The Secret History characters

Appears from the start

The narrator, a working-class young man from a dull California town who reinvents himself and transfers to an elite New England college. Insecure about his background and hungry for beauty and belonging, he is drawn to an exclusive circle of classics students and talks his way into their small, secretive world. Observant, adaptable, and inclined to conceal the truth about himself, he becomes an accomplice to the group's actions while remaining, in some ways, an outsider looking in. The book's opening already establishes that he took part in the killing of one of his new friends.

Appears from the start

The dominant member of the classics group: wealthy, coldly brilliant, physically imposing, and fluent in ancient languages. Remote and controlled, he seems older than his years, absorbed in scholarship and indifferent to ordinary concerns. The others defer to him, and his intelligence and calm authority make him the group's natural leader and its decisive intellectual force.

Also known as Bunny

Appears from the start

A loud, gregarious, freeloading member of the group, from a large old-money family that has little actual money to give him. Charming and clownish but also careless, prejudiced, and prone to bullying, he borrows constantly and repays with jokes. The book's opening frame establishes at the outset that he is the classmate the others kill, so his death hangs over every scene in which he appears.

Appears from the start

A wealthy, elegant, and theatrical member of the group, fond of fine clothes and given to nervous, dramatic moods. He owns a country house where the friends often gather. Sensitive, anxious, and closeted about his private life, he is loyal to the circle and easily unsettled, one of its more fragile members.

Appears from the start

One of a pair of orphaned twins in the group, charming, warm, and outwardly easygoing. Close to his sister to an unusual degree, he is friendly and generous toward Richard early on. Beneath the pleasant surface lies a growing dependence on drink and an emotional instability that deepens as the story goes on.

Appears from the start

The only woman in the classics group and the twin sister of Charles, poised, graceful, and somewhat inscrutable. Admired by the others and idealized by Richard, who falls in love with her, she is composed and reserved, hard to read beneath her calm. Her closeness to her brother and her place at the center of the group's affections make her a focus of tension.

Appears from the start

The charismatic, exclusive classics professor who teaches only a handful of hand-picked students and shapes their tastes and worldview. Cultured, charming, and aloof, he keeps his small class apart from the rest of the college and inspires intense devotion. His romantic vision of beauty and the ancient world profoundly influences the group, even as he keeps himself at a careful distance from their real lives.

First appears in chapter 2

A brash, sociable fellow student who lives near Richard and takes a friendly interest in him. Loud, generous, and plugged into campus social life, she stands apart from the insular classics circle and offers Richard a more ordinary connection to the wider college.

First appears in chapter 4

A campus drug dealer and part of the college's fast set, connected to Bunny through their social world. Casual and self-interested, he becomes entangled on the fringes of events surrounding Bunny, complicating the situation for the group.

First appears in chapter 2

An aging, absent-minded psychology professor for whom Richard works as an assistant to earn money. Forgetful and rambling, he provides Richard with a small income and a foothold at the college outside the classics group.