I just finished A Discovery of Witches, actually, I haven’t been able to put it down all week. As the story culminates with Halloween, it felt like a superbly timing read for this bewitching season.
The only mistake I have made is that I should have ordered the second book in the All Souls Trilogy last week, not last night as I am ready to dive into it right now, but, at the same time, I am still savoring the words that I have just read.
I was mesmerized from cover to cover. Deborah Harkness has written this so intrepidly well. I can see Oxford, I can smell the Bodleian, I don’t even have to close my eyes. I have had the great fortune through my Art Historical research to be able to be in great library collections and call books. The smell the pages hold, the feel of the cover as you nestle it into a cradle, the cool air that washes over you as you open it, if it has been called from the crypt. There is a magic to it all of its own.
I could place myself in Diana Bishop’s shoes and see what she saw. This is a magnificently written book, she didn’t miss a beat. I have a soft spot for manuscripts as Medieval Manuscripts were one of my chosen fields of study. I also love that this book is written around a manuscript that is indeed truly missing. This book is magic! If you haven’t read it, you need to, the world she creates is one to get lost within.