Author: Deborah Harkness
Title: A Discovery of Witches
Publisher: Headline
Hardback: 592 pages
ISBN: 978-0-7553-7402-1
Price: £14.99
Publication Date: 08/02/2011
Vampires . . . we don’t seem to be able to live without them nowadays [well, I say live!]. And the latest fan-bearing addition to the marketplace is academic and science historian Deborah Harkness’s A Discovery of Witches. Although, as the title suggests, the novel – which was the hot fiction property of the 2009 Frankfurt Book Fair – isn’t only concerned with vampires.
There are witches, daemons, humans [although, it has to be said, no that many], mysterious and occult manuscripts, remote French castles, shadowy cabals, ghosts, an oubliette [a very nasty type of dungeon – although, there isn't really a 'nice' type!] . . . and yoga! And at the novel’s heart? A forbidden romance between Oxford scholar and witch, Diana Bishop, and vampire geneticist and OAP, Matthew Clairmont [he’s almost one thousand five hundred years old – even if he doesn’t look it!]. It’s a sort of undead Romeo and Juliet story, if you will. Well, apart from the fact that only one of them has shuffled off the mortal coil!
But the meat of the plot revolves around Diana’s ‘discovery’ in Oxford University’s Bodleian Library of an alchemical manuscript – known as Ashmole 782 after its author, the celebrated English antiquary, politician, astrologer and alchemist, Elias Ashmole – that has not been seen in over one hundred and fifty years. And everyone seems to be after it – witches, daemons and vampires – and after Diana herself . . .
The comparison that I’m sure springs straight to mind is with the ‘T ’ word – Twilight, that is. And that would certainly be fair, to an extent. Discovery is, in some respects, a grown-up Twilight. But there are also a large number of other influences that have undoubtedly shaped this book – from Stoker and Anne Rice, to Buffy, Philip Pullman and paranormal romance [certainly the manner in which Matthew is first described – all brooding and muscley with axe-handle shoulders and minute waist – could almost have come straight from a Laurell K. Hamilton novel!]. However, Harkness has also managed to mould these influences into a text and literary world that is very much distinctive and unique.
Even if this was not Harkness’s debut novel, then I would say that the prose is incredibly good – the fact that it is her first fiction outing just makes it all the more impressive. That being said, I did find the first quarter of the book to have a pace that was slightly glacial. That’s not to say that it wasn’t engrossing or elegantly written, but just that I was waiting for it to burst into life. And it was only when the battle lines were drawn and the plot and action started to pick up pace that I found myself reading more quickly and being sucked in.
I have just finished reading this book and I can honestly say I couldn’t put it down. It has left me wanting more and I’m now eagerly awaiting the next instalment. When you mention the fact that your only “gripe” is ‘that the novel and its prose were almost too perfect and polished – especially in the romance sections between Diana and Matthew.’ When you think about it there is a flaw within the relationship, actually two flaws. The first being Matthews temper, even though it is never aimed at Diana herself it is still a very natural and human emotion, also the fact that he keeps a lot of secrets, which again is very human. In the book I believe he says something like, he didn’t want to lose her. Which means he acted on emotion, so the vampire which should be the furthest thing from human is showing basic human signs and emotions. Overall I loved this book and thought it was one of the best I’ve read in a while, very impressive for her first fictional novel.