The Thirteenth Tale
by Diane Setterfield
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Description
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.Tags
Recommendations
Member Recommendations
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.
Also recommended by ladybug74, Contusions
592
elizabeth.a.coates Both centre around books/literature, both are eloquently written, both have an element of mystery
1911
Becchanalia Pretty much the same plot, secrets, family ties and tragedy set in the ancestral home.
Also recommended by library_gal
141
lahochstetler Gothic tales of devoted twin sisters, love, and death.
Also recommended by sruszala
124
Citizenjoyce The ambiance is the same. Both stories draw the reader in with promises of deeper mysteries to solve.
70
akblanchard Isolated old ladies benefit by telling their stories to younger women.
50
BookshelfMonstrosity These novels offer gothic suspense's classic creepy atmosphere, though with somewhat different story-lines. Fingersmith takes place in Victorian England while The Thirteenth Tale is contemporary, but both emphasize books, mysteries about birth and identity, insanity, and grand houses.
30
Ozma333 Same style of story-telling where there is a mystery from the past that reflects or explains current situations. Also, similar writing styles - descriptive and rich. Both entertaining and both referencing dark fairytales.
Also recommended by PaperbackPirate
43
lahochstetler Very similar gothic feel, artists investigate the traumatic secrets of the past in the English countryside.
10
Becchanalia Similar plot and character dynamics but has less of the gothic tale about it.
21
BookshelfMonstrosity Both novels have a generally dark mood and complex characters who are searching for answers. The Gargoyle is more graphic and violent, but both weave together the past and present in an intricate plot that encourages self-reflection.
01
BookshelfMonstrosity Using Gothic elements and literary references, both novels have a fairytale-like quality, balancing reality with a bit of magic as each female protagonist solves a mystery important to her. Intricate plots and rich details create lush literary landscapes in these novels.
passion4reading Though covering slightly different time periods, each novel explores the discovery of long-held family secrets by a biographer; coincidentally, both characters at the heart of the mystery are authors.
Member Reviews
If you know your literary history, you will be familiar with a Victorian trend known as the "sensation" novel, which was at its greatest popularity in the 1860s and 1870s. The Thirteenth Tale references many of these works - Jane Eyre, Great Expectations, Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White, and Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady's Audley's Secret, which are all important touchstones for Setterfield's novel.
There is a strange prejudice that the narrator, Margaret Lea, expresses repeatedly in the course of The Thirteenth Tale, which is that, in her opinion, the conventions of the aforementioned "sensation" novel represent the archetype of the "traditional" novel, with its realistic characters and sensibly linear storytelling. None of that show more postmodern playing with uncertainty and non-linear plots for her! Indeed, that is supposedly part of why she is reluctant to write about her new biographical assignment, best-selling author Vida Winter.
But here's the thing about the "sensation" novel: it wasn't at all the "traditional" form of the novel, and that is why it only lasted for two decades during the Victorian period! While it did produce a handful of masterpieces, it became the inevitable victim of its own aesthetic principle of trying to shock its readers. The "sensation" novel quickly descended into a series of cliches: hidden family ties, shocking secrets, revelations of madness, incest, murder, and so on.
So you see, while Jane Eyre and Great Expectations and The Woman in White are indeed masterpieces of their time, they are also unrepeatable because they emerge from a particular culture, one that quickly went out of fashion because it was rightly seen (and continues to be seen) as mostly hackneyed and unoriginal.
The latter problem is one that returns in The Thirteenth Tale, which I felt was equally hackneyed and unoriginal. I realize, of course, that Setterfield was trying to pay homage to the "sensation" novel, but a better way to do this would have been to borrow *critically* from that genre, rather than simply repeating its cliches. This aspect of the novel was a particular problem at the book's conclusion, when the reader is bombarded with "revelations" that can be spotted a mile away, such as the true identity of Vida Winter, or Aurelius's Love's connection to the main story.
