The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel Review
Margaret Lea is an introverted and unworldly bookworm who is stunned to receive a letter from Vida Winters, the most famous, beloved, and best-selling author in Britain. In her correspondence, Miss Winter recounts her long-ago experience with a journalist who once cut through the authoress' usual imaginative storytelling and asked instead for the truth. Shocked by this, Miss Winter has never forgotten his request, and now she claims she's ready to share her life story with a biographer.
For reasons beyond Margaret's comprehension, the world-renowned authoress has chosen *her*. It is not an invitation that one can decline. Furthermore, Margaret has her own family secrets that she wants to escape from, and so she travels to Miss Winter's secluded house in order to hear and transcribe the old woman's story...
What follows is a Gothic tale of an extremely troubled family (and that's putting it mildly), that includes obsession, abuse, incest, betrayal, elopement, bereavement, and two little girls - twins - whose relationship make up the crux of the book. Adeline and Emmeline are identical in practically every way, allowed to run wild through the countryside and wreck havoc both in the house and out of it. But there's something more troubling about these two, particularly Adeline, whose vicious games have a darkness to them that frightens those who come across her. The housekeeper and the gardener are the only staff that remains on the grounds, joined late in the game by a governess who tries to impose some semblance of order upon the household - with mixed results.
As the story goes on, Margaret becomes aware of her storyteller's failing health, and of the growing sense of an eerie presence in the house - or perhaps it's only vague memories of Margaret's own past intruding on the present. The answer lies in the thirteenth tale, the final story that Miss Winter is withholding until the gradual unfolding of her life story is complete.
Told in first-person narrative, but alternating between Margaret's point-of-view and the chapters that cover Vida's story, "The Thirteenth Tale" (which refers to a short-story publication of Vida's that is mysteriously missing its final chapter) is a real page-turner. Drawing on the likes of the Bronte Sisters, Wilkie Collins, Daphne DuMaurier, and other prolific Gothic writers for inspiration, Setterfield has woven a ghostly mystery that fits all its puzzle pieces together in a pleasing whole, whilst leaving a central enigma in place for the reader to ponder long after the book is complete.
The writing is evocative, but not exceptional, the characters are intriguing but not three-dimensional, the plot-twist is enlightening, but can be seen a mile away - and yet this is an above-average book, perfect for a cold winter day, with a swift plot, poignant resolution, and a great love of books that any fellow book-lover can appreciate.
That is, any lover of Gothic fiction. Suffice to say, if you are not a fan of this particular genre and the deliberate melodrama that it fosters, then you will not be impressed by this volume either. This is a Gothic story in the truest sense of the word, where emotions run high, intrigues are of the most scandalous sort, and everything takes place in a dark mansion that if not haunted by ghosts, has enough bitter, twisted, insane individuals to make up for it.
Only two things really bothered me: that the fascinating character of Isabelle leaves the story in a rather uncharacteristic and disappointing way, and that the final post script is pure cheese (I wish I'd stopped at the second-to-last chapter which ends on an appropriate note of dry humor, rather than read of a strange reunion that had already been resolved with another character's passing, and which shifted the book into the realm of pseudo-spirituality, all completely unnecessarily).
I read "The Thirteenth Tale" over the course of three days, which included a very long night, and I enjoyed it immensely. Is it life-changing literature? Of course not! And it's not trying to be: it's entertainment, pure and simple, with (as Miss Winter is clear to point out) a beginning, middle and an end.
The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel Feature
- ISBN13: 9780743298032
- Condition: New
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The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel Overview
Sometimes, when you open the door to the past, what you confront is your destiny. Reclusive author Vida Winter, famous for her collection of twelve enchanting stories, has spent the past six decades penning a series of alternate lives for herself. Now old and ailing, she is ready to reveal the truth about her extraordinary existence and the violent and tragic past she has kept secret for so long. Calling on Margaret Lea, a young biographer troubled by her own painful history, Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good. Margaret is mesmerized by the author's tale of gothic strangeness -- featuring the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess,a topiary garden and a devastating fire. Together, Margaret and Vida confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves.
The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel Specifications
Settle down to enjoy a rousing good ghost story with Diane Setterfield's debut novel,
The Thirteenth Tale. Setterfield has rejuvenated the genre with this closely plotted, clever foray into a world of secrets, confused identities, lies, and half-truths. She never cheats by pulling a rabbit out of a hat; this atmospheric story hangs together perfectly.
