'

Answer: Henry

Henry, always the prideful twit, was quick to show everyone the limitations of Richard's abilities and exposed him for his limited training in Greek Classics.

From Quiz "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

Answer: The correct Greek word for a sentence

Richard plucks up his courage and tells them he couldn't help but overhear, and that he knows the answer to the question. They are impressed with his effort, and warm up to him as one of their friends.

From Quiz Donna Tartt's "The Secret History"

Answer: 28

Richard was 20 at the time of Bunny's murder.

From Quiz Take a Walk

Answer: Uruguay

Richard remembers he left a textbook at Henry's apartment and when he lets himself in, he finds the apartment in a mess, which puzzles him as Henry is normally very tidy. He then finds a note with 'TWA' in Henry's handwriting and a phone number in Francis' handwriting. He calls the number, pretending to be Henry, and discovers that Henry has booked four one-way tickets to Argentina. He also finds two packed suitcases. When Richard later asks him about it, Henry explains that Argentina was actually a stopover point and that they were planning to go to Uruguay from there, as his father has property in Uruguay. He had left the key for Richard to find in case Richard ever needed to use it, and was planning to contact Richard with further instructions. Ultimately, the group realise they won't have enough money to last them and decide to return to Hampden, and it is at this point that Richard realises they must have killed someone, and Henry confirms it.

From Quiz My Little Friend has a Secret Goldfinch

Answer: Danny

Robin is the name of the nine year old boy who is found hanged. Harriet and Allison are his two sisters and it is Harriet who decides that she must find out who has killed her brother. In her hunt for the murderer, she goes after a character named Danny who she found out had a fight with Robin before his death. Harriet assumes that it must be Danny who killed Robin; however, in the course of her detective work, she actually finds out that Danny was Robin's friend who was devastated by his death.

From Quiz Obscurities In: ' The Secret History'

Answer: MontBlanc

If you're not aware of the fountain pen collector crowd you may be surprised to learn that a simple new model of the MontBlanc series will cost you several hundred US dollars. The classic model is the all black with a small white tuff on the top. The white tuff represents the snow on Mont Blanc which is a real alp on the border between France and Italy.

From Quiz "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

Answer: Making musical instruments

Papen had a dreadful time working for his ill-tempered boss. He quickly soured on the task.

From Quiz Donna Tartt's "The Secret History"

Answer: Klytemnestra

From the Agamemnon - a lovely piece about a Queen stabbing her husband in his bath.

From Quiz Take a Walk

Answer: Poison

Henry initially considers poisoning Bunny and, as Richard studied medicine, asks him to calculate the lethal human dose for a poisonous mushroom, which he tests on a neighbour's dog. He plans to make a dish with both the poisonous mushroom and a similar-looking harmless one and offer it to Bunny, keeping an antidote for himself on hand. Richard tells him it wouldn't work and that it is too difficult and impractical to calculate. The poison also takes too long to come into effect and Henry worries that Bunny might tell someone before he dies. They later discuss using sleeping pills, as drugs are easy to come by in Hampden, but dismiss the idea as too risky as Bunny will notice crushed pills in his drink.

From Quiz My Little Friend has a Secret Goldfinch

Answer: The Goldfinch

"The Goldfinch" was released in 2013 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2014. It is the story of a young teen named Theo whose mother is killed in a terrorist bombing while the two of them are at a museum. In the chaos and panic right after the attack, Theo takes a painting called "The Goldfinch". The story that follows crosses decades and continents as Theo deals with the consequences of that deadly day and the decision he made to take the painting. Personally, I found the story to be meandering and overly long. It was made into a movie starring Ansel Elgort that was a bit of a flop.

From Quiz Obscurities In: ' The Secret History'

Answer: Van Gogh

I had never heard this saying before either credited or otherwise so I searched and found nothing with a source. I did find that this is commonly said about the color but not attached with Van Gogh.

From Quiz "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

Answer: Bunny

This is what the man's friends call him from the beginning of the novel. The image of the playful animal becomes a striking contrast to the raffish and sometimes difficult Corcoran.

From Quiz Donna Tartt's "The Secret History"

Answer: Leo

Leo the "mandolin maker" only rented to Richard because he thought he'd lived in the Blue Ridge Mountains and carved dulcimer pegs. Richard nearly died in the sub-freezing Vermont temperatures, and the warehouse had a huge hole in the roof.

From Quiz Take a Walk

Answer: Sunday

While Bunny is at a party on a Saturday night, with Camilla keeping an eye on him, Henry decides that Bunny has to be killed the following day, in a 'hiking accident', as the next opportunity to kill him will be in at least a week, if not longer. The rationale for this is that Bunny likes to go for walks on Sundays and one of his favourite routes includes a ravine. Henry is familiar with the route and times how long it takes to walk both ways. His plan is that the group drives to the woods and meets Bunny at the ravine, and he calculates the best height to push Bunny from. If Bunny does not die from the fall, Henry plans to drown him in the stream in the ravine.

From Quiz My Little Friend has a Secret Goldfinch

Answer: Boris

After the bomb kills his mother, Theo stays for a while with a school friend; however, his life is turned upside down when his dad and new girlfriend come along and take him to Las Vegas. There, with little parental supervision, Theo meets Boris and the two of them spend their days drinking and doing drugs. While in Vegas, his dad dies and Theo decides to head back to New York City. Throughout all this travel and upheaval, he keeps the stolen painting with him, reminding him of the death of his mother and the crime of theft that he committed.