If Margaret Lea was so interested in the tradition of the British novel, maybe she should have read, say, Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, a work that parodies the Gothic tradition of the late eighteenth century, the direct predecessor of the "sensation" novel. Austen provides the perfect template for paying homage to literary cliches while at the same time reworking them in an original way.
What I found rather more disturbing about the The Thirteenth Tale, though, is its pointed repression of the twentieth century. For me, this wasn't just an aesthetic decision, an overweening admiration of the Victorian novel on Setterfield's part. As far as I'm concerned, this kind of return to the past is a dangerous nostalgia, one that erases the terrible events and lessons of the twentieth century by pretending they are not there.
The reason why most neo-Victorian novels goes back to the past is precisely in order to rediscover what was repressed in Victorian literature. In A.S. Byatt's Angels and Insects, for instance, she reveals the hypocritical, incestuous ties between colonization and aristocracy. In Sarah Waters's Tipping the Velvet we are given a portrait of lesbian sexuality that is otherwise invisible. In Michel Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White we see a different repression of female sexuality in the form of prostitution.
The Thirteenth Tale, by contrast, is not critical or self-aware in the same way as these works. It is an exercise in uncritical nostalgia, a compulsion to repeat the worn-out pleasures of the "sensation" novel. In so doing, it represses the horror of what follows, choosing to focus on the entertainment of the past so as to avoid the more difficult questions of more recent times. show less
There is a strange prejudice that the narrator, Margaret Lea, expresses repeatedly in the course of The Thirteenth Tale, which is that, in her opinion, the conventions of the aforementioned "sensation" novel represent the archetype of the "traditional" novel, with its realistic characters and sensibly linear storytelling. None of that show more postmodern playing with uncertainty and non-linear plots for her! Indeed, that is supposedly part of why she is reluctant to write about her new biographical assignment, best-selling author Vida Winter.
But here's the thing about the "sensation" novel: it wasn't at all the "traditional" form of the novel, and that is why it only lasted for two decades during the Victorian period! While it did produce a handful of masterpieces, it became the inevitable victim of its own aesthetic principle of trying to shock its readers. The "sensation" novel quickly descended into a series of cliches: hidden family ties, shocking secrets, revelations of madness, incest, murder, and so on.
So you see, while Jane Eyre and Great Expectations and The Woman in White are indeed masterpieces of their time, they are also unrepeatable because they emerge from a particular culture, one that quickly went out of fashion because it was rightly seen (and continues to be seen) as mostly hackneyed and unoriginal.
The latter problem is one that returns in The Thirteenth Tale, which I felt was equally hackneyed and unoriginal. I realize, of course, that Setterfield was trying to pay homage to the "sensation" novel, but a better way to do this would have been to borrow *critically* from that genre, rather than simply repeating its cliches. This aspect of the novel was a particular problem at the book's conclusion, when the reader is bombarded with "revelations" that can be spotted a mile away, such as the true identity of Vida Winter, or Aurelius's Love's connection to the main story.
If Margaret Lea was so interested in the tradition of the British novel, maybe she should have read, say, Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, a work that parodies the Gothic tradition of the late eighteenth century, the direct predecessor of the "sensation" novel. Austen provides the perfect template for paying homage to literary cliches while at the same time reworking them in an original way.
What I found rather more disturbing about the The Thirteenth Tale, though, is its pointed repression of the twentieth century. For me, this wasn't just an aesthetic decision, an overweening admiration of the Victorian novel on Setterfield's part. As far as I'm concerned, this kind of return to the past is a dangerous nostalgia, one that erases the terrible events and lessons of the twentieth century by pretending they are not there.
The reason why most neo-Victorian novels goes back to the past is precisely in order to rediscover what was repressed in Victorian literature. In A.S. Byatt's Angels and Insects, for instance, she reveals the hypocritical, incestuous ties between colonization and aristocracy. In Sarah Waters's Tipping the Velvet we are given a portrait of lesbian sexuality that is otherwise invisible. In Michel Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White we see a different repression of female sexuality in the form of prostitution.
