{"id":9667,"date":"2013-05-07T17:55:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-08T00:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/the-dark-of-harkness\/"},"modified":"2024-12-09T22:07:28","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T06:07:28","slug":"the-dark-of-harkness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/the-dark-of-harkness\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dark of Harkness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n    \n                                \n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/04\/story-1379-768x432.jpg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/04\/story-1379-768x432.jpg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  alt=\"The Dark of Harkness\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n      <div class=\"image-caption\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Historian Deborah Harkness breathes life into the mysteries of the past by embroidering fiction onto gaps in the historical record. At the centerpiece of her <em>All Souls Trilogy<\/em> of books is the perplexing, real-life manuscript Ashmole 782, originally donated to the Bodleian Library at Oxford University in 1858. (Photo by John Livzey.)\n\n\n<\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n          <nav aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\" class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n        <ul>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\">News<\/a><\/li>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\/?category=faculty\">Faculty<\/a><\/li>\n                  <\/ul>\n      <\/nav>\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>The Dark of Harkness<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n          <div class=\"subtitle\">\n            \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Writing fiction gives Deborah Harkness license to explore where her inner historian would not dare to tread.\n\n\n<\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    \n           <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span><a href=\"mailto:communication@dornsife.usc.edu\">Michelle Salzman Boston<\/a><\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">May 7, 2013<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  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xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"m8.14285714 9.42857143c-.17142857 0-.34285714 0-.51428571.08571428l7.28571427 6.34285719c.3428572.2571428.6857143.2571428.9428572 0l7.2857142-6.34285719c-.0857142-.08571428-.2571428-.08571428-.4285714-.08571428zm-1.28571428 1.11428567v.1714286 8.5714286c0 .6857143.6 1.2857143 1.28571428 1.2857143h14.57142856c.6857143 0 1.2857143-.6 1.2857143-1.2857143v-8.5714286c0-.0857143 0-.0857143 0-.1714286l-7.2 6.3428572c-.7714286.6857143-1.8857143.6857143-2.6571429 0z\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\" transform=\"translate(-6 -9)\"\/><\/svg>\n            <\/span>\n            <span class=\"a2a_label visually-hidden\">Email<\/span>\n          <\/a>\n                  <\/span>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n \n\n\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--rich-text \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--rich-text\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n      \n<div class=\"f--field f--wysiwyg\">\n\n    \n  <p>Deborah Harkness believes the pages of centuries-old manuscripts are enchanted.<\/p>\n<p>Like clues to a mystery, they hold the key to unraveling the chronology, ambitions, failures and successes of those who lived before us. And where records of their pursuits sometimes lead to dead ends, Harkness finds fuel for fiction.<\/p>\n<p>Take Ashmole 782, the enigmatic manuscript that became the jumping off point for <em>A Discovery of Witches<\/em> (Viking Adult, 2011) and <em>Shadow of Night<\/em> (Viking Adult, 2012), the first two installments of her uber-successful <em>All Souls Trilogy<\/em>. Ashmole 782 does in fact exist outside of Harkness\u2019 fictional world, though its whereabouts are currently unknown.<\/p>\n<p>Ashmole 782 was originally donated to the Bodleian Library at Oxford University in 1858 as part of chemist and bibliophile Elias Ashmole\u2019s extensive book, coin and natural object collection. It was designated \u201cObject 782\u201d in the collection and bore the description: \u201cAnthropologia, or a treatis containing a short description of Man in two parts: the first Anatomical, the second Psychological.\u201d Harkness surmises that the manuscript was lost due to an incorrect catalogue entry or shelving error.<\/p>\n<address><em><a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/3053\/deborah-harkness-interview-on-supernatural-science-history\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Watch a July 2019 interview with Deborah Harkness as she discussess adapting her novel <\/a><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/3053\/deborah-harkness-interview-on-supernatural-science-history\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A Discovery of Witches<em> for television &gt;&gt;<\/em><\/a><\/address>\n<p>Harkness, professor of history in USC Dornsife, breathes life into the mysterious text by filling in gaps in the historical record through the magic of fiction \u2014 one of the great perks of being a writer, she said. \u201cI get to go where the historian\u2019s craft would force me to stop because there\u2019s no evidence. As a novelist I get to say, \u2018OK, imagine this is what\u2019s happening.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the series, Harkness casts Ashmole 782 in a central role, imagining what magic it may contain. Set in the present day, the manuscript brings together researchers Diana Bishop and Matthew Clairmont in the majestic, gothic Bodleian Library. The manuscript is the main impetus behind their adventures.<\/p>\n<p>In a <em>Discovery of Witches<\/em>, Bishop, a historian and witch who has rejected her deep, Salem, Mass., roots, encounters the enchanted manuscript during the course of her research into alchemy texts:<\/p>\n<p>\u2026 <em>I reached out, touching the brown leather. A mild shock made me withdraw my fingers quickly, but not quickly enough. The tingling traveled up my arms, lifting my skin into tiny goose pimples \u2026 Shaken by my response, I stepped away from the library table. Even at a safe distance, this manuscript was challenging me \u2014 threatening the walls I\u2019d erected to separate my career as a scholar from my birthright as the last of the Bishop witches.