All Souls Trilogy:
Book 1: A Discovery of Witches
Book 2: Shadow of Night
Book 3: The Book of Life
Synopsis:
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 The University of Oxford 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.
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.
Having returned from their refuge in 16th Century London to find a family member dead, Diana and Matthew embark on a mission of understanding and revenge, seeking and finding the final pages of the Book of Life, and bringing justice to witches and vampires that have wronged them.
Characters:
Main characters:
Diana Bishop is the central character of the All Souls Trilogy. She is a powerful witch and weaver. She’s Matthew de Clermont’s wife and Philip and Rebecca’s mother.
Diana Bishop was born to Rebecca Bishop and Stephen Proctor, both extremely powerful witches, Rebecca having mastered the higher magics and Stephen being a weaver. From a very early age, she displayed signs of extraordinary power and ability, notably time-walking at the age of three. At the young age of seven, both of her parents were killed while in Africa. Subsequently, she was raised by her aunt Sarah Bishop and Emily Mather, Sarah’s partner. This terrible loss caused Diana to reject her magic altogether. Diana went on to obtain a bachelor’s degree from a college in Maine and a graduate degree from Oxford. Once she obtained her PhD, she became a professor of history at Yale.
Matthew de Clermont is a central character in the All Souls Trilogy and the love interest of Diana Bishop. He is a vampire and is described as very tall, with grey-green eyes and black hair. He has a deep love and knowledge of wine.
Matthew Clairmont was born in France around 500 AD. His biological father was a carpenter, as was Matthew when he grew up, before becoming a stonemason. When Matthew was a young man, he met a woman named Blanca. They were married when he was twenty five and she was nineteen. After struggling to have children for many years, she gave birth to a son named Lucas. A fever came to their village in 536 and Matthew’s wife and son did not survive. Matthew was devastated but continued to work on building a local church. One day, he fell off a scaffold, although some believed that he jumped. Ysabeau de Clermont, the wife of Philippe de Clermont, offered Matthew an alternative to his impending death. Ysabeau made Matthew a vampire and soon he became a wrathful hunter. He learned to control his hunger from his father, Philippe. Matthew has made several vampires including Marcus and Benjamin.