Summary
The novel begins with retrospective narration from Richard Papen, looking back and recalling his time studying at Hampden College. Richard reveals that he and several of his friends killed a fellow student named Bunny. After Bunny's death, it took more than a week for his body to be found. Richard has been haunted by this event ever since.
Richard reveals that he is now 28 years old. He grew up in Plano, California, a small and uninteresting town. Richard was an only child, and did not get along well with either of his parents. He always dreamed of something more for his life. Richard began his college education in California at a local school, studying pre-medicine. He took an ancient Greek class because a basic knowledge would help with his medical training, but he came to enjoy this class the most, and also did very well. Despite his parents' wishes, Richard switched his major to English literature. However, he was still unhappy.
One day, by chance, Richard came across a brochure for Hampden College in Vermont. Impulsively, he became determined to transfer, and was eventually able to secure enough financial aid to do so. His parents were not happy about this decision, but reluctantly agreed.
Richard arrived in Hampden and moved into a room in the dormitory. He met with his academic advisor, a professor of French named George Laforgue, and told Laforgue that he intended to continue his studies of Greek. However, Laforgue objected, explaining that the Classics classes are taught by a brilliant but eccentric professor named Julian Morrow. Undaunted, Richard tracked down Julian and asked to take his class; however, Julian rejected him and stated that his class was already full with five students. Richard began to take other classes and meet other students on campus, and started a part-time job with a psychology professor named Dr. Roland.
Nonetheless, he was extremely curious about the five students enrolled in Julian's Greek class: Francis Abernathy, Henry Winter, Bunny Corcoran, and twin siblings Charles and Camilla Macauley. One day, Richard overheard the group in the library, arguing about a Greek translation, and made a suggestion that clearly showed his intelligence and skill. The other students seemed to take note of him, and the next day, Richard deceived Dr. Roland into advancing him some money and bought himself some expensive new clothes. Then he went back to Julian's office, where Julian was now much more receptive to him. Julian agreed to take Richard as a pupil, on the condition that Richard would drop all of his other classes, other than French. Richard agreed, and began attending classes, where he was entranced by Julian's charisma, intelligence, and skill as a teacher. Shortly after joining the class, Richard was invited to lunch with Bunny.
On the day of the lunch, Richard ran into Judy Poovey, another student from California, who shared her opinion of Bunny and the other Greek students. Judy liked Bunny, but was suspicious of the others because at a recent party, she had a confrontation with Camilla, and Henry and Charles ended up beating a friend of hers. Richard enjoyed a lavish lunch with Bunny, and both of them got very drunk. However, at the end of the meal, Bunny claimed to have no money, and expected Richard to cover the meal. When Richard explained that he could not, Bunny called Henry, who came to the restaurant to pay. The next day, Charles and Camilla talked with Richard about the lunch, explaining that Henry and Bunny are actually close friends. They also invited Richard to their apartment for dinner; at dinner, Henry, Francis, and Bunny joined them, and the evening ended up being somewhat awkward. However, a few days later, Richard ran into Camilla at a party on campus, and she invited Richard to join them for the weekend at Francis's country house.
The other Greek students had been regularly spending weekends at a grand, old mansion owned by Francis's aunt, about an hour away from campus. Over the next few months of the autumn, Richard regularly joined them there, and became very close and attached to the group. He recalls that time as the happiest period of his life. Richard did notice that Bunny seemed to have an odd dynamic with the rest of the group, and was clearly not as intellectual and sophisticated as the rest of them. Richard also occasionally noticed strange details, such as items out of place, and herbs and plants strewn about the house, but never took any of this too seriously.
Analysis
Although not a traditional murder mystery, the novel opens with a violent event, creating suspense about what events could have led up to the crime. Immediately revealing the murder is important because Richard positions this act as central to his entire life, and therefore also to the plot of the novel. Tartt juxtaposes some precise details about the murder (the snowfall, the time of year when it took place, the death resulting from Bunny being pushed off the edge of a ravine) with mystery about who the characters are, what their relationship is to one another, and why the crime took place. Readers are immediately drawn in by the suspense and Richard's compelling storytelling; since Richard is someone very concerned with elegance, form, and artistic beauty, it makes sense that he would present his story in this seductive way.