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In Bishop\u2019s world, witches, vampires and daemons (spelled as such in allusion to the Greek word for genius) walk among the oblivious regular folk, and the reemergence of Ashmole 782 \u2014 previously lost for centuries \u2014 sets the supernatural world into an uproar.<\/p>\n<p>However, Bishop \u00ad\u2014 unaware of the manuscript\u2019s significance and upset because she knows it is magical \u2014 unceremoniously returns it to the stacks. Then the frightening but handsome 1,500-year-old vampire, Clairmont, appears and clues her in: Ashmole 782 may hold the key to explaining why supernatural creatures exist \u2014 and why they are dying out. So begins their search to reclaim the elusive manuscript, which has once again disappeared.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/migration-uploads\/Harkness_secondary-1379.jpg\" alt=\"A person writes on a sheet of paper.\" width=\"225\" height=\"350\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">When the muse strikes, Deborah Harkness is ready. The historian and bestselling author carries her laptop and a small notebook with her wherever she goes to capture ideas for her novels. Once caught unprepared, a stack of napkins sufficed for penning plot points for her book <em>Shadow of Night<\/em>. (Photo by John Livzey.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Harkness clearly has fun fusing history and storytelling. Peppered throughout the two books are plot points and characters with true historical origins.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, the Clairmont character in the trilogy is based on Matthew Roydon, a real-life, 16th-century English poet and friend of playwright Christopher Marlowe. Harkness studied Roydon while researching her thesis as a master\u2019s student at Northwestern University on the poem \u201cThe Shadow of Night\u201d by George Chapman. Chapman dedicated the poem to Roydon, whom Harkness described as a very strange, mysterious character.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was a spy for the queen, yet we don\u2019t have firm information on where or when he died. He was mentioned in Marlowe\u2019s accidental death inquest, but nobody knows where he was buried. It was as if he vanished.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Resurrecting Roydon in her trilogy, the reference is unveiled for good when \u2014 spoiler alert \u2014 Clairmont goes by the name Roydon in <em>Shadow of Night<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the very beginning, when I was thinking about what vampires would be like in my world, I thought they would be a total pain like Matthew Roydon,\u201d Harkness said. \u201cSpotlight-adjacent, but never actually in the spotlight long enough that you could get to know them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A historian of science and magic in Early Modern Europe, the period from 1400 to 1700, Harkness has made the remarkable leap to bestselling fiction writer. <em>O Magazine<\/em> included <em>A Discovery of Witches<\/em> on its \u201c15 Books to Watch for in February 2011\u201d list, and it landed at the number two spot on <em>The<\/em> <em>New York Times<\/em> bestseller list. The second installment, <em>Shadow of Night,<\/em> did even better, hitting <em>The<\/em> <em>New York Times<\/em> bestseller list at number one. Together, the books have been translated into more than three dozen languages.<\/p>\n<p>As a historian, Harkness\u2019 research focuses on how scholars studied the natural world from the Middle Ages through the Enlightenment and Renaissance, up to the 18th century. This was the time of witch hunts, when there was no distinction between magic and science.<\/p>\n<p>Her fictional work fittingly mirrors that dynamic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople in the Early Modern Period genuinely believed that supernatural creatures lived among them because they had different ideas about the world and how it worked,\u201d Harkness said. \u201cVery educated people believed it was completely possible to have supernatural powers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her two previous works of nonfiction examine 16th-century scientists in-depth. The first, <em>John Dee\u2019s Conversations with Angels: Cabala, Alchemy and the End of Nature <\/em>(Cambridge University Press, 1999) features a title character who makes an appearance in <em>Shadow of Night. <\/em>Harkness followed that up with<em> The Jewel House: Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution<\/em> (Yale University Press, 2007).<\/p>\n<p>But it was the recent explosion of vampire and witch lore in pop culture that got Harkness thinking: What if supernatural creatures do, in fact, exist as her research subjects believed, and if they did, what would they do for a living?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat inspired me was to try and think about how I could write a fairytale for grown-ups that was about these fantastic creatures living among us,\u201d Harkness said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI explain the world from inside their communities. I think in that way it\u2019s an approach that would make sense to other historians of science because what we do is study the systematic ways the people in the past looked at the world and their place in it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harkness is currently on sabbatical to complete the final installment of the <em>All Souls Trilogy<\/em>. Though she works mainly at her Los Angeles-area home, she will write anywhere and everywhere: \u201cI\u2019ve written on the Doheny Library steps with my laptop; I\u2019ve written in the library caf\u00e9, in my office, at home, hotel rooms, on the train between London and Paris \u2014 you name it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In case the muse strikes, she always carries with her a laptop and small notebook. However, sometimes she\u2019s not in the position to use them. During a long car ride on Interstate 5 she was caught off guard. \u201cDriving is wonderful because your mind floats. I had to pull off to get a coffee, and I ended up with this stack of McDonald\u2019s napkins with bits and pieces of ideas for <em>Shadow of Night<\/em> on them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harkness doesn\u2019t usually go through an intense research phase prior to writing each book since much of the historical information exists in her head. However, she made special trips to visit the cities she writes about in her books.