The Secret History

Richard Papen tells the story years after participating in the death of Edmund "Bunny" Corcoran, a fellow student at Hampden College in Vermont. In the Prologue he explains that Bunny's body lay for ten days beneath snow at the bottom of a ravine. The group had intended the fall to appear accidental and expected the body to be discovered quickly. The snowfall instead prompted an extensive search. Richard, who escaped suspicion, says the ravine remains central to his memory. He then returns to the beginning of his time at Hampden to explain how he became involved.

Richard grew up in Plano, California, where his father ran a gas station. Dissatisfied with his upbringing, he studied ancient Greek almost by accident at a local college, switched from pre-med to literature, and applied to Hampden after finding its attractive prospectus. He arrives on financial aid, concealing his lack of money and inventing stories of a privileged California childhood. At Hampden he becomes fascinated by five students who study almost exclusively with Julian Morrow: the wealthy, intellectually formidable Henry Winter; the talkative and frequently offensive Bunny; the elegant Francis Abernathy; and the twins Charles and Camilla Macaulay. Richard helps Bunny and the twins with a Greek grammar question, but Julian at first refuses to take a sixth student. On a second visit Julian admits Richard on the condition that he become Richard's academic counselor and supervise nearly all his courses. Richard accepts despite a warning from Georges Laforgue that the arrangement will isolate him from the college. Julian's teaching joins Greek literature and philosophy to discussions of beauty, terror, the desire to escape the self, and Dionysian religious ecstasy. Richard especially admires Camilla and wants to become part of the group's seemingly self-contained life.

The first weeks expose differences Richard initially fails to understand. Bunny invites him to an expensive lunch, then claims to have forgotten his wallet; Henry pays the bill and tells Richard that Bunny habitually imposes costs on others. Richard gradually becomes friends with the five and spends weekends at the country house belonging to Francis's aunt. He admires their ordered routines, Julian's occasional formal dinners, and the possibility of living with them after college. He also notices that the original five sometimes leave together without telling him, return with cuts or bruises, and offer coordinated but evasive explanations. Richard does not yet know what they are doing. During winter break, he remains in Hampden rather than return to his unhappy home or admit he needs money. He stays in an unheated warehouse with a hole in its roof, develops hypothermia and pneumonia, and nearly dies. Henry, who has returned early from a trip to Rome with Bunny, finds him and takes him to a hospital. Richard recovers in Henry's apartment, where he notices growing hostility between Henry and Bunny.

When the spring term begins, Henry, Francis and the twins appear to disappear. Richard discovers four one-way plane reservations to Buenos Aires and packed luggage in Henry's apartment. After the proposed departure is abandoned, Henry explains that he and the twins and Francis had considered escaping through Argentina to Uruguay but lacked sufficient money. He then admits that the four, without Bunny, made repeated attempts to reproduce the Dionysian state discussed in Julian's class. According to Henry, their final attempt led to a disorienting experience in the woods. He recalls striking an indistinct figure in darkness and then finding a man dead with catastrophic head injuries. The others' reported memories differ or are incomplete, and Richard was not there. The reader cannot independently verify Henry's extraordinary perceptions or reconstruct precisely how the man died. The four left the body and returned to Hampden, claiming to Bunny that blood on their clothing came from hitting a deer.

Bunny later saw a newspaper article about a farmer found dead on the night of their excursion and teased the four about the coincidence. Henry took him to Rome partly to watch and placate him. During an episode of severe illness, Bunny searched Henry's possessions, found a Latin diary, and translated entries describing the killing. Henry discovered him with the translation, struck him, and burned the papers. Bunny threatened to expose the group, then repeatedly raised the subject and demanded more money and expensive purchases. Henry left him in Rome with money and a return ticket. Back in Hampden, Bunny's hostile remarks, religious prejudice and increasingly personal attacks unsettle the group. He also begins uncovering the false story Richard tells about his wealthy background. Richard later acknowledges that his resentment of Bunny's humiliation, not only loyalty to the others, contributed to his willingness to help kill him.

Henry considers killing Bunny with poisonous mushrooms and tells Richard he has tested them on dogs, killing one. Richard warns that the dosage and symptoms are too uncertain. Henry abandons this method. One night Bunny, drunk and agitated, tells Richard that Henry and the others have killed someone. Richard alerts the twins and Henry rather than informing the authorities. Henry proposes waiting for Bunny on a Sunday walk near a ravine on Mount Cataract and making his death appear to be a hiking accident. The others raise objections but participate in the plan. Richard initially learns that Bunny is at a college party and assumes they have missed him, then joins Henry, Francis, Charles and Camilla in the woods. Bunny unexpectedly arrives. Henry says they are searching for ferns, approaches him, and Bunny falls to his death. Richard recalls Bunny's attempt to hold onto the edge but does not present his own participation as innocent.

The five separate after returning from the ravine. Before going into the woods, Henry, Francis and the twins had bought conspicuous tickets to an afternoon film program as material for an alibi, although they did not remain for the whole showing. Heavy snow covers Bunny's body. His absence initially produces missed appointments and conflicting reports, including a supposed sighting after his death. Cloke Rayburn, Bunny's former schoolmate and a drug dealer, suggests that Bunny might have gone to New York on drug-related business. Charles accompanies Cloke into Bunny's room and retrieves a newspaper article about the earlier farmer's death, which Henry destroys. Marion, Bunny's girlfriend, and college officials then involve the police. Bunny's family comes to Hampden, offers a large reward, and joins an expanding search involving volunteers, journalists and law enforcement. A mechanic gives unsupported accounts of seeing Bunny abducted in another car. FBI agents question Charles and Henry about Cloke, Bunny's connections, the Rome trip and suspicious expenditures. Charles later reports that Henry's canceled South American tickets also attracted attention. The investigation creates real danger for the group, although some leads and media claims are misleading. When a thaw exposes the ravine, Holly Goldsmith's dog finds Bunny's body. Investigators identify a broken neck and signs that he tried to stop a fall, but the agents speaking to the students do not give a final ruling on the manner of death.

