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The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
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The Thirteenth Tale (2006)

by Diane Setterfield

Other authors: See the other authors section.

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11,374628210 (4.02)4 / 798
2007 (82) 2008 (71) audiobook (54) authors (63) book club (78) books (181) books about books (147) British (102) contemporary fiction (52) England (261) family (97) fantasy (48) fiction (1,460) ghosts (107) gothic (401) historical fiction (81) literature (64) mystery (735) novel (153) own (78) read (181) read in 2007 (53) read in 2008 (43) secrets (61) sisters (107) suspense (93) to-read (171) twins (423) unread (73) writers (77)
  1. 501
    Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (norabelle414, ladybug74, Contusions, Voracious_Reader)
    norabelle414: Both gothic novels, with a big ol' creepy house, and theme of hidden family secrets
    Voracious_Reader: Both beautiful, almost Gothic tales told through the eyes of precocious unusual young women.
  2. 430
    Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (ladybug74)
  3. 331
    Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (brightbel, coffee.is.yum, caflores)
  4. 201
    The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (391)
  5. 150
    The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton (starfishian)
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    The Distant Hours by Kate Morton (library_gal)
  7. 134
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  8. 91
    The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry (avisannschild)
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    The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (starfishian, rmjp518, kethonna, elizabeth.a.coates)
    elizabeth.a.coates: Both centre around books/literature, both are eloquently written, both have an element of mystery
  10. 82
    Atonement by Ian McEwan (julie_e_meyer)
  11. 83
    Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger (sruszala, lahochstetler)
    lahochstetler: Gothic tales of devoted twin sisters, love, and death.
  12. 61
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  13. 52
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  14. 30
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  15. 30
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  16. 20
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    The Woman in White, Vol. 1 by Wilkie Collins (caflores)
  18. 20
    A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore (fannyprice)
  19. 20
    Phantom by Susan Kay (Bookmarque)
  20. 20
    Affinity by Sarah Waters (Citizenjoyce)
    Citizenjoyce: The ambiance is the same. Both stories draw the reader in with promises of deeper mysteries to solve.

(see all 28 recommendations)

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English (593)  French (4)  Finnish (4)  Spanish (4)  Italian (4)  Norwegian (3)  German (3)  Swedish (3)  Dutch (2)  Catalan (2)  Portuguese (Brazil) (1)  Portuguese (Portugal) (1)  All languages (624)
Showing 1-5 of 593 (next | show all)
One of the best books I've read in a long time. I could not put the book down! ( )
  akreese | May 16, 2013 |
Excellent book. Can't find anything quite like it! I wish I would have saved it for a summer read as putting it down to go to work was next to impossible. Very well written. ( )
  mbkrum | May 2, 2013 |
I can't believe this book was published in 2006 and I just read it now! Where has it been? Where was I? Diane Setterfield's debut novel grabbed me from the opening sentence, and never let go.

The Thirteenth Tale is a British mystery with so many interesting and fun elements I don't know where to start. On the surface, it is the story of a young woman, Margaret Lea, who works in her father's antiquarian bookshop. Margaret is well-read, intelligent, but socially awkward. While close with her father, Margaret has a strained relationship with her mother. Margaret amuses herself by writing short biographies of some of the lesser-knows authors whose works she has read.

One day, Margaret receives a long, hand-written letter from Vida Winter, a novelist. The reclusive and mysterious Winter is aging and very ill. In her 50+ years as a best-selling author, Winter has never told the truth about her background. She offers Margaret a large sum of money to write her story. Margaret must leave her comfortable home and travel to Winter's isolated estate in Yorkshire. She will live with Winter while hearing her life story. There are, of course, conditions attached to the offer.

Margaret has never read any of Winter's books, preferring 19th century novelists. Before accepting this commission, Margaret begins reading, and is immediately drawn in by Winter's unique story-telling style. Most intriguing is Winter's debut novel. Margaret reads a copy of this book, titled Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation, which she finds in her father's storeroom. Upon finishing the twelfth tale, the book ends. Margaret's father explains that the book only contains twelve tales. They own the only known copy of the re-called first edition. All other published copies are simply called Tales of Change and Desperation.