After revealing the climatic moment of the murder right at the beginning, Tartt switches to chronological, retrospective narration, contextualizing the events that led up to the crime. Richard gives a very brief description of his life before Hampden, and this cursory narration reveals that he sees enrolling at Hampden as the true beginning of his life. Nothing that came before that was very important. Richard shows his snobbish tendencies by being dismissive of his life in California; nothing was wrong with the life he was leading, but he longed for a life that was more replete with beauty and intellectual stimulation.
Richard romanticizes Hampden College based on visual appearances; based on the brochure only, he can't really know much about what it would be like to study there, but he is seduced by the beauty of the campus. He also romanticizes the "Old World" traditions of the college: New England is one of the oldest regions of America, and the colleges located there are typically the oldest ones in the country, often explicitly based on models of education in places like Oxford and Cambridge. Richard naively assumes that all of these things will make his life better and more interesting; he shows persistence and skill in finding a way to get enrolled and receive financial aid, foreshadowing how he will later be able to solve bigger problems like covering up a murder.
Richard not only skillfully manages to get enrolled at Hampden, but he also successfully navigates entering into an even more elite inner world once he gets there: Julian's extremely small and exclusive class. Richard has already revealed his desire for elegance and exclusivity by wanting to go to Hampden, so it's not surprising that he becomes enamored with the Greek students. Richard is keenly ambitious about advancing his social standing, and while he genuinely wants the intellectual experience of studying at Hampden, he is also motivated by the idea of meeting and forming relationships with wealthier individuals. Richard deliberately misrepresents himself as someone wealthier and uses his California origins to give himself a veneer of exoticism (rather than the banal reality he is actually trying to escape). It is his intellect that first grants him a bit of access to the inner circle of the Greek students, but his hints of wealth also help. Tellingly, Julian confuses Richard's last name (Papen) with Pepin, the name of a medieval dynasty of French kings. Julian is only interested in exceptional individuals and cultivates an atmosphere of elitism and privilege amongst his students by being so exclusive.
While Richard has to lie and isolate himself in order to become part of the community of Greek students, he initially finds the rewards to be worthwhile. Richard does not mention any friends from his time in California, but he now finally experiences a feeling of belonging and community. Because the Greek students spend almost of all their time together and rarely interact with anyone else, they become an extremely close-knit group. Richard knows that they wouldn't accept just anyone into their midst, so he feels special as a result of being accepted by them (similar to how he felt when he got accepted to Hampden). The other Greek students all have wealth, but they use that wealth to cultivate lives devoted to beauty, art, and intellectual pursuits. This experience of education contrasts with how Richard's family had initially approached education: as training designed to set someone up for a career where they can work and earn a living. Richard is able to have a taste of what it would be like to live solely devoted to elegance and cultivated taste, and he longs for things to stay like this forever. Because the students are young and have no responsibilities, they can be entirely selfish in their pursuits. This seductive portrait of the autumn semester sets the stage for why Richard will subsequently be so willing to engage in shocking acts in order to cling to this lifestyle. These early days also show that, despite his apparent academic prowess, Richard is actually quite a poor reader of human psychology, and even of literary tropes. Particularly with the introduction of the country house, Stacy Litzler argues that "Virtually every Gothic stylistic convention imaginable is present in The Secret History, including an old mansion in the country; melodrama, supernatural and unexplained events; an obsession with death; dreams and altered states; labyrinths and disorientation; extreme discomfort; general suspenseful language; and gothic imagery" (12). Richard either misses or ignores these Gothic conventions that should serve as warning signs, either because he is too naïve to notice, or because he is just so grateful to have escaped the banality of his life in California.
