“We don't like to admit it,” says their charismatic professor, “but the idea of losing control is one that fascinates controlled people such as ourselves more than almost anything.” It’s the story of five students enrolled in an elite Ancient Greek major told from the perspective of the outsider who joins the clique and loses himself. Set in the 1980s at a liberal arts college in New England that’s a thinly veiled version of Bennington, The Secret History is an ode to fatal flaws and the beauty that can be found in terror, in which intellectual pursuits feel as romantic as spiritual ones. Macall PolayĪlas, we Secret History lovers are left to reread our dog-eared paperbacks and wonder what went wrong. Nicole Kidman and Ansel Elgort in the film adaptation of Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch. The rollout of The Goldfinch has been a big event, all fancy red carpets and Oscar speculation (though scathing reviews at the Toronto Film Festival make an Academy Awards sweep seem unlikely). Adapted by Peter Straughan ( Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and directed by John Crowley ( Brooklyn). Tartt’s 2014 Pulitzer-winning novel, The Goldfinch, is a Dickensian coming of age story set within the lush framework of the art world on the Upper East Side, and the film version, which just hit theaters, contains a cast full of stars including Nicole Kidman, Ansel Elgort, Sarah Paulson, and Jeffrey Wright.

Entertainment Weekly called it a “perfect blend of high-end art and low-end drama that is so popular on our screens right now.” Those of us who believe that Tartt’s debut is her true masterpiece can find little solace in the fact that her first work to be adapted to the screen hits theaters this autumn. Search the internet for lists of books that should have been made into films, and The Secret History, shows up on most of them. Still, if networks and studios are turning to books for creative properties at a booming rate, then it hurts all the more when a cult favorite languishes in the development process. And for every novel that gets optioned by a streaming giant, there are only a select few that get actual release dates. For every Little Women adaptation that gets made again and again, there’s a Confederacy of Dunces script stuck in a drawer. However, even the most cinematic of books don’t always end up on the big screen.

The secret history by donna tartt