A Discovery of Witches: A NovelDeborah Harkness
Viking Adult, February 2011
ISBN: 978-0670022410
A richly inventive novel about a centuries-old vampire, a spellbound witch, and the mysterious manuscript that draws them together.
A Discovery of Witches is an incredibly innovative and enchanting novel. It is a flawless mixture of well-researched history and magic. Diana Bishop has spent most of her life denying her magical abilities. The last witch in a long line of witches who can trace their history back to the Salem Witch Trials. During a research trip to Oxford’s Bodleian library, Diana requests a manuscript from the Ashmole collection: known as Ashmole 782, and when she sets eyes on it she realizes that it’s enchanted. Diana is a witch, albeit a non-practicing one. Yet the enchanted manuscript opens for her, igniting both her powers and a storm of supernatural creatures curious about the manuscript and the person who unlocked it.
First and most formidable of the daemons, witches and vampires who show up is Matthew Clairmont, a professor of biochemistry, member of the Royal Society, and vampire. Most of the first half of this hefty volume is a lengthy courtship between Matthew and Diana, with the discovery of the enchanted Ashmole manuscript as the initiator. Once it’s clear there’s something the two protagonists, the consequences of inter-species dating, Diana’s powers, and the Ashmole manuscript come to the forefront. That’s when the story widens from the focus on Matthew and Diana to the people around them. On Diana’s side there are witches, on Matthew’s there are vampires.
A Discovery of Witches is a testament to Deborah Harkness’ meticulous research and rich imagination. It's well-written, fast-paced, chock full of great quotes, songs, poems, languages, and historical tidbits. It has everything you want in a good read: terrific characters; a fast-moving plot filled with the world of academia, science, and the supernatural. It is her debut novel and the first of a trilogy. I will eagerly await the second movement in this series.
DEBORAH HARKNESS is a scholar and writer specializing in the history of science and medicine. She has received numerous awards, including Fulbright, Guggenheim, and National Humanities Center fellowships. Currently a professor of history at the University of Southern California, her most recent academic publication is The Jewel House: Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution. This is her first novel.
