The Secret History

by

Donna Tartt

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Secret History makes teaching easy.
Henry Winter is the leader of the Greek students, as well as Julian’s favorite student. Henry admires Julian, and the two of them are very close. At first, Henry is skeptical of Richard, but he warms to him over the course of the semester. Although Henry is extremely knowledgeable about classical studies, he is completely unaware of contemporary events. He has a desire to live in the past, which leads him to try to induce Dionysian madness in himself. Eventually, he is successful, though he accidentally kills a man in a frenzied state. As the novel unfolds, Henry proves himself to be the most maladjusted of the Greek students. He comes up with and executes the plan to kill Bunny, all while staying relatively calm and collected. In retrospect, Richard wonders how much he was manipulated by Henry. Later, Henry reveals to Richard that he always felt emotionally dead inside until the first time he killed someone. Toward the end of the novel, Henry moves Camilla out of Charles’s place, and it is implied that the two of them are dating. This angers Charles, who also worries that Henry is planning to kill him. However, during the climax of the novel, Henry sacrifices himself so that Charles, Camilla, Francis, and Richard can avoid prison. After his death, Henry haunts Richard’s dreams, where both of them seem to be stuck in purgatory.

Henry Winter Quotes in The Secret History

The The Secret History quotes below are all either spoken by Henry Winter or refer to Henry Winter . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Human Capacity for Violence Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2  Quotes

Then Henry spoke. His words were low but deliberate and distinct. “Should I do what is necessary?”

To my surprise, Julian took both Henry’s hands in his own. “You should only, ever, do what is necessary,” he said.

Related Characters: Henry Winter (speaker), Julian Morrow (speaker), Richard Papen
Page Number: 71
Explanation and Analysis:

It was like a painting too vivid to be real—every pebble, every blade of grass sharply defined, the sky so blue it hurt me to look at it. Camilla was limp in Henry’s arms, her head thrown back like a dead girl’s, and the curve of her throat beautiful and lifeless.

Related Characters: Richard Papen (speaker), Henry Winter , Camilla Macauley
Page Number: 99
Explanation and Analysis:

Out on the lawn, Bunny had just knocked Henry’s ball about seventy feet outside the court. There was a ragged burst of laughter; faint, but clear, it floated back across the evening air. That laughter haunts me still.

Related Characters: Richard Papen (speaker), Henry Winter , Bunny (Edmund Corcoran) , Francis Abernathy
Page Number: 103
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

And the horrible thing was, somehow, that I did know. “You killed somebody,” I said, “didn’t you?”

“Good for you,” he said. “You’re just as smart as I thought you were. I knew you’d figure it out, sooner or later, that’s what I’ve told the others all along.”

Related Characters: Richard Papen (speaker), Henry Winter (speaker), Charles Macauley , Camilla Macauley , Francis Abernathy , Julian Morrow
Page Number: 163
Explanation and Analysis:

Things started to come back. I looked down at my hand and saw it was covered in with blood, and worse than blood. Then Charles stepped forward and knelt at something at my feet, and I bent down, too, and saw that it was a man. He was dead. He was about forty years old and he had on a yellow plaid shirt—you know those woolen shirts they wear up here—and his neck was broken, and, unpleasant to say, his brains were all over his face. Really, I do not know how that happened. There was a dreadful mess. I was drenched in blood and there was even blood on my glasses.

Related Characters: Henry Winter (speaker), Richard Papen
Page Number: 169
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

“Tell me,” Bunny said, and I thought I detected for the first time a note of suspicion. “Just what the Sam Hill are you guys doing out here anyway?”

The woods were silent, not a sound.

Henry smiled. “Why, looking for new ferns,” he said, and took a step towards him.

Related Characters: Richard Papen (speaker), Henry Winter (speaker), Bunny (Edmund Corcoran) (speaker)
Page Number: 269
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

You see, then, how quick it was. And it is impossible to slow down this film, to examine individual frames. I see now what I saw then, flashing by with the swift, deceptive ease of an accident: shower of gravel, wind-milling arms, a hand that claws at a branch and misses. A barrage of frightened crows explodes from the underbrush, cawing and dark against the sky. Cut to Henry stepping back from the edge. Then the film flaps up in the projector and the screen goes black. Consummatum est.

Related Characters: Richard Papen (speaker), Henry Winter , Bunny (Edmund Corcoran)
Page Number: 276
Explanation and Analysis:

Henry took a sip of his tea. “How,” he said, “can I possibly make the Dean of Studies understand that there is a divinity in our midst?”

