“The Witcher”, “The Evil Link”… The five best novels about witchcraft

The third season of The Witcher, June 29 on Netflix, invites us in the footsteps of the Witcher. From Samantha’s little nose to Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak, wizards, beloved or not, enchant our imaginations. Between fantasy and philosophical reflection, here are five novels featuring them and having inspired films or series.

The novelty

The Witcher, by Andrzej Sapowski (1990-2012). Series by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich (2019-2023).

What is a witcher? A wizard ? A wizard ? A superman? A bit of all that. He is above all a contract killer endowed with supernatural powers due to genetic mutations and responsible for eliminating monsters in a fantasy Middle Ages. Geralt de Riv is one of them. To earn a living, he kills stryges, jinns, leprechauns and some more whimsical creatures like Melusines or Salma. A disillusioned mercenary, capable of cruelty as well as compassion, he drags with him a fickle troubadour named Jaskier and lives a very complex love story with the beautiful magician Yennefer de Vengerberg.

Fifteen short stories and six novels, signed by the Polish Andrzej Sapowski, marked the history of the “witcher”, a long series which astonishes as much by the richness of its imagination as by the fascinating personality of its hero. The video game (three episodes produced by CD projekt), then television seized it successfully. On June 29, the third season of the series starts on Netflix, with Henry Cavill in the role of Geralt, who will return to his apron for the occasion.

Eight volumes, Bragelonne, €15.90 per volume. Series on Netflix

The classics

holy witches, by Roald Dahl (1983). Films by Nicholas Roeg (1990) and Robert Zemeckis (2020)

Before it was damaged by the author’s heirs who undertook a well-meaning rewrite, holy witches was one of the most famous books by Englishman Roald Dahl. A group of child-hating witches gather in congress to hatch a plan that will lead to nothing less than the destruction of all toddlers. But a young boy, an orphan and taken in by a grandmother who knows a lot about witches, will come to disrupt the congress and fight against his enemies.

In addition to a perfectly mastered story, Dahl subtly depicts the pain of mourning in a child. The novel was adapted twice: the first The witches) by the underrated Nicholas Roeg, with an Angelica Huston in complete freedom, the second (holy witches) in 2020 by a Robert Zemeckis again more fascinated by his special effects than by his film, this time with a grimacing Anne Hathaway. Neither of the two quite finds the comic baroque which carries the book.

Junior folio, €9.30.

The Witches of Eastwick, by John Updike (1984). Film by George Miller (1987).

The marriage seemed amazing: how could a sarcastic and philosophical novel by one of the popes of New York literature inspire a rich Hollywood production with special effects and big stars? In 1984, when John Updike published The Witches of Eastwick, he writes an attack on puritanism and machismo. Three young women, with avowed gifts of witchcraft, evoke the ideal lover. The next day, a young man, Van Horn, rings their doorbell and strikes up a sulphurous relationship with them. He has settled in the oldest house in the village, the one where, a long time ago, the founding fathers burned witches… Through this clash of powers, Updike auscultates with the acuity that we know from him the American male , its certainties and its valiant power. Closer to Rabbit, his most famous hero, than to Lucifer, Van Horne does what he can against a fearsome trio. Masculine potency is an illusion, he observes. The film that George Miller made of it in 1987, with those formidable dogs that are Cher and Jack Nicholson, accentuates the grotesqueness of the novel but does not pervert its substance.

Folio, €10.20.

The Evil Link, by Anne Rice (1990). Series (The Witches of Mayfair) by Esta Spalding and Michelle Ashford (2023).

If she is above all the one who renewed the figure of the vampire, Anne Rice was also fascinated by witches and devoted to them a trilogy composed of the evil link, of witch hour and of Taltos. At the center is a family, the Mayfairs, who live in New Orleans. A private research center, the Talamasca, has been studying them for years. He mainly studies Lasher, an evil spirit who is in contact with some of his members. What does he want ? What is his strange power? Can the Mayfairs get rid of it? Do they really want it? Unfolding in the luxuriant decorations of the bayou, the writing of Rice lets explode its sensuality and its astonishing power of evocation. As she had done with Lestat the vampire and his blood-drinking friends, she renews the image of witches and turns them into sensual and tortured beings, both cursed and delighted by their curse.

Pocket, €10.80. Series on AMC+.

Harry Potter by JK Rowling (1997-2007). Series of eight Warner Bros. pictures films (2001-2011).

How to escape it? The young Harry has become in a few years the most famous wizard in the world. Seven novels and a play have created an unforgettable universe with a resounding success. An obviously initiatory novel, dealing with the transition to adulthood, the series tells how, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft, Harry Potter, a boy of mysterious origins, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley arbitrate a war between wizards that threatens the very foundations of their world. Dumbledore, Voldemort, Slytherin and the Death Eaters are known to everyone today. A series of films anchored the success of the saga, and a TV series (of which JK Rowling is executive producer) will be released in 2025 on HBO max. For making enormous books the cult object of a generation that is said to no longer read, JK Rowling is well-deserved of our recognition. Let’s forget the “cancel culture” which is exhausted unsuccessfully trying to erase it from our memories, and rejoice in this television project: the “muggles” have not finished feasting.

Eight volumes, Junior Folio, between 7 and 10 euros per volume.