From Quiz Obscurities In: ' The Secret History'

Answer: Dr. Roland

I believe the name Roland is interesting for this story and here's why. Richard takes all of his classes with Julian with the exception of French and French plays apart through out the story. Well, in medieval France there was a historical figure by the name of Roland. He was the nephew of King Charlemagne and he died in battle in 778 AD. He's immortalized in the poem "Song of Roland" written a full four hundred years after his death; it remains the most oldest piece of French literature to date.

From Quiz "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

Answer: Gas station owner

Richard wasn't too keen on taking up the family business. This was one of the reasons he became interested in studies at an out-of-state college.

From Quiz Donna Tartt's "The Secret History"

Answer: The Thirty-Nine Steps

The Greek students hadn't invited either Richard or Bunny along on this excursion which resulted in the unfortunate death of the farmer.

From Quiz Take a Walk

Answer: "Why, looking for new ferns."

On the day of the murder, Richard wakes up late and Judy Poovey, one of his friends outside the group, reminds him that the Swing into Spring party is happening that day. She mentions that Bunny is in the library but when Richard goes there, he finds a note from Bunny to his girlfriend Marion, saying he has gone to the party to get a drink, and worries that Bunny won't come to the ravine. Richard calls Henry and the twins, but nobody answers and he heads to the ravine, where he finds Henry, Francis and the twins hiding. Bunny arrives and asks the group what they're doing in the woods. The second time he asks, Henry says, "Why, looking for new ferns," and pushes him into the ravine to his death. Henry goes down into the ravine to check that Bunny is dead, and the group drive off.

From Quiz My Little Friend has a Secret Goldfinch

Answer: Flute

Pippa is a young and very talented flautist who sustains injuries in the bombing which cut short her possible musical career. To add to her psychological makeup, her mother dies of cancer when she is quite young. Theo deeply loves Pippa; however, they never get together and Pippa ends up marrying a man she meets in London, England. We do find out at the end of the novel that Pippa has loved Theo but cannot be with him due to their shared traumas.

From Quiz Obscurities In: ' The Secret History'

Answer: Monmouth House

Hampden is the name the authoress has chosen for her fictitious college. Although she cites real colleges in her story the actual story unfolds in a place made only for the reader. Or is it? Many people familiar with the Bennington campus in Vermont thought she was referring to this location but when she was interviewed she says that the coincidences are merely that, a coincidence.

From Quiz "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

Answer: Talk out of turn during the Gospel reading

During the reading from the gospel, about the people going to pay their taxes, Bunny called out, "Well, so what? All the world *should* have been taxed!" Funny. Also, rude.

From Quiz Take a Walk

Answer: Heavy snow

On the way back from the ravine, Charles notes that it is beginning to snow, and Francis says that it's unusual for it to snow in April. The snowfall is heavy and lasts for several days, and nobody has found Bunny; Julian, the group's tutor, assumes he must be skipping class. Henry considers phoning the police, as the longer Bunny is missing, the worse it will look. The chair of Bunny's hall of residence calls the police and things begin to escalate, as Bunny's family offer a reward for finding him and the police begin to search the area - the group join in, so as not to attract suspicion - and question students and staff. The FBI get involved and there is also an investigation of whether Bunny may have been involved with drugs, which leads to a major drug bust. On a Tuesday afternoon, over a week later, a first-year student finds Bunny's body while out walking her dog, and the dog starts digging him up. Henry, Camilla and Richard are having lunch in the dining room when they see an ambulance and Bunny's body being carried on a stretcher (they recognise him by his rain slicker). When they come out, Henry is immediately bombarded by the press.

From Quiz My Little Friend has a Secret Goldfinch

Answer: Vermont

This novel tells the story of six tight-knit, mysterious Classics students attending the elite Hampden College in Vermont. The story is narrated by one of the students who is looking back years later at the events that led up to the murder of one of the students and the impact the murder had on the rest of the group. In my opinion, this is by far the best novel by Donna Tartt, it's a mysterious and fascinating tale of six incredibly interesting characters.

From Quiz Obscurities In: ' The Secret History'

Answer: Rolling Rock

I'm not sure if the author intended this slight pun between Rolling Rock and Rolling Bunny but it stuck out to me.

From Quiz "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

Answer: Terror

Morrow says that whatever people find beautiful, "[they] tremble before it." It is an unsettling answer, but helps explain the students' fascination with ancient culture.

From Quiz Donna Tartt's "The Secret History"

Answer: Harry Ray McRee

McRee, a poultry farmer from Battenkill County, was mutilated. The Greek students had little memory of the death, and little memory of the bacchanal at all, other than "coming to" all covered in blood.

From Quiz Take a Walk

Answer: He rubs soil on himself.

The Corcorans invite Henry, Richard, Charles and the twins, along with several other students, to Bunny's funeral. It is an all-round awkward affair; the group are overwhelmed by Bunny's obnoxious family, Camilla is forced to room with Marion, Charles gets drunk and steals Francis' car keys, and Richard and Cloke Rayburn steals pills from Mrs Corcoran (as Bunny's best friend, Cloke knows the house very well) for Henry. Cloke also mentions that he's heard Camilla talking to someone on the phone in the early hours of the morning. At the funeral, Henry recites an AE Housman poem called 'With Rue My Heart is Laden'. Richard is struck by the horrible realisation that not only is Bunny dead, but he is stuck with the other four for good. As Bunny's coffin is lowered into the grave and the mourners throw earth on it, Henry picks up a handful of soil and rubs it across his chest. Julian and the rest of the group are horrified but Henry barely reacts, a sign of his decaying sanity.

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