62 pages • 2 hours read
Deborah HarknessA Discovery of Witches
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2011A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 16-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary
Harkness switches again to the third person to show the perspectives of Matthew and Marcus. Matthew watches over Diana while Marcus brings him the results of her DNA test, which reveal that Diana has almost every genetic marker possible for a witch. Marcus met Matthew in 1777 when Matthew was a French soldier with the Continental Army, and Marcus was a surgeon’s assistant. Marcus fell deathly ill with fever and Matthew changed him into a vampire, making Marcus his son. With conscience and compassion, Matthew helped Marcus develop his vampiric sense of ethics (201). Together with another vampire, Juliette, Matthew stopped Marcus from making a boisterous family in New Orleans. Marcus worries about Matthew’s barely controlled rage: The Lazarus coffin talisman Matthew wears means Matthew either fears he will kill someone, or he’s thinking of his love, Eleanor, who died when she intervened in an argument between Matthew and his older stepbrother, Baldwin.
Matthew wants to confront Gillian about the threatening picture of Diana’s parents. Marcus worries Matthew will draw attention from the Congregation, a nine-member council represented by three daemons, vampires, and witches. The Congregation binds all creatures to a covenant that forbids relationships between different creatures and participation in human politics or religion. Marcus thinks Matthew is jeopardizing the family “just to avenge a witch” (203). He warns Matthew not to keep secrets from Diana. Matthew plans to take Diana to Sept-Tours, the de Clermont family home in France. This angers Marcus, who knows that his grandmother, Ysabeau, hates witches. As Diana sleeps, Matthew realizes she can hear his thoughts. He worries she will know all his secrets, but she murmurs that she is “brave enough for both of us” (208).
Chapter 17 Summary
Diana is happy to see Matthew when she awakens but is still panicky. Afraid the witches will kill her, Diana unintentionally magically draws a protective cyclone of wind around herself. When she calms down, Matthew tells her she made a witchwind, indicating she can control air. Diana’s magic is emerging whether she wants it to or not, making Diana feel like her body is out of control. Mathew apologizes again for restraining her the previous night. Diana explains that she didn’t use magic to open Ashmole 782, and Matthew realizes that the book was set to open for her, which means the other witches will be even more interested in her. They discover that Diana uses magic unconsciously when she is exercising or emotional.
Diana agrees to escape Oxford and go to Matthew’s home in France, drawn by the promise of seeing an original 14th century French alchemical manuscript. Aunt Sarah calls and warns Diana to get away from Peter Knox, whom her father never trusted. Matthew promises Sarah he will protect Diana. Matthew and Diana take a private flight to France and soon arrive at Sept-Tours, which is no ordinary château, but looks more like a “fortress” with its gatehouse and seven small towers (222).
Chapter 18 Summary
Ysabeau de Clermont greets them with hostile courtesy. Ysabeau is elegant and beautiful and makes Diana feel like a “gauche country mouse” (225). Matthew addresses her as Maman. Stout Marthe, the family vampire housekeeper and cook, gives Matthew and Diana a warmer welcome. Marthe observes that Diana is a powerful witch and thinks Diana and Matthew look good together. Matthew takes Diana to his rooms in the château’s round tower where his study is filled with bookcases and furnished with items from his “many lives,” including a Vermeer painting, a suit of armor, and 17th century microscopes (228). Diana calls it “a Matthew museum” (229). The local villagers knows the de Clermonts are vampires but keep their secret. As he moves to kiss her, Marthe enters with breakfast. She playfully sings a love song in Occitan, an old French language, and urges Diana to rest.
Matthew takes Diana on a tour of the chateau. Diana admires the library and its vast array of ancient books. Matthew shows Diana Aurora Consurgens, the promised manuscript, which was illuminated by a woman. In the stables, Diana befriends the Percheron stallion, Balthasar. Matthew promises to take Diana riding and quotes medieval Italian poet Giordano Bruno, who wrote about love and the goddess Diana. That night Diana dreams that she is the goddess Diana, escaping pursuit on her horse by telling it to fly.
Chapter 19 Summary
At breakfast, Matthew gives Diana a full set of riding gear, from boots to helmet. Diana is thrilled. Experienced horsewoman Diana will be riding the willful Nar Rakasa, whose name means “fire dancer.” Matthew and the human stable hand, Georges, observe approvingly as she puts the mare through its paces. Diana notes that Matthew “looked like a king” on horseback (243). He rides Dahr, whose name is Arabic for “time.”
Diana wonders why Ysabeau seems especially hostile. Matthew confides that she is jealous of Diana. Ysabeau became a vampire without her consent, and when she was changed, she lost the ability to bear children and her ability as a seer. She misses her husband but is unable to die. Matthew and Diana race their horses, and as Diana urges Rakasa faster, she closes her eyes, riding without reigns and stirrups, talking to the horse in her mind. Matthew watches in terror, worried Diana will get hurt. He shows Diana the results of her DNA test. Diana has genetic markers that indicate she should have powers of precognition, flight, talking to the dead, telekinesis, spell casting, mind-reading, as well as elemental markers that mean she can control earth, air, water and fire. There are even more markers that Matthew and his team haven’t identified. Diana is overwhelmed and frightened. Matthew says her magic is waking up despite her efforts to repress it.