The Thirteenth Tale, by contrast, is not critical or self-aware in the same way as these works. It is an exercise in uncritical nostalgia, a compulsion to repeat the worn-out pleasures of the "sensation" novel. In so doing, it represses the horror of what follows, choosing to focus on the entertainment of the past so as to avoid the more difficult questions of more recent times. show less
The thirteenth tale
You know a story's good when you start again at the beginning as soon as you've read the ending.
I discovered Diane Setterfield's 'The Thirteenth Tale' at my local Lounge bar book swap one afternoon and was immediately hooked. Why? Look:
Opening quotation:
'All children mythologise 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.'
After that seriously engaging opening I was delighted to realise that this is a story in which books and reading and storytelling and truth are inextricably bound up in the narrative.
This sustained me as the show more narrative-within-a-narrative moved on to focus on a pair of almost mythically awful characters: violent Charlie and manipulative Isabelle.
What's it about?
Storytelling. Twins. Loneliness.
Extremely successful author Vida Winter is dying. Having spent many years spinning various tales to the hacks sent to get her life story, Vida has finally sent for a biographer to tell the truth about her early life.
Margaret Lea is astounded to be summoned and dubious about Miss Winter's ability to tell the truth, but the secrets of her own birth cause her to become spellbound by the older woman's story, and she finds herself irresistibly drawn to Angelfield House, formerly home to the March family, and Miss Winter.
What secrets are Angelfield and Miss Winter hiding? Margaret is ready to find out.
What's it like?
Quietly compelling. Atmospheric. Occasionally confusing.
Setterfield perfectly conveys Margaret's complete absorption in Miss Winter's story of the very odd twins, Emmeline and Adeline, and encourages our own absorption.
Throughout I wondered: how on earth does the uncontrollable Adeline become the girl seen in the mist? Certain incidents confuse; they make no sense in the context of our knowledge, and it is not until Miss Winter finally reveals the complete truth about the fire at Angelfield that the reader can comprehend a story which initially seems insoluble without recourse to ghosts.
There's a real Victorian / Edwardian feel about this story, though no dates are specified. Governesses, a full staff dwindling to almost nothing, an unworldly heroine and extensive grounds in a decaying house all evoke a time long past. I'm sure this helps to explain why I enjoyed this so much!
Characters are presented in ways that fully reveal them to readers, while they remain oblivious to their true selves. I loved the descriptions of the interactions between the deeply patronising Doctor Maudsley and Hester, the scientifically-minded governess:
'She was quite right, of course. He had no idea what book she had got it out of, but she must have read it closely, for she elaborated on the idea very sensibly.'
And this:
'She had an amusing habit of expressing views of her own with the same measured command as when she was explaining a theory by some authority she had read.'
Setterfield perfectly conveys the inbuilt arrogance and superiority of a medical man dealing with a female he perceives as a subordinate...and the governess's tactful and self-effacing manipulation of this "superior" male!
Typical quotes:
'The separation of twins is no ordinary separation. Imagine surviving an earthquake. When you come to, you find the world unrecognisable. The horizon is in a different place. The sun has changed colour. Nothing remains of the terrain you know. As for you, you are alive. But it's not the same as living.'
'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 fibres of your clothes, and when you open the new book they are still with you.'
Final thoughts
This is a cleverly constructed tale about the power of story telling and the mystical nature of twinship. I enjoyed reading it, though I was increasingly dubious about the pending solution of the various mystifying elements: I don't believe in ghosts and am not really a fan of ghost stories, so I was worried about the direction this was taking. Suffice it to say, I needn't have been. The final solution makes perfect sense - and reminds us once again that Hester is not infallible!
Full of twists, turns, shocks and, erm, illegitimate children, this is compelling storytelling, including what is, quite possibly, the best doctor diagnosis and prescription ever.
Recommended. show less
You know a story's good when you start again at the beginning as soon as you've read the ending.
