Deborah Harkness Biography
Deborah Harkness was born in 1965, Harkness grew up near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of an American-born father and a British-born mother. She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College (B.A., 1986), Northwestern University (M.A., 1990), and the University of California, Davis (Ph.D., 1994). Harkness also studied abroad at Oxford University.
She is a well-regarded historian of science and medicine, as well as having studied alchemy, magic, and the occult. Deborah Harkness is an American scholar, novelist and wine enthusiast, best known as a historian and as the author of the All Souls Trilogy, which consists of The New York Times best-selling novel A Discovery of Witches and its sequels Shadow of Night and The Book of Life.
Her latest book is Time’s Convert, both an origin story of the trilogy’s Marcus Whitmore character, set in the American War of Independence and the French Revolution, and a sequel to the All Souls Trilogy.
Deborah Harkness spent more than a quarter of a century as a student and scholar of history, with degrees from Mount Holyoke College, Northwestern University, and the University of California at Davis. For her doctoral degree, she researched the history of magic and science in Europe, especially during the period from 1500 to 1700.
The libraries she worked in include Oxford’s Bodleian Library, the All Souls College Library at Oxford, the British Library, London’s Guildhall Library, the Henry E. Huntington Library, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and the Newberry Library—in other words, she knows her way around a card catalog or the computerized equivalent. These experiences have given her a deep and abiding love of libraries and deep respect for librarians.
Deborah Harkness Age
Deborah Harkness was born in 1965.
Deborah Harkness Photo
Deborah Harkness A Discovery Of Witches
A Discovery of Witches debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list and was also a bestseller in the UK, France, and Germany.
In total, more than thirty-seven foreign editions and translations of volumes from the trilogy have been published. A Discovery of Witches is the first installment in the All Souls trilogy, followed by Shadow of Night (2012) and completed with the third novel in the series, The Book of Life (2014).
It follows the story of Diana Bishop, a history of a science professor at Yale University who, after accidentally finding an elusive, long-thought-lost manuscript, is compelled to embrace the magic in her blood that she has sought to keep out of her life and engage in a forbidden romance with charming vampire Matthew Clairmont.
A Discovery of Witches was first published in hardcover on February 8, 2011, by Penguin Books, becoming a New York Times Best Seller upon its release. It has since been released in paperback and also as an ebook. The novel has been translated into more than 36 languages. The book received mostly positive feedback from literary critics.
It was praised for its intelligence and the mixture of history and fantasy, although some critics felt the plot was trite and the pacing was slow. Comparisons were made between other popular fantasy series, namely Twilight and Harry Potter.
The novel began as a “thought experiment” for Harkness, who had previously only published works of historical non-fiction. She drew upon her academic background as a historian and her studies of alchemy, magic, and the occult.
According to Harkness, the novel began as “a thought experiment” after she noticed the plethora of novels surrounding vampires and magic at an airport bookshop. As a historian, she noted that people today were interested in reading about the same sorts of subjects as they would have in the past, including the supernatural.
“In some ways, I think their popularity right now is about our feeling that we still want there to be magic and enchantment in the world,” theorizes Harkness. “Magic provides a way of still having room for possibilities, an unlimited sense of what the world offers. Magic is always there when science is found wanting.” Harkness has studied magic and the occult, which provided much of the inspiration for the novel, since 1983.
The writing of the novel took place in the early mornings “in the blissful quiet before [she] switched on [her] email”, while she also continued teaching at the University of Southern California during the day, and blogging about wine in the evenings.
Aside from Anne Rice novels that she “read and loved” in her twenties, Harkness claims she has not read other vampire fiction such as The Historian or the Twilight series. Some elements of this novel sprang directly from Harkness’ own life: she has spent many hours engaged in research in the Bodleian Library, and in the course of her own research, Harkness discovered an ancient—and long-lost—book of spells, the Book of Soyga.
Deborah Harkness Books In Order
All Souls trilogy
• A Discovery of Witches. New York: Viking. 2011.
• Shadow of Night. New York: Viking. 2012.
• The Book of Life. New York: Viking. 2014.
Companions to the trilogy
• The All Souls Real-Time Reading Companion (2015)
• The World of All Souls: A Complete Guide to A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night, and the Book of Life (2018)
Other
Time’s Convert. New York: Viking. 2018. ISBN 9780399564512.