Related Characters: Henry Winter (speaker), Richard Papen , Julian Morrow
Page Number: 317
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

His gaze—helpless, wild—hit me like a blackjack. Suddenly, and for the first time, really, I was struck by the bitter, irrevocable truth of it; the evil of what we had done. It was like running full speed into a brick wall. I let go of his collar, feeling completely helpless. I wanted to die. “Oh, God,” I mumbled, “God help me, I’m sorry—”

Related Characters: Richard Papen (speaker), Henry Winter , Francis Abernathy , Mr. Corcoran , Sophie Dearbold
Page Number: 388
Explanation and Analysis:

Slowly, slowly, with a drugged, fathomless calm, Henry bent and picked up a handful of dirt. He held it over the grave and let it trickle from his fingers. Then, with terrible composure, he stepped back and absently dragged the hand across his chest, smearing mud upon his lapel, his tie, the starched immaculate white of his shirt.

Related Characters: Richard Papen (speaker), Henry Winter
Page Number: 420
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

Do you know how hard that was? Do you think Henry would lower himself to do something like that? No. It was all right, of course, for me to do it but he couldn’t be bothered. Those people had never seen anything like Henry in their lives. I’ll tell you the sort of thing he worried about. Like if he was carrying around the right book, if Homer would make a better impression than Thomas Aquinas.

Related Characters: Charles Macauley (speaker), Richard Papen , Henry Winter , Camilla Macauley , Julian Morrow
Explanation and Analysis:

I had always thought Henry’s coldness essential, to the marrow, and Julian’s only a veneer for what was, at bottom, a warm, kind-hearted nature. But the twinkle in Julian’s eye as I looked at him now, was mechanical and dead. It was as if the charming theatrical curtain had dropped away and I saw him for the first time as he really was: not the benign old sage, the indulgent and protective good-parent of my dreams, but ambiguous, a moral neutral, whose beguiling trappings concealed a being watchful, capricious, and heartless.

Related Characters: Richard Papen (speaker), Henry Winter , Bunny (Edmund Corcoran) , Julian Morrow
Page Number: 508
Explanation and Analysis:

“I can’t marry you [. . .] because I love Henry.”

“Henry’s dead.”

“I can’t help it. I still love him.”

I loved him, too,” I said.

For a moment, I thought I felt her waver. But then she looked away.

“I know you did,” she said. “But it’s not enough.”

Related Characters: Richard Papen (speaker), Camilla Macauley (speaker), Henry Winter , Sophie Dearbold
Page Number: 555
Explanation and Analysis:
Epilogue Quotes

“Are you happy here?” I said at last.

He considered this for a moment. “Not particularly,” he said. “But you’re not very happy where you are, either.”

Related Characters: Richard Papen (speaker), Henry Winter (speaker), Bunny (Edmund Corcoran)
Related Symbols: The Museum Exhibit
Page Number: 559
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Secret History LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Secret History PDF

Henry Winter Quotes in The Secret History

The The Secret History quotes below are all either spoken by Henry Winter or refer to Henry Winter . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Human Capacity for Violence Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2  Quotes

Then Henry spoke. His words were low but deliberate and distinct. “Should I do what is necessary?”

To my surprise, Julian took both Henry’s hands in his own. “You should only, ever, do what is necessary,” he said.

Related Characters: Henry Winter (speaker), Julian Morrow (speaker), Richard Papen
Page Number: 71
Explanation and Analysis:

It was like a painting too vivid to be real—every pebble, every blade of grass sharply defined, the sky so blue it hurt me to look at it. Camilla was limp in Henry’s arms, her head thrown back like a dead girl’s, and the curve of her throat beautiful and lifeless.

Related Characters: Richard Papen (speaker), Henry Winter , Camilla Macauley
Page Number: 99
Explanation and Analysis:

Out on the lawn, Bunny had just knocked Henry’s ball about seventy feet outside the court. There was a ragged burst of laughter; faint, but clear, it floated back across the evening air. That laughter haunts me still.

Related Characters: Richard Papen (speaker), Henry Winter , Bunny (Edmund Corcoran) , Francis Abernathy
Page Number: 103
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

And the horrible thing was, somehow, that I did know. “You killed somebody,” I said, “didn’t you?”

“Good for you,” he said. “You’re just as smart as I thought you were. I knew you’d figure it out, sooner or later, that’s what I’ve told the others all along.”