I discovered Diane Setterfield's 'The Thirteenth Tale' at my local Lounge bar book swap one afternoon and was immediately hooked. Why? Look:
Opening quotation:
'All children mythologise 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.'
After that seriously engaging opening I was delighted to realise that this is a story in which books and reading and storytelling and truth are inextricably bound up in the narrative.
This sustained me as the show more narrative-within-a-narrative moved on to focus on a pair of almost mythically awful characters: violent Charlie and manipulative Isabelle.
What's it about?
Storytelling. Twins. Loneliness.
Extremely successful author Vida Winter is dying. Having spent many years spinning various tales to the hacks sent to get her life story, Vida has finally sent for a biographer to tell the truth about her early life.
Margaret Lea is astounded to be summoned and dubious about Miss Winter's ability to tell the truth, but the secrets of her own birth cause her to become spellbound by the older woman's story, and she finds herself irresistibly drawn to Angelfield House, formerly home to the March family, and Miss Winter.
What secrets are Angelfield and Miss Winter hiding? Margaret is ready to find out.
What's it like?
Quietly compelling. Atmospheric. Occasionally confusing.
Setterfield perfectly conveys Margaret's complete absorption in Miss Winter's story of the very odd twins, Emmeline and Adeline, and encourages our own absorption.
Throughout I wondered: how on earth does the uncontrollable Adeline become the girl seen in the mist? Certain incidents confuse; they make no sense in the context of our knowledge, and it is not until Miss Winter finally reveals the complete truth about the fire at Angelfield that the reader can comprehend a story which initially seems insoluble without recourse to ghosts.
There's a real Victorian / Edwardian feel about this story, though no dates are specified. Governesses, a full staff dwindling to almost nothing, an unworldly heroine and extensive grounds in a decaying house all evoke a time long past. I'm sure this helps to explain why I enjoyed this so much!
Characters are presented in ways that fully reveal them to readers, while they remain oblivious to their true selves. I loved the descriptions of the interactions between the deeply patronising Doctor Maudsley and Hester, the scientifically-minded governess:
'She was quite right, of course. He had no idea what book she had got it out of, but she must have read it closely, for she elaborated on the idea very sensibly.'
And this:
'She had an amusing habit of expressing views of her own with the same measured command as when she was explaining a theory by some authority she had read.'
Setterfield perfectly conveys the inbuilt arrogance and superiority of a medical man dealing with a female he perceives as a subordinate...and the governess's tactful and self-effacing manipulation of this "superior" male!
Typical quotes:
'The separation of twins is no ordinary separation. Imagine surviving an earthquake. When you come to, you find the world unrecognisable. The horizon is in a different place. The sun has changed colour. Nothing remains of the terrain you know. As for you, you are alive. But it's not the same as living.'
'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 fibres of your clothes, and when you open the new book they are still with you.'
Final thoughts
This is a cleverly constructed tale about the power of story telling and the mystical nature of twinship. I enjoyed reading it, though I was increasingly dubious about the pending solution of the various mystifying elements: I don't believe in ghosts and am not really a fan of ghost stories, so I was worried about the direction this was taking. Suffice it to say, I needn't have been. The final solution makes perfect sense - and reminds us once again that Hester is not infallible!
Full of twists, turns, shocks and, erm, illegitimate children, this is compelling storytelling, including what is, quite possibly, the best doctor diagnosis and prescription ever.
Recommended. show less
It seems as though I’ve read more books about people who love books in the last year than ever before. It all started with The Yellow-Lighted Book Shop, segued into John Dunning’s The Bookman series, stopped off in fantasy land with Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart, and most recently took a turn on the bestseller list with The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.
The Thirteenth Tale is the famously omitted story from author Vida Winter’s collection of short stories. Margaret Lea, book lover and amateur biographer, is invited to hear the true life story of England’s most popular author. When Margaret arrives at Winter’s home, she finds a dying woman with one foot firmly in the past. As Vida’s story unfolds, Margaret finds herself show more drawn into the darkly strange world of the the Angelfield twins. She is unsure of how much is true and how much is flotsam from Vida’s compost pile of story fragments. As Vida tells her story, so does Margaret, who harbors her own untold story.
