Some Random Henry Moments And Quotes That I Really Like (in No Particular Order):

Some random Henry moments and quotes that I really like (in no particular order):

Henry winked solemnly at her from across the table.

Many times, I've seen Henry pick up the telephone with an irritable, cautious 'Hello,' and may I never forget the harsh and irresistible delight of his 'Khairei!' when Julian happened to be on the other end.

"Some little place I've got here, huh?" I said, and laughed. He glanced up at the hole in the ceiling. "Yes," he said brusquely. "Like the Pantheon."

"Reason is always apparent to a discerning eye. But luck? It's invisible, erratic, angelic."

"Anything might happen, Francis. He might be hit by a car tonight, and save us all a lot of trouble."

"You wore chitons?" "Yes," said Henry, irritated. "It was all in the sake of science."

But that came to a quick end when Henry, who was very nearsighted, shot and killed a duck by mistake. He was quite shaken by it and we put the pistol away.

Henry took a deep breath. Then he closed his eyes; and exhaling sharply, a hand to his chest, he fell back in his chair as if he'd been shot.

"Who is it?" "Henry." "Tell him I'm in the bath." "He's in the bath," I said. "He is not in the bath," Henry said. "He is standing in the room with you. I can hear him."

"I haven't eaten anything in three days." Henry marked his place with a ribbon and slipped the book in his breast pocket. "Well," he said amiably, "go get a doughnut, then." "I don't have any money." "I'll give you the money, then." "I don't want a goddamn doughnut."

[...] the armchair in which Henry sat, motionless, a glass in his hand and the cigarette burning low between his fingers. For a moment his face, pale and watchful as a ghost's, would be caught in the headlights and then, very gradually, it would slide back into the dark.

"Anything is grand if it's done on a large enough scale."

Henry glanced up. "Salve, amice," he said, and a subtle animation flickered in his rigid features, usually so locked up, and distant: "Valesne? Quid est rei?" "You look well," I said to him, and he did. He inclined his head slightly. His eyes, which had been murky and dilated while he was ill, were now the clearest of blues. "Benigne dicis," he said. "I feel much better."

Camilla isn’t a “not like other girls” character. She’s a lot more “like” other girls in some ways than one may think. RICHARD believes she is not. RICHARD believes that men inherently more intelligent, interesting, authentic and deep than women are, so he thinks that Camilla being an intelligent, interesting person who is engaged in intellectual pursuits as well as the inherent seclusion from her peers that comes with being in the Greek class MAKES her separate from other women. I think the fandom fails to consider that and makes Camilla out to be more gender non-conforming than she is. The “she was still a girl” paragraph is very telling and I think often overlooked because it doesn’t validate that narrative. Camilla is not a Donna Tartt expy. Camilla’s ending fate being complete solitude is a cosmic punishment because Camilla has lived her entire life finding strength in her connections to others. Her and Charles are twins but the role she plays in their dynamic is of the caretaker, and a part of his breakdown is caused by his loss of stability when they divide. She spends the last years of her grandmother’s life as her grandmother’s caretaker. She is not going to ever finish her degree or go on adventures or be a strong independent career woman. She’s going to wilt in solitude. The only reason she ever gives for refusing Richard’s marriage proposal isn’t that she doesn’t want to be tied down or that she wants to go and branch out and see the world, it’s that she doesn’t love him, she loves Henry. She would have said yes if it was Henry. She would have rather been Henry Winter’s wife than a classicist or scholar in her own right. This is not convenient for The Secret History’s fandom discourse and it is not very “feminist”, but it is true.

I would KILL to read TSH from Bunny’s POV. It would make for the perfect Greek tragedy and a killer thriller. Imagine reading his descent into insanity and paranoia. Imagine Italy from his perspective; his secret, almost sinful confessions to Julian; his pillow talks with Marion. I want to feel Henry’s betrayal and Bunny’s unease. I would eat that shit UP

Today I discovered that a couple of TSH characters were based on actual people Donna Tartt knew at Bennington College- amongst them were students Todd O'Neal and Matt Jacobsen, who were the inspiration for Henry and Bunny respectively.

AND JUST—

There's even their own comments about it and it's so funny wait:

Here's the source

Everyone remembers where they were when reading 'the snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation' for the first time.

'I hope we're all ready to leave the phenomenal world, and enter into the sublime?'