Chapter 20 Summary
Diana begins work on Aurora Consurgens. While looking for a Bible in Matthew’s study, she comes across an original Guttenberg and a manuscript simply titled Will’s Playes. Matthew says most of his books were gifts from friends. Diana finds a copy of On the Origin of Species filled with Matthew’s handwritten marginalia. In his notes, Matthew questions whether vampires have kept instincts that humans gave up, and whether drinking blood is simply a habit. Matthew also wonders why inbreeding has not led to sterility or madness. He seems to agree with the theory of monogenesis: that all creature types descended from a common ancestor (253).
Ysabeau’s chilly attitude thaws over dinner as she and Marthe and Matthew reminisce about old times. They carefully avoid talking about Philippe or Louisa, but Diana is happy to be part of a family group again. Matthew, an excellent dancer, dances with his mother, then with Diana. Initially awkward, Diana closes her eyes and finds that her feet are hovering above the ground. Ysabeau doesn’t understand why Diana ignores her prodigious powers and tells her to grow up. Diana admits she does need to learn to control her magic. Matthew likes Diana because she is not a vampire, and she likes him because he is a vampire: she loves his strength, intelligence, his bossiness, and his smell (264). Diana invites him to bed, but he gently refuses, saying they have lots of time. His long kiss promises more to come.
Chapters 16-20 Analysis
Matthew and Diana continue to learn more about themselves and each other as their relationship deepens and Diana’s discovery of her true self continues to unfold.
Diana consciously represses her powers, but her magic refuses to be denied any longer. It emerges when she relaxes or loses control. Sleeping, she can hear Matthew’s thoughts; when she is loses herself in physical activity or when she is overcome by emotion, other magic abilities emerge. Diana’s self-denial has been a protective shell: if she rejects her magic, she will remain safe. Her approach has proven false, and Diana slowly acknowledges the fact. She tells Matthew, “I’ve been behaving like a clueless human” (217). With her magic “bubbling out” (262) Diana admits she can’t ignore it any longer but stubbornly maintains the right to use it—or not—how she wants.
Matthew also discovers new truths about himself. He confesses that the question of why creatures are on earth “really does consume” him (255). While Matthew focuses on these abstract scientific questions, he also faces immediate emotional ones. He wonders if Diana has “bewitched” him (208), and both fears and desires her. Matthew’s fear stems from past relationships: He has hurt two women he cared about so he views Diana as fragile. He fears hurting her, and that she will discover he is a “monster” (108) and reject him.
Both Diana and Matthew begin to display the inherent give-and-take of a healthy relationship. Matthew, used to having people do what he commands, is put off balance by Diana’s self-reliance and put in the unfamiliar position of “making requests and negotiating agreements” (249). Diana, in turn, recognizes that he is trying to restrain his protective nature and accedes to several of Matthew’s requests: wearing a protective vest while riding and promising not to go out by herself. Their powerful physical attraction and their trust continue to build. Secrets, however, have the potential to undermine the relationship.
These chapters highlight the theme of secrets that will continue to expand over the course of the novel. Marcus notes that a vampire’s life is all about secrets, and Matthew keeps more secrets than most vampires (205). If Matthew is going to continue his relationship with Diana, he cannot keep secrets from her. Matthew views secrets as ways to protect himself and those he loves. But they can be destructive and divisive—already, Matthew’s secrets could separate him from Diana or threaten their existing family structure. Marcus worries that Matthew will sacrifice his family ties for Diana. Diana notices that Matthew’s family avoids certain subjects, particularly Philippe or Louisa. While Matthew does share Diana’s DNA results with her, he does not mention the Congregation, which officially mandates the prejudice creatures display against other creatures. Matthew and Diana’s growing romance is prohibited and will lead to sanctions. Matthew rejects this 1000-year-old promise, yet shivers at the idea of being hunted (204). The relationship could destroy both of them.
This section also introduces a new symbol that aligns with Diana’s search for identity: Diana, Roman goddess of the hunt. Matthew recites a line of poetry about the goddess from Giordano Bruno’s The Heroic Enthusiast (Gli Eroici Furori): “‘for they are no longer hunters, but the hunted’” (204). In A Discovery of Witches, Bruno was a daemon, but historically, Bruno was a real Italian love poet, who lived from 1548 to 1600 and was a contemporary of Shakespeare. The Catholic Inquisition persecuted the freethinking radical Bruno and ultimately burned him at the stake. Later, Diana dreams of being the goddess and escaping pursuit on horseback, aided by her magic. The motif of the goddess Diana in her various aspects will build as the story progresses.
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