Setterfields characters are magnificent. The otherwordly existence of the Angelfield family is at once repulsive and fascinating. There are many strands to this story that wave all over the place throughout, but which are all caught up in a neat knot at the end. I was engrossed in this story from the start and — gasp of surprise — didn’t even peek at the end. Good thing too, because I sure didn’t see the truth in Vida’s story until the very end. All in all, this was one of the most satisfying books I’ve read in awhile. show less
The Thirteenth Tale is the famously omitted story from author Vida Winter’s collection of short stories. Margaret Lea, book lover and amateur biographer, is invited to hear the true life story of England’s most popular author. When Margaret arrives at Winter’s home, she finds a dying woman with one foot firmly in the past. As Vida’s story unfolds, Margaret finds herself show more drawn into the darkly strange world of the the Angelfield twins. She is unsure of how much is true and how much is flotsam from Vida’s compost pile of story fragments. As Vida tells her story, so does Margaret, who harbors her own untold story.
Setterfields characters are magnificent. The otherwordly existence of the Angelfield family is at once repulsive and fascinating. There are many strands to this story that wave all over the place throughout, but which are all caught up in a neat knot at the end. I was engrossed in this story from the start and — gasp of surprise — didn’t even peek at the end. Good thing too, because I sure didn’t see the truth in Vida’s story until the very end. All in all, this was one of the most satisfying books I’ve read in awhile. show less
Setterfield is a competent story teller. I began the novel with no particular expectation, but was quickly drawn into the world she described. The book's sprawling plot and Setterfield's engaging writing style had me turning page after page. At its best, it's the book equivalence of comfort food (a cup of warm cocoa, perhaps). The cast draws from well-known and loved archetypes: bookish young women, wise father figures, orphans and governesses, upstairs and downstairs, topiary gardens, the Yorkshire moor. But the familiarity is also its weakness: the book offers little originality. Combine a cup of Jane Eyre with 3 tablespoons of Wuthering Heights; add a dash of The Secret Garden; and stir vigorously; warm it all over then garnish with show more some Sherlock Holmes and serve.
The aspect that bothered me the most, however, was its implicit encouragement of a blind and slavish adoration of the physical book. All the sympathetic characters of this novel are self-proclaimed book lovers who believe they'd be willing to kill to protect their cherished volumes. The worship of leather binding and ink on dead trees is common in the bookish community, but it always struck me as somehow wrong-headed. The value in possessing a first edition never seemed justified to me. What is sacred of a masterpiece should be the beauty of the language, the insights in the ideas, the universality of the themes. Why then should we care about the profane form in which the sacred message is delivered? If literature were a religion, the Setterfield characters would come across as mindless believers bordering on superstition.
Although novels do not have to be autobiographical, they are still representative of the author. I wonder whether Setterfield herself is too much in awe of her literary heroes to breath a new life to her own work. show less
The aspect that bothered me the most, however, was its implicit encouragement of a blind and slavish adoration of the physical book. All the sympathetic characters of this novel are self-proclaimed book lovers who believe they'd be willing to kill to protect their cherished volumes. The worship of leather binding and ink on dead trees is common in the bookish community, but it always struck me as somehow wrong-headed. The value in possessing a first edition never seemed justified to me. What is sacred of a masterpiece should be the beauty of the language, the insights in the ideas, the universality of the themes. Why then should we care about the profane form in which the sacred message is delivered? If literature were a religion, the Setterfield characters would come across as mindless believers bordering on superstition.
Although novels do not have to be autobiographical, they are still representative of the author. I wonder whether Setterfield herself is too much in awe of her literary heroes to breath a new life to her own work. show less
I first read The Thirteenth Tale during my sophomore year in college. A good friend recommended it and, though busy with schoolwork (question mark?) I devoured the novel. From the first page, I was absorbed into its pages and the mystery they held. The resolution struck me as a bit unlikely, but I still loved it and purchased a copy when I got the chance.
