A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
As soon as you start reading A Discover of Witches, you understand why it was an Amazon book of the month and has been so highly reviewed. Deborah Harkness, a history professor at USC, is a talented writer. The premise of the book twists the witch/vampire genre lending both history and science to the story. Diana Bishop, the main character, is descended from Bridget Bishop, executed during the Salem Witchcraft Trials. She meets Matthew Clairmont, a vampire, after requesting Ashmole 782 from the stacks at the Bodleian Library at Oxford. This text which has been lost for many years brings representatives from all three creature races, witches, vampires, and daemons, and all three have different ideas about what is contained in the book.
I highly recommend this book. The story flows wonderfully, and as a history buff, I really enjoyed the tidbits of history scattered throughout. Harkness is a master of character development and of description. My only problem is that it is the first book in a trilogy!
9 Responses to “A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness”
Ok, first of all, I don’t know anybody that hasn’t been totally obsessed with the Salem Witch Trials at one point or another. Now that may be because kzybeck (she wrote the post above) and I hang out with the same people but, nevertheless, who can turn away from a good story spun from the Salem Witchcraft Trials — even if it is a fictional one? Well, certainly not me. Oh, and then you tie Bridget Bishop into the story! A little background for those of you who didn’t spend countless days reading everything you could get your hands on about the Salem Witchcraft Trials: Bridget Bishop was the first and perhaps, the most notorious of all the ladies tried and hung for witchcraft. Her proactive dress and rebel lifestyle made her an easy target for the puritan court and community. She had three husbands and was known to frequent the bars and play cards (hence, the “rebel lifestyle”). She was a bit defiant during court proceedings (and had every right to be by my standards) and she maintained her innocence until her death. Who wouldn’t want to read a story about her descendant?
Ashmole 782 is a real missing book. What it contains is a mystery. The description is: Anthopologia, or a treatis containing a short description of Man in two parts: the first Anatomical, the second Psychological. But, nobody knows what is really contained in the pages.
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She meets a gorgeous male vampire, Matthew, a distinguished scientist, who is a lot older than he looks, and he appoints himself as her protector against the horde of witches, vampires and daemons who want to know the secret of the missing manuscript, they all have their own theories about what this work contains and will stop at nothing to get it.
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