There are two heroines here: Vida Winter, a famous author, whose life story is coming to an end, and Margaret Lea, a young, unworldly, bookish girl who is a bookseller in her father's shop. Vida has been confounding her biographers and fans for years by giving everybody a different version of her life, each time swearing it's the truth. Because of a biography that Margaret has written about brothers, Vida chooses Margaret to tell her story, all of it, for the first time. At their initial meeting, the conversation begins:
"You have given nineteen different versions of your life story to journalists in the last two years alone."
She [Vida] shrugged. "It's my profession. I'm a storyteller."
"I am a biographer, I work with facts."
The game is afoot and Margaret must spend some time sorting out whether or not Vida is actually ready to tell the whole truth. There is more here of Margaret discovering than of Vida cooperating wholeheartedly, but that is part of Vida's plan. The transformative power of truth informs the lives of both women by story's end, and The Thirteenth Tale is finally and convincingly told. --Valerie Ryan
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Customer Reviews
Excellent novel - M. Smith -
Excellent book! It took me a while to get through this book as life got in the way of my reading :) However, this story was unique and beautiful.
This is the story of a character's mysterious biography. There are two narrators; the biographer and the biographee :) The biographee is a writer herself and has never let anyone know the truth of her life's story.
I'm sure others have already given a synopsis of the story, so I'll spare you the repetition. This is a story that keeps the reader guessing at what will happen next. Characters weave in and out of the story in such a way that you never know what is going to happen next. Setterfield has a beautiful way of writing that I can't quite describe what I loved about it. She gives details, but not so many that you get lost in the details and forget the story. The characters are wonderfully written and you can get lost in them and their stories.
I was drawn to this book because of the cover art (I know, I know, but I am a lover of books and can't help myself), the idea of a mysterious biography, the promise of ghosts (which the story isn't nearly as *ghostly* as one would think from the back cover) and reviews by others. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good fictional story, especially historical fiction.
A wonderful story with one major flaw - Lisa L. Hansen - Dublin, Ireland
I am actually torn between giving this book 2 and 4 stars.
The story itself is definitely worthy of 4 stars - it is deliciously gothic, very well-paced and the language is wonderful. In fact, I very nearly missed my stop every morning for the past week.
However, the one thing that really drove me absolutely up the wall is the inconsistency displayed when indicating what periods of time the two storylines take place in. Everything about the use of language along with the mention of horse-drawn carriages on the streets and the carrying out of everyday communication by letter indicates that Margaret's story takes place around the 1920s or 1930's. However, some not-very-well-off people then suddenly have cars of their own, there are motorized taxis mentioned as an everyday thing, there is a female game keeper, one character runs a catering business, and construction machinery is mentioned, all indicating a modern setting. However, cell phones and the internet do not exist..... Apparently this was done deliberately by the author as a way of creating a timeless story but to me it was simply a source of frustration.
I would still recommend the book though on the basis of the truly wonderful storytelling and use of language. It sucks you in from the first page and creates an atmosphere that makes you forget everything around you. I look forward to her next book where she will hopefully have gotten this need to make things overly complicated out of her system :)
Wonderful gothic novel - Rachel E. Gray - San Francisco, CA United States
If you love Jane Eyre as much as I do, and as much as the author and main character of this book do, then you'll probably like The Thirteenth Tale. It is at once both an interesting story of its own and a love letter to books that book-lovers will see their own feelings reflected in.
It took me a little while to get to the point where I didn't want to put the book down. The first few chapters, while interesting and well written, came before the introduction of any real mystery that I wanted to find the answer to. At some point, however, I did find myself reluctant to stop reading, which is a feeling I wish every book invoked in me.
Frequently, I find I've discovered or understood things well before the characters in a story. Sometimes I don't mind this--sometimes that is clearly what the author intends--and sometimes I find it tedious. (But as much as I enjoy the infrequent occasions when I am surprised, what is by far worse than knowing everything already is when I'm utterly surprised at revelations because the author has not laid out the clues properly!) In The Thirteenth Tale, I usually figured things out only pages before the narrator did. Even when the conclusion we both reached was incorrect, this shows that Diane Setterfield laid her clues very well indeed. They were neither obvious nor unfathomable, they were simply elements that, when put together with other elements, produced a reasonable answer.
Some people might complain that the references to Jane Eyre, along with other much-beloved 19th century novels, are not subtle enough or, because of some quibble with the writing style or quality or characterization, are too presumptuous. The thought of these people makes me happy that instead of nitpicking or being disappointed, I was simply able to deeply enjoy this novel.
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