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI lived in a tiny, tiny village in the Auvergne in France,\u201d\u00a0 Harkness said. \u201cThere were about 25 residents and goats. I really got as close as I could get to what it would be like to live in a village in the Auvergne in the 16th century.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She also spent time in Prague, a central location in <em>Shadow of Night<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had never been to Prague and there was no way I could actually write about somebody\u2019s experience without visiting it myself,\u201d she said. \u201cWalking, listening to the sounds, feeling the air, the wind as it comes off of the river. It\u2019s that intangible experience, the sensory detail, that I hope is what makes the book feel real for my readers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She was already familiar with Oxford and London \u2014two cities she lived in as an undergraduate studying abroad and later as a Fulbright fellow. Harkness, who grew up in suburban Philadelphia, is the older of two children born to an American father, a sales manager in a paint shop, and an English mother, a secretary.<\/p>\n<p>Her books have garnered her swarms of dedicated fans, whom she personally interacts with on social media. And as creativity breeds creativity, her fans have produced their own <em>All Souls<\/em> items: jewelry with story-inspired charms, knitting patterns incorporating the book jacket design and Pinterest boards collecting images of narrative details and locales. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing to inspire not just people\u2019s curiosity and their empathy, but also their creativity,\u201d Harkness said.<\/p>\n<p>On her Facebook discussion forum, fans have begun formulating dream casts for the <em>All Souls Trilogy<\/em> movies in the works. Warner Bros., picked up the film rights to <em>A Discovery of Witches<\/em> in 2011. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Auburn is currently adapting the novel for the silver screen. One musician fan wrote a suggested theme song for the film.<\/p>\n<p>Even amidst this adventure, Harkness is excited to return to teaching at USC Dornsife in the Fall and get her students fired up about history. \u201cI really want to continue to find ways to make my students\u2019 learning historically rigorous and sound, but also inspiring and exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We know she\u2019ll deliver. There\u2019s magic in her storytelling.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/usc-dornsife-magazine-spring-summer-2013\/\">Read more articles from <em>USC Dornsife Magazine<\/em>&#8216;s Spring\/Summer 2013 issue<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n  \n        \n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-related-stories \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-related-stories\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n    \n                  <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/deborah-harkness-interview-on-supernatural-science-history\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >Deborah Harkness on the supernatural, science and history<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/course-explores-magic-witchcraft-and-healing\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >Course explores \u2018Magic, Witchcraft and Healing\u2019<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/how-did-halloween-get-spooky\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >Halloween\u2019s celebration of mingling with the dead has roots in ancient Celtic celebrations of\u00a0Samhain<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n            <\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Writing fiction gives Deborah Harkness license to explore where her inner historian would not dare to tread.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":9670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1645,1396,71],"class_list":["post-9667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty","tag-deb-harkness","tag-deborah-harkness","tag-history"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Dark of Harkness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Writing fiction gives Deborah Harkness license to explore where her inner historian would not dare to tread.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/the-dark-of-harkness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Dark of Harkness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Writing fiction gives Deborah Harkness license to explore where her inner historian would not dare to tread.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/the-dark-of-harkness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"USC Dornsife News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uscdornsife\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-05-08T00:55:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-12-10T06:07:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/04\/story-1379.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"525\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Liu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@uscdornsife\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@uscdornsife\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/the-dark-of-harkness\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/the-dark-of-harkness\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael Liu\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d03084ed5319ed7575c96017879a7447\"},\"headline\":\"The Dark of 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