This engaging story contains so many fascinating elements. It is a tale of a crazy family, twins, an addled housekeeper, a strange topiary garden, incest, and a fire. And more! It is a great mystery, with enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing until the very end. ( )
  LaBibliophille | Apr 29, 2013 |
Commentary entry to follow ( )
  caffeinatedlife | Apr 26, 2013 |
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Margaret helps her father in his antiquarian bookshop. She also writes short bios or essays on long dead authors. She is fascinated by the written word of a hundred years ago. He father attempts to get her to read current fiction but she doesn't enjoy it. Among her favorites are Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Woman in White. She leads a quiet life living in a small flat above that of her parents.

Margaret was born one of a pair of twins. Her twin died at birth and so did a part of her mother. While her father is very engaged in her life and shares a great deal in common with Margaret, her mother is a rather cold and distant part of her life. She doesn't often leave the flat and returns home quite disturbed when she does.

One rainy evening returning from her outside work, Margaret finds, waiting on the step for her, a letter from the very prominent author Vida Winter. She sits down upon the step to read the letter. "(I never read without making sure I am in a secure position. I have been like this ever since the age of seven when, sitting on a high wall and reading The Water Babies, I was so seduced by the descriptions of underwater life that I unconsciously relaxed my muscles. Instead of being held buoyant by the water that so vividly surrounded me in my mind, I plummeted to the ground and knocked myself out. I can still feel the scar under my fringe now. Reading can be dangerous.)" Ms Winter has never given an authentic interview. They all somehow turn into a piece of fiction, a story. But in her letter to Margaret she invites her to come and meet with her. She wants Margaret to write an honest biography of her life.

Margaret is hesitant but after talking it over with her father she decides to meet with Ms. Winter. When she arrives she is taken to the library and while waiting she peruses the shelves and happily finds the books that she herself has so loved. She also finds many editions of each book that Ms. Winter has written except for her much talked about Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation. This book is a compilation of Ms Winter's own renditions of fairy tales. Margaret had read her fathers much protected edition of the book the night she received the letter and found the tales to be "brutal and sharp and heartbreaking" but she loved them. When she came to the end of the twelfth tale upon turning the next pages she found that there was no "thirteenth tale".

When she asked her father why the book was so valuable he told her "Partly because it's the first edition of the first book by the most famous living writer in the English language. But mostly because it's flawed. Every following edition is called Tales of Change and Desperation. No mention of thirteen. You'll have noticed there are only twelve stories?" There were supposed to have been thirteen stories but only twelve were submitted and there was a mix-up with the jacket design. The book was printed with the original title but only twelve stories. They were recalled except for one which had already been sold. Margaret's father had purchased that edition from a collector. People still called the book the Thirteen Tales even though the corrected title Tales of Change and Desperation had been published for over fifty years.

During the interview with Vida Winter regarding the biography Margaret is told that Ms Winter wishes to tell the whole truth about her life and she thinks that Margaret is the writer to do it. Margaret reluctantly agrees to do it.

And so begins "The Thirteenth Tale.

It is an often bizaare and queer tale beginning with the fact that Ms Winter is one of a set of twins just as is Margaret. The story is being told now because Ms Winter is old, ill and has waited too long to tell it herself. In fact she is ill enough that they only meet daily at times when Ms Winter is strong enough to tell more of the story. Margaret spends hours in the evenings transcribing what she has been told that day.

The story is of a village, Angelfield; a house, Angelfield and the Angelfield family of George, Mathilde; their children Charlie and Isabelle, Isabelle's children Emmeline and Adeline and 'their ghost'. Mathilde dies in childbirth with Isabelle and during the birthing, the baby is deprived of oxygen. She becomes known by all as odd. Her brother develops an unnatural obsession with Isabelle. They play strange games, don't develop as 'normal' youth do and eventually she runs off, marries, gives birth to the twins, her husband dies of pneumonia and she returns with her twin girls to the family estate. Only Charlie and the servants remain, her father having pined away to death upon her leaving.