Upon revisiting the story, I was able to appreciate even more the incredibly beautiful prose of Diane Setterfield. Her language lilts and carries me away in a delightful way. Her writing is both complicated and completely natural, much like the classic authors she frequently references. The storyline was both improved and diminished by my return journey. How? Well, the twist, which is show more so astounding, I remembered. This also made some of the more long-winded sections drag a bit, although the sections on Vida Winter's past always drew me in. At the same time, being able to really note all of the hints left for the reader let me appreciate the deft way in which the solution to the mystery was woven into the story. The plot seems less implausible with more attention paid to the details.
My only complaint is about the Postscriptum, which I found to be cheesy, overly fanciful and plain pointless. It really irritated me, because I loved the way the story resolved before I read it and then was unhappy with this new ending. Still, epilogues (or postscriptum, should one want to be fancy) have been the bane on the existence of many books (e.g. Crime and Punishment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) and will likely continue to be. I, for one, will simply do my best to forget about the second ending. (And, knowing my memory, I shall triumph!)
Book lovers must read this! The early chapters of the novel are a love letter to reading that just made my heart soar with glee. Just make sure you sit down as you enjoy this one, because, as Margaret Lea cautions, "Reading can be dangerous" (4). show less
Upon revisiting the story, I was able to appreciate even more the incredibly beautiful prose of Diane Setterfield. Her language lilts and carries me away in a delightful way. Her writing is both complicated and completely natural, much like the classic authors she frequently references. The storyline was both improved and diminished by my return journey. How? Well, the twist, which is show more so astounding, I remembered. This also made some of the more long-winded sections drag a bit, although the sections on Vida Winter's past always drew me in. At the same time, being able to really note all of the hints left for the reader let me appreciate the deft way in which the solution to the mystery was woven into the story. The plot seems less implausible with more attention paid to the details.
My only complaint is about the Postscriptum, which I found to be cheesy, overly fanciful and plain pointless. It really irritated me, because I loved the way the story resolved before I read it and then was unhappy with this new ending. Still, epilogues (or postscriptum, should one want to be fancy) have been the bane on the existence of many books (e.g. Crime and Punishment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) and will likely continue to be. I, for one, will simply do my best to forget about the second ending. (And, knowing my memory, I shall triumph!)
Book lovers must read this! The early chapters of the novel are a love letter to reading that just made my heart soar with glee. Just make sure you sit down as you enjoy this one, because, as Margaret Lea cautions, "Reading can be dangerous" (4). show less
Over time I have discovered I particularly enjoy stories about storytelling, and this is one such book! Diane Setterfield is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors. I had previously read Once Upon a River and it has become one of my favorites. The Thirteenth Tale is a well-written, clever, and engrossing mystery about a reclusive writer being interviewed by her selected biographer. This writer is a popular author and storyteller who has not been forthcoming in prior interviewers, so there is always that doubt in the mind as to whether she is telling the truth of her life or making up another tall tale. The biographer has her own private story, which adds a layer of complexity to the plot. The author explores whether knowing the show more truth is always best, as sometimes the truth is difficult to bear. Themes include seclusion, abandonment, and identity. As a bonus it articulates why readers love books and references many 19th century classics.
The author places clues along the way such that the reader is brought to the same conclusions as the biographer as the story progresses. It has a gothic flavor throughout including a “haunted house,” possible ghosts, an overgrown garden, and eccentric inhabitants. I thought the plot well-developed and the characters deeply formed. For me, it could have ended sooner, but will satisfy those that like the loose ends tied up. Recommended to readers of Victorian literature, slowly-burning mysteries, books about reading, or anyone that appreciates a well-told story.
4.5 stars, rounded up.
Memorable quotes:
“A birth is not really a beginning. Our lives at the start are not really our own but only the continuation of someone else’s story.”
