“Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it.”
Donna Tartt is one of the most celebrated contemporary authors, renowned for her atmospheric storytelling and complex characters. With only three novels published over the previous three decades, her books have become modern classics, each leaving a lasting impression on readers. If you’re new to her work – or looking to revisit her stories – you may be wondering about the best Donna Tartt books in order. Should you read them chronologically, or is there a “best” starting point? Today at What We Reading, we’re exploring the Donna Tartt books in order of publication, taking a closer look at each novel, helping you decide which one to read first. Whether you want a full Donna Tartt reading order or simply a ranked list of her most beloved works, you’ll find it all here. From The Secret History to The Goldfinch, let’s explore the world of Donna Tartt’s best books.
Who Is Donna Tartt?
Donna Tartt is an American author who has garnered critical and public acclaim for her novels, which have been published in forty different languages. In 2003, she received the WH Smith Literary Award for her book, The Little Friend, which was also nominated for the Orange Prize for Fiction. She won the Pulitzer Prize and Andrew Carnegie Medal for Fiction for her most recent novel, The Goldfinch.
The Secret History (1992)
We’re starting our list of the best Donna Tartt books with arguably her most iconic work, The Secret History. The story orbits around a group of elite, eccentric students studying classics at the elite Hampden College in rural Vermont. Under the influence of their charismatic professor, Julian Morrow, the students are encouraged to view the world in new ways. Ways that are worlds away from the humdrum existences of their peers. Led by the enigmatic and mysterious Henry Winter, the group slowly becomes more and more detached from society as they are immersed in their classical studies and their own philosophical ideals.
Their bond is sealed through a shocking and tragic act: the murder of one of their own. As the group descends into guilt, paranoia, and disintegration, Tartt’s novel explores themes of beauty, morality, and the consequences of living outside of social conventions. Told through the lens of a newcomer to the group, Richard Papen, The Secret History explores the devastating impact of these students’ crime and the fatalistic disillusionment that follows in its wake.
Check Out The Best Books Like The Secret History
The Little Friend (2002)
The setting is Alexandria, Mississippi, where on one Mother’s Day, a little boy named Robin Cleve Dufresnes was found hanging from a tree in his parents’ garden. Twelve years on, Robin’s murder remains unsolved, and his family is still devastated.
So it is that Robin’s sister Harriet – unnervingly bright, insufferably determined, and unduly influenced by the fiction of Kipling and Robert Louis Stevenson – sets out to unmask his killer. Aided only by her worshipful friend Hely, Harriet crosses her town’s rigid lines of race and caste and burrows deep into her family’s history of loss in this grandly ambitious and utterly riveting Donna Tartt novel, all about childhood, innocence, and evil.
The Goldfinch (2013)
Aged thirteen, Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother and a reckless, largely absent father, survives an accident that otherwise rips his world apart. Alone and rudderless in New York, he is taken in by an affluent family of a wealthy friend. An unbearable longing for his mother torments him, and down the years clings to the thing that reminds him most of her: a small, strangely captivating painting that ultimately pulls him into the criminal underworld. As he grows up, Theo learns to glide between the drawing rooms of the rich and dusty antique store where he works. He is alienated and in love – and his talisman, the painting, places him at the epicentre of a narrowing, increasingly dangerous circle.
The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present-day America and a drama of enthralling power. Combining unforgettably vivid characters and thrilling suspense, it is a beautiful, addictive triumph – a sweeping story of loss and obsession, of survival and self-invention, and of the deepest mysteries of love, identity, and fate.
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