Richard attends Bunny's funeral in Connecticut with the others. The family's grief makes his responsibility more difficult to dismiss; when Bunny's father breaks down, Richard begins to apologize, and Francis stops him. Contrary to campus rumors about drugs, Richard reports that the autopsy found no drugs and only a small amount of alcohol. Henry, suffering serious headaches, reads a poem by A. E. Housman at the service. At the graveside he drops earth onto the coffin and wipes his muddy hand across his clothing. Afterward, outward normality partly returns, but the friends become more divided. Charles drinks heavily, is arrested for driving Henry's car while intoxicated, and resents the role he had to play in police interviews. Richard pays his bail. Francis experiences frightening physical symptoms for which a doctor considers a panic disorder. Richard's own sleeping pills, alcohol and periods of panic distort his perspective. The twins' relationship becomes increasingly troubled. Francis suspects they have sometimes had a sexual relationship, but Richard does not establish the full truth of that allegation. Camilla shows Richard injuries she attributes to Charles and says she fears him. She moves to the Albemarle Inn under Henry's protection, increasing Charles's anger toward Henry.

Charles becomes severely ill with fever, dehydration and suspected bronchitis and is hospitalized. Francis and Henry also arrange for him to receive alcohol because they fear abrupt withdrawal. As Richard grows suspicious of Henry's influence, Henry confides that the farmer's death changed his experience of life: he had felt emotionally inert beforehand and afterward felt capable of acting without hesitation. Richard recognizes that Bunny's murder also briefly gave him an intensified appreciation of ordinary life, although this feeling alternates with fear and remorse. Another danger emerges when a letter Bunny wrote to Julian before his death reaches Julian's office after a delay. In it Bunny accuses Henry and the others of murder and asks Julian for help. Julian first thinks it a malicious forgery, but Richard and Francis find that one sheet bears the letterhead of the Excelsior, the Rome hotel where Henry and Bunny stayed. Julian notices it while Henry is examining the letter. Henry tries to justify the deaths, but Julian stops him, hands him the letter, and leaves. He later takes indefinite leave from Hampden, and Richard never sees him again. The Classics program may be discontinued, leaving Richard worried about paying for additional semesters and finishing his degree. Henry is devastated by Julian's rejection and calls his departure cowardly; the novel does not independently establish Julian's full private reasoning.

After leaving the hospital, Charles grows more hostile toward Henry and fears that he may kill him. Francis and Richard take him to Francis's country house in an attempt to separate him from Henry and the upcoming court hearing. Charles leaves in the caretaker's truck and appears at the Albemarle Inn with a pistol belonging to Francis's aunt. He confronts Henry and says he intends to kill him. Francis throws wine into Charles's face while Henry moves to disarm him. Several shots are fired, one wounding Richard in the abdomen. Henry wrests the gun from Charles and restrains him. As the innkeeper approaches the room, Henry draws Camilla close, whispers something Richard cannot hear, tells her he loves her, and shoots himself twice before collapsing.

Richard survives because the bullet narrowly misses major organs. Henry dies after surviving more than twelve hours with his wounds, according to what Richard learns during recovery. Richard speculates that Henry sought to make a principled sacrifice, but he cannot know his exact motive. The public explanation portrays Richard as injured in a struggle to prevent Henry's suicide, which Richard knows exaggerates his heroism. Henry's mother completes her son's intended transfer of his BMW to Richard. Richard spends the summer in Brooklyn, returns to Hampden and eventually graduates in English literature. Francis and the twins do not return to school. During his senior year Richard begins a relationship with Sophie Dearbold; they later move to California and separate. Years afterward, Richard receives an alarming farewell letter from Francis and travels to Boston, where Francis is recovering from an attempt to take his own life. Francis faces family pressure to marry Priscilla rather than continue a relationship with a man named Kim. Camilla comes to Boston, reporting that she rarely speaks to Charles, whose work and treatment have been unstable and who has most recently been living in Texas. She is caring for their elderly grandmother. Richard asks Camilla to marry him, but she declines, saying she still loves Henry.

Richard later recounts what he knows of the others. Cloke works as a corporate lawyer, Judy Poovey appears on an exercise program, Marion marries Bunny's brother Brady, and Francis eventually marries Priscilla. A rumor about Julian becoming a royal tutor proves false; Francis says Julian declined further involvement after Henry's death. The novel does not end with another death or a confirmed reunion. Its last scene is a recent dream: Richard walks through a deserted city into a building where a machine presents changing historical monuments, and Henry appears with the wound at his temple. Henry tells Richard that his movements are restricted and, when asked whether he is happy, says he is not particularly happy and that Richard is not happy where he is either. Henry excuses himself because he is late for an appointment and walks away down a long hall. Richard watches him leave. The dream provides no factual explanation of an afterlife, no further words from Henry, and no resolution of Richard's continued attachment to him.