A Discovery of Witches: A Refined Guide
At a Glance
- Genre: Urban fantasy, paranormal romance, historical fantasy
- Setting: Modern-day Oxford; Sept-Tours in France; Madison, New York; with a final leap to Elizabethan England
- Perspective: Third-person limited, primarily following Diana Bishop with occasional shifts
Opening Hook
In the hush of the Bodleian Library, a historian who wants nothing to do with magic calls up a manuscript the world has been hunting for centuries. The book sings to her—and to every creature who senses it open. A vampire geneticist with a past as old as Europe steps from the shadows, bound to her by curiosity, danger, and something neither of them is supposed to want. As the ancient laws closing in prove deadlier than any spell, Diana Bishop must decide whether to keep hiding from her power—or become the witch the world has been waiting for.
Plot Overview
Act I: The Manuscript in the Library
Dr. Diana Bishop, a scholar of alchemy visiting Oxford, unwittingly recalls the bewitched manuscript Ashmole 782 in the Bodleian. The book is alive—its pages altered, its secrets sealed—and Diana, who has long suppressed her magic, forces herself to send it back. Creatures across the city notice. The manuscript is legendary, believed to reveal the origins of witches, vampires, and daemons; it hasn’t surfaced for more than 150 years. For a fuller breakdown of these early discoveries, see the Chapter 1-5 Summary.
Act II: A Dangerous Attraction
Word spreads. A courtly but unnerving vampire, Matthew Clairmont, tracks Diana, certain she can reopen the book. Their charged encounters unfold under an ancient covenant forbidding inter-species relationships, placing their pull toward each other at direct odds with the world’s oldest law—an idea explored further in Forbidden Love and Inter-species Relationships. Other powerful witches and vampires close in, including the ambitious wizard Peter Knox and the brittle, status-conscious Gillian Chamberlain. As pressure mounts, Diana’s long-buried magic erupts—witchwind, witchwater, witchfire—drawing even more attention. For the broader cast of players, consult the Character Overview.
Act III: Sept-Tours and the Congregation
To protect Diana, Matthew brings her to his family stronghold, Sept-Tours, in France—covered in the Chapter 16-20 Summary. There, Diana encounters his formidable mother, Ysabeau de Clermont, whose hatred of witches masks losses centuries deep. Though initial hostilities run high, Matthew’s loyalty to Diana becomes unmistakable. The sanctuary frays when Domenico arrives on behalf of the Congregation, the secret nine-member council enforcing the covenant. Soon after, the Finnish witch Satu Järvinen kidnaps and tortures Diana to pry open her power—only to discover Diana’s magic obeys no familiar rules.
Act IV: The Bishop House and a Family Secret
Diana and Matthew flee to Madison, New York, to the eccentric, sentient Bishop house where Diana was raised by her aunt Sarah Bishop and Sarah’s partner, Em. The house reveals a hidden letter from Diana’s mother and one of the missing pages from Ashmole 782. The message reframes everything: Diana’s father, a timewalker, bewitched the manuscript for her protection, altering destiny as a form of love and design. In Madison, Diana finally sees how deeply her life is rooted in Family, Lineage, and Belonging.
Act V: Blood, Fire, and a Leap Through Time
Gerbert, an ancient vampire, sends Juliette Durand, a broken weapon from Matthew’s past, to tear them apart. In the brutal fight that follows, Matthew is mortally wounded. Diana unleashes witchfire to kill Juliette, then offers Matthew her blood to save him—an act that binds them irrevocably and defies the covenant’s segregation. Realizing Diana must be trained and the book must be found whole, they decide to timewalk to 1590—to teachers, to secrets, to the manuscript in its original state. Their departure is set in the Chapter 41-43 Summary.
Central Characters
Diana Bishop
- A scholar who has chosen reason over magic, Diana is forced into self-revelation when Ashmole 782 answers only to her. Courageous and stubborn, she evolves from denial to command, discovering a rare, untamed form of witchcraft that resists control—except by her willingness to accept it. Her love for Matthew accelerates her transformation and confronts the laws that would erase her autonomy.
Matthew Clairmont
- An ancient vampire and brilliant geneticist, Matthew embodies contradiction: predator and protector, scientist and medieval knight, ruthlessly controlled yet haunted by old griefs. Drawn to Diana and to the manuscript, he must reckon with his past and the covenant that once structured his world.
Key Supporting Figures
- Ysabeau de Clermont: Matthew’s formidable mother, a matriarch shaped by centuries of loss. Her initial hostility toward witches gives way to a fierce, pragmatic loyalty once Diana proves her mettle.
- Sarah Bishop: Diana’s aunt, a no-nonsense, powerful witch whose suspicion of vampires clashes with her protective love for Diana. Tradition wars with tenderness, and tenderness wins.
- Peter Knox: A calculating wizard of the Congregation who believes Ashmole 782 belongs to witches alone. His hunger for power exposes the political machinery behind “order.”
- Gillian Chamberlain: A social-climbing witch whose fear and ambition make her susceptible to manipulation, embodying the petty face of prejudice.
- Satu Järvinen: A gifted Congregation witch who tortures Diana to unlock her power, only to discover a magic beyond her comprehension.
- Marcus Whitmore: Matthew’s vampire son, a physician with modern instincts and open warmth—often the bridge between Diana and the ancient de Clermont world.
For more on each figure and their allegiances, see the full Character Overview.
Major Themes
For expanded analysis, visit the Theme Overview.
- Diana’s central arc is an inward one: learning that her power is not an enemy to suppress but a language she must claim. Her rare magic resists other witches’ control, suggesting that identity, once recognized, cannot be defined from the outside.
- Diana the historian and Matthew the geneticist embody an apparent divide that the novel steadily collapses. Alchemy, DNA, and spellcraft map onto each other, suggesting that knowledge—whether empirical or occult—ultimately seeks the same truths.
The Power of History and Memory
- The past is tangible: a living vampire’s memory, a bewitched manuscript, a house that keeps secrets. Harkness shows how archives and memory shape choices in the present—and how heritage can be both burden and guide.
Prejudice, Segregation, and Intolerance
- The covenant’s ban on inter-species relationships codifies fear into law. Diana and Matthew’s bond exposes the hollowness of that order, revealing how bigotry preserves power rather than peace.
Forbidden Love and Inter-species Relationships
- The romance at the novel’s core is both intimate and political. Loving across lines becomes an act of resistance, forcing the couple to redefine family, loyalty, and the future of their world.
Literary Significance
“It begins with absence and desire. It begins with blood and fear. It begins with a discovery of witches.” These opening lines—among the book’s most memorable quotes—signal a story as much about inquiry as enchantment. Harkness fuses meticulous historical research with a lush supernatural romance, grounding magic in the scholarly textures of archives, alchemy, and genetics. The result is a cerebral, atmospheric reinvention of urban fantasy: a narrative that restores intellectual depth to the genre without losing its pulse of danger and desire. By marrying the Bodleian’s dust to the voltage of forbidden love, A Discovery of Witches proves that monsters and manuscripts can belong to the same grand, elegant argument about knowledge, power, and who is allowed to wield both.