Deborah Harkness Times Convert
In 2018, Deborah Harkness published Time’s Convert, a “prequel-sequel” to the All Souls trilogy, which debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list (for combined print & e-book fiction).
A novel about what it takes to become a vampire.
Set in contemporary Paris and London, and the American colonies during the upheaval and unrest that exploded into the Revolutionary War, a sweeping story that braids together the past and present.
On the battlefields of the American Revolution, Matthew de Clermont meets Marcus MacNeil, a young surgeon from Massachusetts, during a moment of political awakening when it seems that the world is on the brink of a brighter future.
When Matthew offers him a chance at immortality and a new life, free from the restraints of his puritanical upbringing, Marcus seizes the opportunity to become a vampire. But his transformation is not an easy one and the ancient traditions and responsibilities of the de Clermont family clash with Marcus’s deeply-held beliefs in liberty, equality, and brotherhood.
A passionate love story and a fascinating exploration of the power of tradition and the possibilities for change, Time’s Convert will delight fans of the All Souls trilogy and all readers of magic, the supernatural, and romance.
Deborah Harkness Shadow Of Night
The story of Diana and Matthew continues in Shadow of Night (2012) which debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.Book Two of the All Souls Trilogy plunges Diana and Matthew into Elizabethan London, a world of spies and subterfuge, and a coterie of Matthew’s old friends, the mysterious School of Night.
The mission is to locate a witch to tutor Diana and to find traces of Ashmole 782, but as the net of Matthew’s past tightens around them they embark on a very different journey, one that takes them into the heart of the 1,500-year-old vampire’s shadowed history and secrets.
For Matthew Clairmont, time travel is no simple matter; nor is Diana’s search for the key to understanding her legacy. Shadow of Night brings us a rich and splendid tapestry of alchemy, magic, and history, taking us through the loop of time to deliver a deepening love story, a tale of blood, passion, and the knotted strands of the past.
Shadow of Night was met with generally positive reviews from literary critics. Sherryl Connelly of the New York Daily News described the novel as “rich, period fun, particularly delightful in its witty characterization of historical immortals.” Carol Memmott of USA Today gave the book four stars, praising Harkness’ attention to historical details. Both Memmott and Margot Adler of NPR expressed excitement and anticipation for the next novel in the series. Entertainment Weekly also praised the novel, giving Shadow of Night a B+: “The joy that Harkness, herself a historian, takes in visiting the past is evident on every page. Like any love affair, Shadow of Night has its rough patches. But its enduring rewards are plenty.”
Many critics pointed out that the novel was too complex, and it had too many secondary characters and plot elements. Paula Woods of The Los Angeles Times said Shadow of Night is “overstuffed but entertaining.” Elizabeth Hand, who previously criticized A Discovery of Witches as being too slow, said that Shadow of Night “proceeds at a snail’s pace” and is “overstuffed with secondary characters and plot elements that never quite earn-out.” However, Hand wrote: “Fortunately, Harkness makes up for a lack of narrative thrust by weaving a tapestry of 16th-century European life.” Sarah Willis of The Plain Dealer felt similarly: “The many details of place and time are lush, and every opportunity to describe clothes, furniture, buildings, even a mousetrap, is indulged. But the plot wanders as much as the characters do, and the first 250 pages are slow.
Deborah Harkness Partner
At Northwestern Deborah met Karen Halttunen, a professor of American history who has been her partner since 1995: “Nothing happened for seven years, but when I started my first teaching job she was like a mentor to me and within a year it was clear to me, at least, that I was head over heels,” Harkness said. In 2004 the couple moved from Davis to Los Angeles to take jobs at U.S.C., where Halttunen is the head of the history department.
Deborah Harkness The Book Of Life
After traveling through time in Shadow of Night, the second book in Deborah Harkness’s enchanting series, historian and witch Diana Bishop and vampire scientist Matthew Clairmont return to the present to face new crises and old enemies.
At Matthew’s ancestral home at Sept-Tours, they reunite with the cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches—with one significant exception, but the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency.
In the trilogy’s final volume, Harkness deepens her themes of power and passion, family and caring, past deeds and their present consequences. In ancestral homes and university laboratories, using ancient knowledge and modern science, from the hills of the Auvergne to the palaces of Venice and beyond, the couple, at last, learn what the witches discovered so many centuries ago.
