A Discovery of Witches

Diana Bishop is the first-person protagonist of A Discovery of Witches. Diana, an American historian and tenured professor of history at Yale, earned her doctorate at Oxford specializing in the history of science, notably 17th-century chemistry, or alchemy. Named for the Roman goddess of the hunt, the moon, children, and childbirth, Diana is a witch, the last of a line of powerful witches. The murder of her beloved parents when Diana was seven caused her to fear and hide her magical powers and reject her heritage. Diana relies on order and reason rather than “hunches and spells” (3). Diana suffers from panic attacks and works to keep her adrenalin under control through vigorous physical exercise such as running, rowing, and yoga. Diana’s journey of self-discovery is the central conflict of the novel.

Until she recalls Ashmole 782 at the Bodleian and meets Matthew Clairmont, Diana’s life is comparatively human. However, when she faces a magical manuscript and threats from other witches, the walls she erected between her nonmagical life and her magic begin to crumble, and Diana struggles to reconstruct her identity.