“The hours between eight in the evening and one or two in the morning have always been my magic hours. Against the blue candlewick bedspread the white pages of my open book, illuminated by a circle of lamplight, were the gateway to another world.”
“There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner. Wind themselves around your limbs like spider silk, and when you are so enthralled you cannot move, they pierce your skin, enter your blood, numb your thoughts. Inside you they work their magic.” show less
The author places clues along the way such that the reader is brought to the same conclusions as the biographer as the story progresses. It has a gothic flavor throughout including a “haunted house,” possible ghosts, an overgrown garden, and eccentric inhabitants. I thought the plot well-developed and the characters deeply formed. For me, it could have ended sooner, but will satisfy those that like the loose ends tied up. Recommended to readers of Victorian literature, slowly-burning mysteries, books about reading, or anyone that appreciates a well-told story.
4.5 stars, rounded up.
Memorable quotes:
“A birth is not really a beginning. Our lives at the start are not really our own but only the continuation of someone else’s story.”
“The hours between eight in the evening and one or two in the morning have always been my magic hours. Against the blue candlewick bedspread the white pages of my open book, illuminated by a circle of lamplight, were the gateway to another world.”
“There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner. Wind themselves around your limbs like spider silk, and when you are so enthralled you cannot move, they pierce your skin, enter your blood, numb your thoughts. Inside you they work their magic.” show less
I really loved this book, The Thirteenth Tale. It entirely engrossed me; I did little else today but read and nap and cuddle my dark-grey cat.
Ordinarily, I would give a book this gripping five stars. Alas, the story was populated with ghosts, and I am starting at every sound the house makes, jumping when the cat moves. I fell asleep reading this past evening and I dreamed of ghosts, awoke frightened, in a day suddenly darkened into dusk.
Margaret Lea lives in a small city and helps her father in his antiquarian bookshop. She also writes academic papers. Margaret is very surprised when the popular writer, Vida Winter, asks her to visit with a view to writing her biography. She goes to meet the writer in her isolated house on the show more Yorkshire moors, near Harrogate and to the Bronte Parsonage. Anyone who has only few books will sense that the story will be creepy. It was.
Creepy, yes, but this was nothing like a dime-store novel; it was a work of literary excellence. Diane Setterfield writes beautifully. The novel made me notice nothing of time passing, of hunger unsatisfied, of muscles cramping from disuse. It engulfed me like a dense fog. I have stayed up until 4:00 a.m. to finish it, while dawn is imminent and the sounds of the early birds enter through an open window in my living room.
I noticed, while reading, that Setterfield's novel was scary in the way that Daphne duMaurier's are. I remember reading Rebecca with the uncomfortable feeling that I was being watched. Today I had the same sensation, although today I think it was the cat watching me, not a visitor from a vividly distressing and haunting book.
I wouldn't advise reading this book at night unless you want to be frightened or sleepless or both. Otherwise, the book has my full reserve of recommendations. show less
Ordinarily, I would give a book this gripping five stars. Alas, the story was populated with ghosts, and I am starting at every sound the house makes, jumping when the cat moves. I fell asleep reading this past evening and I dreamed of ghosts, awoke frightened, in a day suddenly darkened into dusk.
Margaret Lea lives in a small city and helps her father in his antiquarian bookshop. She also writes academic papers. Margaret is very surprised when the popular writer, Vida Winter, asks her to visit with a view to writing her biography. She goes to meet the writer in her isolated house on the show more Yorkshire moors, near Harrogate and to the Bronte Parsonage. Anyone who has only few books will sense that the story will be creepy. It was.
Creepy, yes, but this was nothing like a dime-store novel; it was a work of literary excellence. Diane Setterfield writes beautifully. The novel made me notice nothing of time passing, of hunger unsatisfied, of muscles cramping from disuse. It engulfed me like a dense fog. I have stayed up until 4:00 a.m. to finish it, while dawn is imminent and the sounds of the early birds enter through an open window in my living room.
