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''A Discovery of Witches'' is a 2011 historical-fantasy novel and the debut novel by American scholar Deborah Harkness. It follows the story of Diana Bishop, an alchemical history professor at Oxford University who, after accidentally calling an elusive, long-thought-lost manuscript, is compelled to embrace the magic in her blood she has sought to keep out of her life and engage in a forbidden romance with charming vampire Matthew Clairmont. The book received mostly positive feedback from literary critics. It was praised for its intelligence and the mixture of history with 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. ''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 around the world. ''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'' (July, 2014). Warner Bros. had purchased the rights to create a film adaptation but without beginning production, the rights reverted to the author. As of the beginning of 2015, the project to take the first book "A Discovery of Witches" to film is still categorized as in development. No additional information has been provided by the author to create a film adaptation of the first installment in Harkness's trilogy. ==Background== 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: 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," theorises 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 since 1983, which provided much of the inspiration for the novel. The writing of the novel took place in the early mornings "in the blissful quiet before () switched on () 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's Reading Room, and in the course of her own research, Harkness discovered an ancient—and long-lost—book of spells, the Book of Soyga. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「A Discovery of Witches」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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