In a quest to continue to belong, Richard becomes deeply involved with Henry, Francis, and the twins. The friendships that knit the six students together at the beginning of The Secret History begin to unravel and turn into animosities. Eventually, they succeed, but in the process, they brutally murder a farmer on his land.īunny finds out about the murder and decides to blackmail the others. To identify with the Greeks, the students attempt-on several occasions-to lose control of their bodies and enter an altered mental state.

Traditionally, Greek bacchanals erupted in wild displays of violence as participants attempted to “lose control completely” (42). They are so devoted to their studies that Henry, Camilla, Charles, and Frances decide to perform a bacchanal-a ceremony to connect with Dionysus, the god of wine and debauchery. He came to Vermont to escape his hometown, and thus attempts to conceal his humble roots from both Julian and his fellow classics students.Īll of the students, but especially Henry, get involved with Greek culture and history, including the myths, legends, and language. He is pursuing Greek studies because he does not feel comfortable with any other subject matter.

Richard Papen is from a working-class family in inland California. Camilla has a caring personality and Charles becomes addicted to alcohol. They are orphans who previously lived with their great aunt in Virginia. Camilla and Charles MacAulay are a pair of fraternal twins. He is currently navigating a complex relationship with his mother, whose addictive personality and new husband give him cause for grief-especially as her new husband is so close to his age. Another trust-fund student, Francis Abernathy, is gay. He is handsome, highly intelligent, and secretive. Louis, where his family set him up with a trust fund. Edmund desperately tries to pretend his family is still wealthy, but his friends see through his pretense-and are namely annoyed by it. Although his family was once wealthy, the money is now gone, and his family has failed to adjust to their less-than-illustrious social status. Morrow has ties with royalty and celebrities alike.īunny is from Connecticut. He places his students on a pedestal, certain that they cannot do anything wrong, while he himself might have fallen under the scrutiny of the federal government. Julian is a mysterious, wealthy man who is deeply passionate about his subject. All six students study Greek-and a majority of their other classes-under Professor Julian Morrow.

The six classics students are Edmund Corcoran-who goes by the nickname “Bunny”-Henry Winter, Francis Abernathy, Camilla and Charles MacAulay, and Richard Papen, the novel’s narrator.

The secret history novel