I noticed, while reading, that Setterfield's novel was scary in the way that Daphne duMaurier's are. I remember reading Rebecca with the uncomfortable feeling that I was being watched. Today I had the same sensation, although today I think it was the cat watching me, not a visitor from a vividly distressing and haunting book.
I wouldn't advise reading this book at night unless you want to be frightened or sleepless or both. Otherwise, the book has my full reserve of recommendations. show less
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ThingScore 58
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 show more topics for discussion). show less
added by Nickelini
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.
added by Nickelini
"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.
added by Shortride
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Talk Discussions
Past Discussions
The Thirteenth Tale: Middles (SPOILERS) in The 11 in 11 Category Challenge (February 2011)
The Thirteenth Tale: Endings (SPOILERS) in The 11 in 11 Category Challenge (February 2011)
The Thirteenth Tale: Beginnings (SPOILERS) in The 11 in 11 Category Challenge (February 2011)
The Thirteenth Tale: General Thread in The 11 in 11 Category Challenge (February 2011)
Author Information
6 Works 23,172 Members
Some Editions
Awards and Honors
Awards
Distinctions
Notable Lists
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
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Is contained in
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Thirteenth Tale
- Original title
- The Thirteenth Tale
- Original publication date
- 2006-09-12 (1e édition originale angalise, Orion House, Londres) (1e é | dition originale angalise, Orion House, Londres); 2007-01-18 (1e traduction et édition française, Feux croisés, Plon) (1e traduction et é | dition franç | aise, Feux croisé | s, Plon)
- People/Characters
- Vida Winter; Margaret Lea; Isabelle Angelfield; Emmeline March; Adeline March; Charlie Angelfield (show all 18); Aurelius Love; John Digence (John the Dig); Hester Barrow; Dr. Maudsley; George Angelfield; Roland March; Mathilde Angelfield; Mrs. Dunne; Dr. Clifton; Mr. Lea; Mrs. Lea; Ambrose Proctor
- Important places
- Yorkshire, England, UK; Lea's Antiquarian Booksellers (Store); Angelfield Estate (House); London, England, UK
- Related movies
- The Thirteenth Tale (2013 | IMDb)
- 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... (show all) 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 cl... (show all)othes, 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 ... (show all)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... (show all), I had been ashamed to say so.
… ten years of marriage is usually enough to cure marital affection …
So they became friends, the way old married couples often do, and enjoyed the tender loyalty that awaits the lucky on the other side of passion, without ever living the passion itself.
. . . she had that laugh, and the sound of it was so beautiful that when you heard it, it was as if your eyes saw her through your ears . . . . It was the sound of joy. He married her for it.
. . . But in her disease was a distillation: The more it reduced her, the more it exposed her essence. Every time I saw her she seemed diminished: thinner, frailer, more transparent, and the weaker she grew, the more the stee... (show all)l at her center was revealed.
. . . when I read about kindly grandmothers in my books, I supply them with her face.
“I know.” He didn’t know, of course. Not really. And yet that was what he said, and I was soothed to hear it. For I knew what he meant. We all have our sorrows, and although the exact delineaments, weight and dimensions... (show all) of grief are different for everyone, the color of grief is common to us all. “I know,” he said, because he was human, and therefore, in a way, he did.
People disappear when they die. Their voice, their language, the warmth of their breath. Their flesh. Eventually their bones. All living memory of them ceases. This is both dreadful and natural. Yet for some there is an excep... (show all)tion to this annihilation. For in the books they write they continue to exist. We can rediscover them. Their humor, their tone of voice, their moods. Through the written word they can anger you or make you happy. They can comfort you. They can perplex you. They can alter you. All this even though they are dead. Like flies in amber, like corpses frozen in ice, that which according to the laws of nature should pass away is, by the miracle of ink on paper, preserved. It is a kind of magic. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)He opened a cool green eye, regarded me for a moment, then closed it again.
- Blurbers
- Mosse, Kate; Howard, Elizabeth Jane
- Original language
- English
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