The twins grow up wild and in their own world. Through their lives come others wanting to help but eventually all who remain are the housekeeper, the head gardener, the girls...and the story..........
This story is so fascinating that to put it down even the one time was torture. It was a two sitting read. I found all of the characters to be believable. And the only fault I could find came at the end of the book and was with the doctor, the cat, and the invitation. That didn't ring true to me with the storyline. But this was a five star read for me and I very highly recommend it. ( )
1 vote rainpebble | Apr 23, 2013 |
Showing 1-5 of 593 (next | show all)
A family saga with Gothic overtones, dark secrets, lost twins, a tragic fire, a missing manuscript and over-obvious nods to Jane Eyre, Rebecca and The Woman in White, it reads like something a creative writing class might write as a committee, for the sole purpose of coming up with a novel that would suit a book group (and tellingly, there are "Reading Group Study Notes" at the back suggesting topics for discussion).
 
The Thirteenth Tale is not without fault. The gentle giant Aurelius is a stock character, and the ending is perhaps a little too concerned with tying up all loose ends. But it is a remarkable first novel, a book about the joy of books, a riveting multi-layered mystery that twists and turns, and weaves a quite magical spell for most of its length.
 
"The Thirteenth Tale" keeps us reading for its nimble cadences and atmospheric locales, as well as for its puzzles, the pieces of which, for the most part, fall into place just as we discover where the holes are. And yet, for all its successes -- and perhaps because of them -- on the whole the book feels unadventurous, content to rehash literary formulas rather than reimagine them.
 
A book that you wake in the middle of the night craving to get back to...Timeless, charming, a pure pleasure to read...The Thirteenth Tale is a book to savor a dozen times.
added by rainpebble | edit~The San Diego Union-Tribune
 

» Add other authors (21 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Diane Setterfieldprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Amato, BiancaReadersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Moksunen, SalmeTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Tanner, JillReadersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
All children mythologize their birth. It is a universal trait. You want to know someone? Heart, mind and soul? Ask him to tell you about when he was born. What you get won't be the truth; it will be a story. And nothing is more telling than a story. -Vida Winter, Tales of Change and Desperation
Dedication
In memory

Ivy Dora and Fred Harold Morris

Corina Ethel and Ambrose Charles Setterfield
First words
It was November.
Quotations
Do you know the feeling when you start reading a new book before the membrane of the last one has had time to close behind you? You leave the previous book with ideas and themes-characters even-caught in the fibers of your clothes, and when you open the new book, they are still with you.
My gripe is not with lovers of the truth but with truth herself. What succor, what consolation is there in truth, compared to a story? What good is truth, at midnight, in the dark, when the wind is roaring like a bear in the chimney? What you need are the plump comforts of a story. The soothing, rocking safety of a lie. - Vida Winter
Tell me the truth.
Of course I loved books more than people. Of course I valued Jane Eye over the anonymous stranger with his hand on the lever. Of course all of Shakespeare was worth more than a human life. Of course. Unlike Miss Winter, I had been ashamed to say so.
… ten years of marriage is usually enough to cure marital affection …
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Book description
My gripe is not with lovers of the truth but with truth itself. What succor, what consolation is there in truth, compared to a story? What good is truth, at midnight, in the dark, when the wind is roaring like a bear in the chimney? What you need are the plump comforts of a story. The soothing, rocking safety of a lie.

All children mythologize their birth...

So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter's collection of stories, which are as famous for the mystery of the missing thirteenth tale as they are for the delight and enchantment of the twelve that do exist.

The enigmatic Winter has spent six decades creating various outlandish life histories for herself — all of them inventions that have brought her fame and fortune but have kept her violent and tragic past a secret. Now old and ailing, she at last wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. She summons biographer Margaret Lea, a young woman for whom the secret of her own birth, hidden by those who loved her most, remains an ever-present pain. Struck by a curious parallel between Miss Winter's story and her own, Margaret takes on the commission.

As Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good, Margaret is mesmerized. It is a tale of gothic strangeness featuring the Angelfield family, including the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess, a topiary garden and a devastating fire.

Margaret succumbs to the power of Vida's storytelling but remains suspicious of the author's sincerity. She demands the truth from Vida, and together they confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves.

The Thirteenth Tale is a love letter to reading, a book for the feral reader in all of us, a return to that rich vein of storytelling that our parents loved and that we loved as children. Diane Setterfield will keep you guessing, make you wonder, move you to tears and laughter and, in the end, deposit you breathless yet satisfied back upon the shore of your everyday life.

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When her health begins failing, the mysterious author Vida Winter decides to let Margaret Lea, a biographer, write the truth about her life, but Margaret needs to verify the facts since Vida has a history of telling outlandish tales.

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