With more than one million copies sold in the United States and appearing in thirty-eight foreign editions, A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night have landed on all of the major bestseller lists and garnered rave reviews from countless publications. Eagerly awaited by Harkness’s legion of fans, The Book of Life brings this superbly written series to a deeply satisfying close.
The Book of Life was met with generally positive reviews from literary critics. Paula L. Woods of the Los Angeles Times noted: “Harkness’ ambitious melding of scientific and historical detail is inventive and brings surprising depth to such real-life societal scourges as racial purity and miscegenation.
” However, Woods also criticized a noticeable lack of continuity between previous novels in the series, stating “characters occasionally fail to acknowledge each other despite interactions in previous novels, and the date of an infamous attempt to steal the British crown jewels is off by a few hundred years.
Deborah Harkness Tv Show
A Discovery of Witches is a British television program based on the All Souls trilogy by Deborah Harkness, named after the first book in the trilogy. It is produced by Bad Wolf and Sky Productions and stars Teresa Palmer, Matthew Goode, Edward Bluemel, Louise Brealey, Malin Buska, Aiysha Hart, Owen Teale, Alex Kingston, and Valarie Pettiford.
The first series of A Discovery of Witches premiered in the UK on Sky One on 14 September 2018 and consisted of eight episodes. In November 2018, Sky One renewed A Discovery of Witches for a second and third series.
Fans have been waiting a long time to see the show, though, in reality, Harkness points out it’s been a pretty quick process from book to screen. But she’s eager for fans to see their beloved characters on the TV. “I think I’m just excited to have readers see things they’ve imagined come to brilliant life! It has sometimes taken my breath away to see it, and I hope they feel the same.”
That can come with a lot of expectations, though. After all, people really do love these books. What if the TV show doesn’t measure up to their lofty hopes and dreams? Harkness hopes that readers will put aside pre-conceptions and give the show a chance.
“It is, in my opinion, an absolutely superb television adaptation of the books—with the emphasis on adaptation,” she explained. “If you go into it expecting everything to be exactly the same as in the books, you aren’t going to have much fun. If, however, you tune in expecting a new perspective on a familiar story and cast of characters, you will truly enjoy it.”
And what about new viewers? After all, the popularity of the promo images of Matthew Goode as handsome vampire Matthew have certainly brought attention to the series. Readers have been picking up the books for the first time as they wait in anticipation for the show to come stateside in the spring.
“For those who are new to the series, I say just sit back and enjoy the ride,” Harkness said. “It’s thrilling, romantic, and may make you wonder if your neighbor or co-worker just might be someone special. I’m absolutely thrilled by all the new readers in their 20s. They would have been young teens when the first book came out and their involvement with the story means the world to me.”
Really, all of the success of the All Souls Trilogy and Harkness’s incredible universe ties back to her chosen profession: teaching. “I became a teacher because I wanted to make a difference in people’s lives,” she explained. “When I think of all the readers — and now viewers — who will be touched by the books it reminds me of what a privilege it is to be the custodian of this well-loved trilogy.”
The program received positive reviews from critics, who praised the adaptation, the production and the performances of the cast. On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 100% approval rating with an average rating of 7.3 out of 10 based on 27 reviews.
The website’s critical consensus reads, “A Discovery of Witches smartly grounds its flights of fancy with a lived-in authenticity and harnesses the chemistry between its two star-crossed leads to make for a promising foray into the occult.” Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the series a score of 66 out of 100 based on 10 critics, indicating “generally favorable reviews”.
Deborah Harkness The Serpent’s Mirror
Deborah Harkness has placed World rights to her fourth novel, THE SERPENT’S MIRROR, with Viking Penguin and editor Carole DeSanti. Set in the All Souls’ world and centered on Matthew Clairmont’s career as a vampiric double agent in the Tudor era, the novel explores historical riddles surrounding the ascent of Elizabeth I to the throne.
A contemporary narrative involves the witch-historian Diana Bishop and the cast of the Harkness’s bestselling All Souls’ Trilogy (A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night, and The Book of Life).
THE SERPENT’S MIRROR is projected as the opening volume of a series of novels drawing from material in the centuries-old de Clermont archives. The book writing phase is not yet completed, and the publication date is not yet scheduled.