A Book Of Witches

Book one of the New York Times bestselling All Souls series, from the author of The Black Bird Oracle. “A wonderfully imaginative grown-up fantasy with all the magic of Harry Potter and Twilight” (People). Look for the hit series “A Discovery of Witches,” now streaming on AMC+, Sundance Now, and Shudder! Deborah Harkness’s sparkling debut, A Discovery of Witches, has brought her into the spotlight and galvanized fans around the world. In this tale of passion and obsession, Diana Bishop, a young scholar and a descendant of witches, discovers a long-lost and enchanted alchemical manuscript, Ashmole 782, deep in Oxford's Bodleian Library. Its reappearance summons a fantastical underworld, which she navigates with her leading man, vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont. Harkness has created a universe to rival those of Anne Rice, Diana Gabaldon, and Elizabeth Kostova, and she adds a scholar's depth to this riveting tale of magic and suspense. The story continues in book two, Shadow of Night, book three, The Book of Life, and the fourth in the series, Time’s Convert.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cleopatra, the #1 national bestseller, unpacks the mystery of the Salem Witch Trials. It began in 1692, over an exceptionally raw Massachusetts winter, when a minister's daughter began to scream and convulse. It ended less than a year later, but not before 19 men and women had been hanged and an elderly man crushed to death. The panic spread quickly, involving the most educated men and prominent politicians in the colony. Neighbors accused neighbors, parents and children each other. Aside from suffrage, the Salem Witch Trials represent the only moment when women played the central role in American history. In curious ways, the trials would shape the future republic. As psychologically thrilling as it is historically seminal, THE WITCHES is Stacy Schiff's account of this fantastical story-the first great American mystery unveiled fully for the first time by one of our most acclaimed historians.

Beware the women who are called witches, or those who claim the name for themselves... Banshees - a howling night-witch and harbinger of death; She-devils - Lilith and her daughters; or Bitches - Hecate, whose chariot is drawn by dogs. Alluring women, enchantresses, seekers of revenge, wise old women and badly-behaved girls. As Shahrukh Husain says, witches are 'womanhood in all its complexity'. Over fifty stories of crones and nixies, shape shifters and beauties are here, including the loving fox witch of Japan; Italy's Witch-Bea-Witch; Scotland's Goodwife of Laggan; Biddy Earl and the terrifying Kali and Baba Yaga who comes in many forms to haunt, entice, possess, transform and challenge. From every corner of the globe, with tom-foolery, fun, strife and victory, these folklore and legends celebrate women who step out of line.

"This complete self-study course in modern Wicca is a treasured classic - an essential and trusted guide that belongs in every witch's library."---Back cover

Chilling real-life accounts of witches, from medieval Europe through colonial America, compiled by the New York Times bestselling author of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane and The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs From a manual for witch hunters written by King James himself in 1597, to court documents from the Salem witch trials of 1692, to newspaper coverage of a woman stoned to death on the streets of Philadelphia while the Continental Congress met, The Penguin Book of Witches is a treasury of historical accounts of accused witches that sheds light on the reality behind the legends. Bringing to life stories like that of Eunice Cole, tried for attacking a teenage girl with a rock and buried with a stake through her heart; Jane Jacobs, a Bostonian so often accused of witchcraft that she took her tormentors to court on charges of slander; and Increase Mather, an exorcism-performing minister famed for his knowledge of witches, this volume provides a unique tour through the darkest history of English and North American witchcraft. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

A Book of Witches is an anthology, originally published in 1966, of twelve fairy tales that have been collected and retold by Ruth Manning-Sanders. The book is illustrated by Robin Jacques. There are good witches and bad witches in the stories. Unfortunately the number of the bad witches is great, and the number of the good witches is very small in this book at least. In all the stories in this book, you will only find one mention of a good witch, and that is at the beginning of the Norwegian tale of Tatterhood. And you will see that had the queen done exactly what this good little witch bade her, there would be no more story to tell, but she does not and thus the story continues. These bad witches are powerful. They can fly through the air on broomsticks, or on stalks of ragwort, or even on old jars; they can raise tempests; they can cross the sea in stone boats, or kneading troughs, or sieves; in their great cauldrons they can brew magic potions that put spells on their enemies; and they can turn themselves, and other people, into pigs, or geese, or cats, or hares, or into any other shape they fancy. In some fairy tales, too, there are wicked witch-maidens, who are surpassingly beautiful; and these maidens are perhaps the most dangerous witches of all. Anyone, meeting with a humpy-backed old woman, with a great hooked nose, little red eyes, huge leering mouth, and craggy chin, might recognize such a creature for the witch she was, and so be on his guard. But if confronted with a sweet-voiced maiden of dazzling beauty - who would suspect evil? You have to be a very sharp fellow, like the hero of the Bohemian story, Johnny and the Witch-Maidens, to recognize the real nature of these fascinating and seemingly innocent damsels. And even Johnny might have been deceived by their charms, had he not been forewarned by his poor old master. Some witches have big families of daughters, you will find thirteen of these daughters in the Danish story of Esben and the Witch. But it is rarely that you come across a witch who has a son. You might think that to be the son of a witch was not a happy fate; but, provided that the son is good, he has at least one advantage: he picks up a lot of magic from his witch-mother, and so is able to foil her evil spells. One such son is the handsome Benvenuto, in the Italian story of Prunella. Of the rest of the stories, Rapunzel, Lazy Hans, The Donkey Lettuce and Hansel and Gretel, all come from Germany. The White Dove is a Danish story, and The Old Witch an English one; The Twins and the Snarling Witch comes from Russia, and The Blackstairs Mountain from Ireland. Now in all these stories, as in the fairy tales about witches in general, you may be sure of one thing: however terrible the witches may seem - and whatever power they may have to lay spells on people and to work mischief - they are always defeated. So that though, at some point in the story, you may find the hero or heroine in utter distress, you need never fear for them. Because it is the absolute and very comforting rule of the fairy tale that the good brave shall be rewarded, and that bad people shall come to a bad end.

The Dark Wind provides a survey of witches around the world, their prehistoric origin and how society has viewed them throughout history. Folklorist Gary R. Varner explores the use of magic, spells and curses among indigenous groups as well as state approved religions such as those observed in ancient Rome and Greece, and how even contemporary Christianity uses many of the same "magic" combinations. Also examined is the current "witch craze" in several countries where thousands are being killed as witches, the underlying reasons for this tragedy and the history of anti-witchcraft laws. The Dark Wind is a book for everyone interested in anthropology, archaeology, ancient history, religion and the occult. Illustrated with contemporary woodcuts and drawings. The author is a member of the American Folklore Society and the Foundation for Mythological Studies.