Related Characters: Richard Papen (speaker), Henry Winter (speaker), Charles Macauley , Camilla Macauley , Francis Abernathy , Julian Morrow
Page Number: 163
Explanation and Analysis:

Things started to come back. I looked down at my hand and saw it was covered in with blood, and worse than blood. Then Charles stepped forward and knelt at something at my feet, and I bent down, too, and saw that it was a man. He was dead. He was about forty years old and he had on a yellow plaid shirt—you know those woolen shirts they wear up here—and his neck was broken, and, unpleasant to say, his brains were all over his face. Really, I do not know how that happened. There was a dreadful mess. I was drenched in blood and there was even blood on my glasses.

Related Characters: Henry Winter (speaker), Richard Papen
Page Number: 169
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

“Tell me,” Bunny said, and I thought I detected for the first time a note of suspicion. “Just what the Sam Hill are you guys doing out here anyway?”

The woods were silent, not a sound.

Henry smiled. “Why, looking for new ferns,” he said, and took a step towards him.

Related Characters: Richard Papen (speaker), Henry Winter (speaker), Bunny (Edmund Corcoran) (speaker)
Page Number: 269
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

You see, then, how quick it was. And it is impossible to slow down this film, to examine individual frames. I see now what I saw then, flashing by with the swift, deceptive ease of an accident: shower of gravel, wind-milling arms, a hand that claws at a branch and misses. A barrage of frightened crows explodes from the underbrush, cawing and dark against the sky. Cut to Henry stepping back from the edge. Then the film flaps up in the projector and the screen goes black. Consummatum est.

Related Characters: Richard Papen (speaker), Henry Winter , Bunny (Edmund Corcoran)
Page Number: 276
Explanation and Analysis:

Henry took a sip of his tea. “How,” he said, “can I possibly make the Dean of Studies understand that there is a divinity in our midst?”

Related Characters: Henry Winter (speaker), Richard Papen , Julian Morrow
Page Number: 317
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

His gaze—helpless, wild—hit me like a blackjack. Suddenly, and for the first time, really, I was struck by the bitter, irrevocable truth of it; the evil of what we had done. It was like running full speed into a brick wall. I let go of his collar, feeling completely helpless. I wanted to die. “Oh, God,” I mumbled, “God help me, I’m sorry—”

Related Characters: Richard Papen (speaker), Henry Winter , Francis Abernathy , Mr. Corcoran , Sophie Dearbold
Page Number: 388
Explanation and Analysis:

Slowly, slowly, with a drugged, fathomless calm, Henry bent and picked up a handful of dirt. He held it over the grave and let it trickle from his fingers. Then, with terrible composure, he stepped back and absently dragged the hand across his chest, smearing mud upon his lapel, his tie, the starched immaculate white of his shirt.

Related Characters: Richard Papen (speaker), Henry Winter
Page Number: 420
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

Do you know how hard that was? Do you think Henry would lower himself to do something like that? No. It was all right, of course, for me to do it but he couldn’t be bothered. Those people had never seen anything like Henry in their lives. I’ll tell you the sort of thing he worried about. Like if he was carrying around the right book, if Homer would make a better impression than Thomas Aquinas.

Related Characters: Charles Macauley (speaker), Richard Papen , Henry Winter , Camilla Macauley , Julian Morrow
Explanation and Analysis:

I had always thought Henry’s coldness essential, to the marrow, and Julian’s only a veneer for what was, at bottom, a warm, kind-hearted nature. But the twinkle in Julian’s eye as I looked at him now, was mechanical and dead. It was as if the charming theatrical curtain had dropped away and I saw him for the first time as he really was: not the benign old sage, the indulgent and protective good-parent of my dreams, but ambiguous, a moral neutral, whose beguiling trappings concealed a being watchful, capricious, and heartless.

Related Characters: Richard Papen (speaker), Henry Winter , Bunny (Edmund Corcoran) , Julian Morrow
Page Number: 508
Explanation and Analysis:

“I can’t marry you [. . .] because I love Henry.”

“Henry’s dead.”

“I can’t help it. I still love him.”

I loved him, too,” I said.

For a moment, I thought I felt her waver. But then she looked away.

“I know you did,” she said. “But it’s not enough.”

Related Characters: Richard Papen (speaker), Camilla Macauley (speaker), Henry Winter , Sophie Dearbold
Page Number: 555
Explanation and Analysis:
Epilogue Quotes

“Are you happy here?” I said at last.

He considered this for a moment. “Not particularly,” he said. “But you’re not very happy where you are, either.”

Related Characters: Richard Papen (speaker), Henry Winter (speaker), Bunny (Edmund Corcoran)
Related Symbols: The Museum Exhibit
Page Number: 559
Explanation and Analysis: