The Thirteenth Tale : A Novel

by Diane Setterfield

book data

12252 ratings, 3.95 average rating, 3438 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		31%
4		41%
3		20%
2		5%
1		1%

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published

September 12th 2006 by Simon & Schuster Audio

binding

Audio CD

isbn

0743564170 (isbn13: 9780743564175)

description

Settle down to enjoy a rousing good ghost story with Diane Setterfield's debut novel, The Thirteenth Tale. Setterfield has rejuvenated the gen...more

[close] 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:

<blockquote> "You have given nineteen different versions of your life story to journalists in the last two years alone."</blockquote> <blockquote>She [Vida:] shrugged. "It's my profession. I'm a storyteller."</blockquote> <blockquote>"I am a biographer, I work with facts."</blockquote>

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.

Margaret has a story of her own: she was one of conjoined twins and her sister died so that Margaret could live. She feels an otherworldly aura sometimes or a yearning for a part of her that is forever missing. Vida's story involves two wild girls--feral twins (is she one of them?)--who would have been better off being suckled by wolves. Instead, their mother and uncle, involved in things too unsavory to contemplate, combine to neglect them woefully. There's also a governess, a Doctor, a kindly housekeeper, a gardener, and another presence--a very strange presence--which Margaret perceives as a ghost at first. Making obeisance to other great ghost stories, there is a deadly fire, a beautiful old house gone to ruin, and always that presence....

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 [close]

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Kristina rated it:

(review of isbn 0743298020)

08/21/07

bookshelves: neo-victorian

Read in August, 2007

Sigh. I really, really wanted to like this book. I heard good things about it, and it has many elements I usually love in a novel: a Victorian sensibility, questions of identity and sisterhood (as well as siblinghood generally), meta-commentary on writing, and a plain, quiet, somewhat chilly protagonist who prefers books to people. The protagonist, Margaret, grew up in a bookstore and learned to read using 19th century novels, and there are clear parallels in the story to Jane Eyre, Wuthering He...more Sigh. I really, really wanted to like this book. I heard good things about it, and it has many elements I usually love in a novel: a Victorian sensibility, questions of identity and sisterhood (as well as siblinghood generally), meta-commentary on writing, and a plain, quiet, somewhat chilly protagonist who prefers books to people. The protagonist, Margaret, grew up in a bookstore and learned to read using 19th century novels, and there are clear parallels in the story to Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, The Turn of the Screw, and so on.

And yet, with all it had going for it, somehow it fell flat for me. Somehow it felt slight and, eventually, tedious at the same time. There were definitely many interesting moments, but for some reason, the "gothic" elements of the story never swept me up in the passion and scandal the way it would if the Brontes or Wilkie Collins wrote it. Obviously this is an unfair comparison since the Brontes and Collins are my favorite writers, but then again, if you're going to model your story on Jane Eyre (and indeed, there were parts that really beat you over the head with it, stating the obvious instead of allowing the reader to infer for herself), you should be up to the task, right? One of the problems, in my opinion, is that it seems Setterfield wanted a "Chinese box" construction ala Wuthering Heights, but whereas that novel drew me in and made me feel like I was personally sitting at Nelly's feet as she told me the story of Heathcliff and Cathy, somehow Setterfield's construction (in which the novelist Vida Winter tells Margaret her story, and does so using third person, for a reason revealed later in the novel) feels very distanced. Margaret has a personal obsession which is supposed to parallel Miss (the novel's term, not mine) Winter's, but this obsession, for me at least, had me wishing Margaret would just get over it already. Miss Winter's story stops adding much new information at a certain point, and later we are given the diaries of a minor character, which essentially only goes over information we already know. Yet despite this, the ending feels rushed, and the mysterious "thirteenth tale," which Margaret receives in writing toward the end, is only excerpted. One wishes A.S. Byatt had written this novel, as I suspect Setterfield may not have felt up to the task of writing "the thirteenth tale," which has a fascinating premise. Byatt, I am sure, would have written a gorgeous tale to end the book with.

That's the bottom line, I suppose: I just don't think Setterfield is that good a stylist. The story should have drawn me in but didn't, and I set it down to writing that simply wasn't as imaginative or lovely as it could have been. If I read that someone made "hot, sweet tea" ONE MORE TIME I was going to go crazy -- I like hot, sweet tea as much as the next Victorianist, but can't you find something else to describe, or a different way of doing it?

With all of the wonderful Victorian-style writing going on now from former academics like Sarah Waters and AS Byatt, it's too bad this book didn't measure up. I kept comparing it to the (in my opinion) wonderful The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, which is also a first novel by a former academic. The Historian has faults -- it's a little repetitious in certain points, it's unwieldly, there are some logic issues -- but it is so true to its Victorian predecessor (Bram Stoker's Dracula) in feeling, and it completely sucks you in (pun intended). I have discovered a personal preference: I would rather have an overlong, unweildy, messy wonderful novel that completely absorbs me than a shorter, tidier, but slight novel that doesn't touch me emotionally. Wow, did I just write a review that's longer than the book I just read?...less

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LSM rated it:

(review of isbn 0743298020)

09/13/07

"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"

This quote from The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield sums up my experience with the book. It’s been a while since I’ve felt truly drawn in to a novel. Likely this is the result of m...more
"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"

This quote from The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield sums up my experience with the book. It’s been a while since I’ve felt truly drawn in to a novel. Likely this is the result of my recent tendency toward selecting less-than-literary books in an attempt to find some distraction without devoting much real focus to the reading. I’ll admit that it took me a bit to get hooked, but, a few chapters in, I found myself thinking about the novel and the developing plot at times when I was unable to be reading.

There is no reference to time in the setting of The Thirteenth Tale. From the context clues, I’d guess that it’s set in the 1970s. It’s a world where people still write letters and where if phone lines go down in a storm, country homes are cut off from contact with civilization. Manuscripts are written by hand. The feel of the book is reminiscent of Jane Eyre, a novel that itself is woven throughout the plot.

The story begins when Margaret Lea, a little-published biographer, is summoned by Vida Winter, famous novelist. Ms. Winter is finally ready to tell her true life story, rather than another of the many versions she’s given of her life over the years. As she does so, Margaret and the reader are drawn into the mystery that shrouds Ms. Winter. Through the stories she tells Margaret as well as the accounts of Margaret’s own investigations, we eventually learn the truth both about Ms Winter and the legendary Thirteenth Tale, a story that was left out of an early collection written by Ms. Winter. There are enough twists to keep the story interesting and unpredictable.

The book jacket describes The Thirteenth Tale by stating,

"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."

In reality, it’s that and much more. This book lead me to wonder about identity, love, and the meaning of family. I have a feeling these characters will indeed be in the fiber of my clothes for quite some time.

...less

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Libby rated it:

(review of isbn 0743298020)

08/07/08

bookshelves: 2008-misses, mysteriousness

Read in July, 2008

I know that most people like to work out to Gnarls Barkley or Metallica or what-have-you, but I find gym-based exercise so exceedingly boring that I require narrative to keep me going. Since my motor-coordination isn't sufficient enough to allow me to turn the pages of a magazine/book AND pump the pedals on an elliptical trainer, sometime last summer I turned to Audible to solve my problems. Now, what one requires from printed matter may not at all do for the recorded book, and in my case, it tu...more I know that most people like to work out to Gnarls Barkley or Metallica or what-have-you, but I find gym-based exercise so exceedingly boring that I require narrative to keep me going. Since my motor-coordination isn't sufficient enough to allow me to turn the pages of a magazine/book AND pump the pedals on an elliptical trainer, sometime last summer I turned to Audible to solve my problems. Now, what one requires from printed matter may not at all do for the recorded book, and in my case, it turns out that I can only sustain listening interesting in heavily plot-driven novels (or extra dorkified pod-casts of "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me"... sigh, Peter Segel). Unfortunately, the intersections of a compelling plot and interesting writing are fairly few and far between, plus the narrator has to be a strong reader whose vocal stylings are not reminiscent of one's old junior high school/high school drama club classmates. This is difficult. The literary writer trying on genre often works well (John Banville as Benjamin Black is pretty good)--forgive my snobbery--but only because the conventions of a straightforward mystery or sci-fi novel can be a little cringe-inducing when you actually hear them recited aloud. But seriously, I love Science-fiction, so no diss.

Anyhoo, The Thirteenth Tale seemed as though it would fit the bill perfectly. I mean, premise-wise, it's the kind of book editors slaver over (personal experience alert!) esp. vis-a-vis potential audience, in other words, well heeled women (possibly of a certain age). The whole freaking novel is, in effect, a love letter to Jane Eyre and the other mega-hits of the 19th century. I'm browsing Audible, thinking to myself (o.k., talking out loud to myself) "Dark family secrets? Check! Wheels within wheels narrative? Check! Gloomy old English estate? Check! Both Victorian and (presumably) post-war setting? Check! Antiquarian bookstore? Check! Lonely main character whose best friends are books? Secondary main character who is a mysterious, isolated writer? Check, and Check!"

Unfortunately, I think the voice I was hearing in my head was actually Diane Setterfield's cajoling, coercive, whinging, and not my own. Emphasis on coercive--my main gripe about this mess of a novel is that while reading I couldn't shake the feeling that the author is constantly trying to impress upon the reader--HOODWINK INTO BELIEVING, more like it--that this piece of moribund trash is actually a work of serious literature.

Might I illustrate this vexing complaint for you? Let's talk theme for a moment. The central preoccupation of this novel is twinning, or twinness. The two main characters are both twins (not each other's), whose core-identity has been formed by this (as Diane Setterfield would have it) division of one soul, one egg, one person, into two bodies. The concept of the twin is the leitmotif of The Thirteenth Tale. Unfortunately, Setterfield's entire take on the idea of the twin can be fairly summarized in the above italicized line. Over the course of the book, she uses the same metaphor at least four times to describe separated twins or non-twins--the amputee. She has nothing but the most obvious, predictable, easy, pop-psychology thoughts to offer vis-a-vis twins, but these ideas are all delivered in overwrought, hyperbolic, purple prose. Every time the main character, Margaret, catches sight of her reflection (which occurs at least ten times) she swoons into an overheated, almost laughable disquisition about her "twin" (her reflection) who waits for her just on the other side of this mortal coil. Every. Single. Time.

How about books? Well, could you imagine that some clever minx would have us believe that books are like the ghosts of dead people? I mean, as a committed life long reader I have never encountered nor thought of such a bold notion--author's words outlive their bodies and thus reading might be an act of communion with the dead? Whoa. And also, dead folk might get lonely--it's so lonely being dead--and the act of reading is akin to an act of friendship and/or companionship? Fortunately for my feeble and limited imagination, Setterfield ensures that such concepts are inescapable in her novel's groundbreaking treatise on the delights literature has to offer.

Setterfield makes the further mistake of declaring that Margaret's counterpoint, Vida Winter, is the greatest living English author of her day, a point that is crucial to the story's operation. Her books have won legions of awards, and generations of journalists and biographers have been rebuffed in their frenzied attempts to discover her life story. But Setterfield is not capable of convincing us that Winter is a great--one of THE greats--talent. The narratives that Winter spins for Margaret are pale imitations of Atwood/Byatt-esque storylines. Setterfield's insistence that we believe Winter is a cannonized author damages the credibility of the rest of the novel, especially as it relates to the reader's required suspension of disbelief. Of course, the problem is that Setterfield is not (nor should she be) the greatest living English author, nor even close to it, and she's overreaching in trying to depict Winter as such. It's sort of like an unfunny writer trying to write a funny character; the author doesn't possess the tools to show us that the character is funny, but can only tell us she is.

Honestly, I could continue on in my screed for quite a while longer, but I think I should save my energies for positive reviews. Let me just mention that this novel's construction, pacing, and plotting are all askew as well, and that its ultimate resolution is a huge disappointment. Perhaps my take is soured by the fact that I spent fourteen hours listening to this novel, instead of four or so hours reading it. But my feeling is that what could have been a fun homage to the nineteenth century novel became instead a dull trainwreck of a book, derailed by its own inflated sense of literary import. If anyone knows of a better, but similar in texture, novel to accompany me on my upcoming travels/adventures in exercise, I'd love to hear it. Thanks!...less

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4 comments

Hev rated it:

(review of isbn 0743298039)

10/24/08

Read in December, 2007

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

MY REVIEWS ARE NOT LIKE MOST PEOPLE'S REVIEWS. I STATE THINGS AS I READ THEM & AS I SEE THEM. YOU CAN HAVE YOUR OPINION, JUST DON'T EXPECT ME TO SHARE IT OR CHANGE MY OPINION.

I HAVE ALSO BEEN INFORMED THAT THIS REVIEW HAS SPOILERS IN IT. I GUESS PEOPLE DON'T READ BOOKS JUST FOR THE ENJOYMENT OF READING ANYMORE. THAT IS TO THEIR DISAPPOINTMENT.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield was, for a lack of a better word, an interesting book. Just when you think you have everything ...more

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Randall rated it:

(review of isbn 0743298020)

04/30/08

The thread of suspense is a very delicate one. Prolong the suspense too much and the reader loses interest before the reveal, the thread is broken. If you do not build up enough, the thread is not taut; the reader has nothing to cling to.
Regrettably, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield is in the former category. A story within a story, Tale follows the history of Vida Winter, as told to Margaret Lea (who has demons of her own to battle). Winter is Britain’s most celebrated and reclusiv...more The thread of suspense is a very delicate one. Prolong the suspense too much and the reader loses interest before the reveal, the thread is broken. If you do not build up enough, the thread is not taut; the reader has nothing to cling to.
Regrettably, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield is in the former category. A story within a story, Tale follows the history of Vida Winter, as told to Margaret Lea (who has demons of her own to battle). Winter is Britain’s most celebrated and reclusive author. She has never before shared the true story of her life to anyone, and (predictably) on her death bed, summons Lea to chronicle her life before she succumbs.
Lea is a lover of books, and when she is not sitting audience with celebrity authors in their decline, she works with her father in a book shop. It is when Lea talks about books that her character shines, more so than the sections dealing with her own ghosts.
Winter’s own story is very interesting, but suffers from the cage of the narrative. The story is interrupted by asides from Lea, which pull you right out of the story. Setterfield did this to create suspense, but it doesn’t work. Winter’s narrative also shifts from third (they) to second (we) to first (I) person narrative, which convolutes the story more, especially since Lea is always in first person. This comes across as a literary gimmick (the reason for the shift becomes apparent in the conclusion), and the result is lacking.
Added to this muddled mess are several sub plots: the aforementioned Lea has a secret, a lovable townsperson who may or may not have a familial connection to Ms. Winter, and the destruction of the family estate in which Winter grew up. All of these tie in at the end, but are not needed, as they shed little light on the characters themselves or the plot.
Right around page 300 or so, the diary of Ms. Winter’s old governess makes an appearance, which adds another layer of story. One layer too many, it turns out, as this is the point in which the thread of suspense snaps.
One bright light in the novel is the setting. Winter’s home and also the estate she grew up in are descried in rich detail. You can almost smell the gardens outside and feel the warmth of the hearth. One wishes Setterfield had done as good a job on the characters as she does on the locales.
The conclusion of the novel is not that surprising, in fact it’s very Deus Ex Machina, a little too neat and tidy. Winter literally finishes her story and dies. Setterfield may have been trying to emulate the maudlin and melodramatic feel of the classics she references so often throughout the tale, but the result is often forced and not very attractive.
It is difficult to work the love of books into a suspenseful story, but not impossible (As The Shadow of the Wind proves), Setterfield, however, is simply not up to the task.

...less

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Jason rated it:

(review of isbn 0743298020)

02/27/08

Read in February, 2008

first impressions:
so far i'm LOVING this book...
which is a fitting emotion for what seems to be a symbolic love letter to both books and the bookish...
this text is a sublime combination of fluid prose, wonderful imagery, and finely directed character development...the character of vida winter hasn't even been introduced yet and i know enough about her already to be hopelessly intrigued...
the passage that deals with the notion of story will always be with me; stories abhor silence and nee...more first impressions:
so far i'm LOVING this book...
which is a fitting emotion for what seems to be a symbolic love letter to both books and the bookish...
this text is a sublime combination of fluid prose, wonderful imagery, and finely directed character development...the character of vida winter hasn't even been introduced yet and i know enough about her already to be hopelessly intrigued...
the passage that deals with the notion of story will always be with me; stories abhor silence and need words to survive, without them they wither and die, transforming in to the ghosts which haunt us...
absolutely brilliant...

second impressions: ***SPOILERS***
i'm about two thirds of the way through and i still very much love this book...all i said before still applies, however i must include one complaint... while the quality of the character developmentit is still overall wonderful, there are some issues that i perceive as problematic regarding the characters of adeline, isabelle, and charlie...
to begin with, adeline is referred to as somewhat of a divided personality, her aggressive outward persona and 'the girl in the mist', a figure that is only seldom perceived by only the most sensitive of individuals...her eventual transformation from the brutal, emotionally bereft, semi-autistic adeline into the eloquent, sensitive, caring young 'girl who is no longer in the mist' is a bit abrupt and somewhat unsubstantiated...i follow why it occurred, the death of the missus and finally of dig required her to take on previously unnecessary levels of responsibility...what i'm not clear on is how she managed to perform the change... the arduous and painful process of breaking through the hardened surface of her life-long mental reclusiveness does not appear on the page...
additionally, isabelle and charlie are both deeply damaged individuals, however the foundation of why they are so horrendously mentally compromised is also absent from the narrative thus far...if we are to believe charlie and isabelle to be capable of the despicable and pathetic behaviors they exhibit, i feel i must know what transpired in their lives that brought them into such a calamitous adulthood...
the re-introduction of emmeline also stuck me as slightly contrived...i'll have to see how events develop from here...
all in all, still one of the more enjoyable novels i've ever read...

final impressions:
ok...so the entire story hinges around the above transformative mystery...
lovely book...tightly crafted structure, filled with carefully molded pathos, brilliantly woven plot...
I LOVED IT!!!....

...less

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Rach rated it:

(review of isbn 0743298020)

11/28/07

Read in November, 2007

This has finally come out in paperback. This is that one that got an £800,000 advance and is meant to be the best book since sliced bread. To be honest I don't hold out a lot of hope....

On P. 138
I take it back. I have been sucked in straight away. Can barely put it down! Whiich is apt seeing as amonst other things it is the tale of books and their words sucking you in. It is also the tale of a dying writer and her reluctant biography, lost twins and the ghosts of the past. Like The...more

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Jennifer rated it:

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05/12/08

bookshelves: trt-reviews

Reviewed by K. Osborn Sullivan for TeensReadToo.com

This is a fascinating and rich Gothic mystery about a young Englishwoman who is hired to write the biography of a famous, dying author. The author has always kept her past a secret from her millions of fans, and the biographer is about to find out why. The young woman moves into the old author's home in the remote English countryside, and spends the ensuing weeks compiling details of the author's bizarre and disturbing early years. As the dy...more Reviewed by K. Osborn Sullivan for TeensReadToo.com

This is a fascinating and rich Gothic mystery about a young Englishwoman who is hired to write the biography of a famous, dying author. The author has always kept her past a secret from her millions of fans, and the biographer is about to find out why. The young woman moves into the old author's home in the remote English countryside, and spends the ensuing weeks compiling details of the author's bizarre and disturbing early years. As the dying author tells that one final tale, her biographer finds herself working through some of her own demons. Interestingly, the biographer's demons at times bear an uncomfortable resemblance to the ones she is writing about for her employer.

THE THIRTEENTH TALE is a modern-day story, but it is written in an old-fashioned, Gothic style that takes its time to reveal its many secrets. It includes all the elements of a classic Gothic novel: a crumbling haunted house, English moors, dense fog, and a young heroine who finds herself in a potentially dangerous situation. It is gripping, at times frightening, and always interesting. I was kept guessing about how the story would eventually be resolved, and was pleased by how skillfully the author pulled all of the pieces together.

My biggest complaint about THE THIRTEENTH TALE is that the main character felt somewhat one-dimensional. It is possible, however, that the characterization might have been intentional. The main character has been damaged by her own past, so maybe this was demonstrated by making her seem less-than-complete. In any case, that is a minor complaint for the book because many of the other characters are so well drawn.

This is an excellent book for readers who like a good, unusual mystery. There was even a happy ending for those characters who were capable of enjoying happy endings. Be warned, though, that this novel is written for adults. Its dreaded "adult themes" include (vague, not graphic) references to incest, sex, and children born out of wedlock, as well as (explicit) mental illness. But if you're willing to overlook those issues, this is a great story and a fascinating mystery for older readers. ...less

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Wendi rated it:

(review of isbn 0743298020)

02/06/08

Read in February, 2008

recommended to Wendi by: Terry
recommends it for: Danielle, Tina, Sarah, Beth

EDIT: 2/6/2007:
I finished The Thirteenth Tale last night. A fantastic ending that is complete. There are several wonderful lines from this book, but the on that sticks out to me this morning is a line about how when a reader finishes a book she often thinks of the other characters and what happened to them. We usually find out what happens to the main characters but the side characters, the secondaries - what happens to them? And the author does not fail to fill in all the gaps.

Throughout the book the two lead characters - Margaret Lea and Miss Winters - remind us that books need beginnings, middles and ends, that at least that is how they like their stories and that Miss Winter's biography should be no different. The Thirteenth Tale does deliver the story in the same manner - a definite beginning, a definite middle, and a fantastic definite end.

The book is filled with twists and turns and dead ends that weren't really dead ends just lanes leading to a concealed door. It's a full bodied story with thick characters and plots and subplots and inuendo and mystery. One mystery remains...but I won't give too much else away.

A definite read! ...more EDIT: 2/6/2007:
I finished The Thirteenth Tale last night. A fantastic ending that is complete. There are several wonderful lines from this book, but the on that sticks out to me this morning is a line about how when a reader finishes a book she often thinks of the other characters and what happened to them. We usually find out what happens to the main characters but the side characters, the secondaries - what happens to them? And the author does not fail to fill in all the gaps.

Throughout the book the two lead characters - Margaret Lea and Miss Winters - remind us that books need beginnings, middles and ends, that at least that is how they like their stories and that Miss Winter's biography should be no different. The Thirteenth Tale does deliver the story in the same manner - a definite beginning, a definite middle, and a fantastic definite end.

The book is filled with twists and turns and dead ends that weren't really dead ends just lanes leading to a concealed door. It's a full bodied story with thick characters and plots and subplots and inuendo and mystery. One mystery remains...but I won't give too much else away.

A definite read!

I haven't finished reading this yet, but I can barely put this book down. It's mystery, it's gothic (and not silly emo/goth, but true literary gothic), it's just a fantastic read. It's a real story. The characters are so well defined and thick, like you could really reach out and touch them. At the same time the ideas behind the characters and their story is so far fetched that you sort of want to roll your eyes at the absurdity, at the similarity between these characters and the ones from romance novels - and yet, you just keep turning to the page because you just have to find out more.

From Publisher's Weekly: From Publishers Weekly
Setterfield's debut novel translates into a great audio book that loses none of the suspense, surprise and satisfaction that come with a wonderful tale. The voices of two of the best dramatic talents working today turn Setterfield's story into a glorious treat for listeners. Henshall, who reads as Margaret Lea, and Redgrave, who plays recluse writer Vida Winter, create mood and tension with their voices, which settles listeners into the narrative with ease. Margaret, a young bookseller and amateur biographer, is chosen by Miss Winter as the recipient of the secret of her tragic past. She reveals, layer by layer, the mesmerizing tale of the Angelfield family that includes murder, insanity, feral twins, a ghost and a fire. Margaret's own past in some ways parallels Miss Winter's, leading them both through the blaze of memory into the truth.

Murder! Insanity! Feral Twins! Who wouldn't love a story like this?! I didn't want to read anymore on Amazon.com lest I somehow give myself the ending....less

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Zinta rated it:

(review of isbn 0743298020)

04/21/08

Read in April, 2008

Instantly, I was transported. By story as well as by its telling. Any book lover will know within the first sentence or two, more times than not, and so I knew: treasure. In Diane Setterfield's "The Thirteenth Tale," the reader does not have to choose between intruiging storyline and strong writing. The book is built on both. It has the flavor of old classics, and the comparisons with the Bronte sisters and Daphne du Maurier fit well. Yet Setterfield also manages to achieve her own sig...more Instantly, I was transported. By story as well as by its telling. Any book lover will know within the first sentence or two, more times than not, and so I knew: treasure. In Diane Setterfield's "The Thirteenth Tale," the reader does not have to choose between intruiging storyline and strong writing. The book is built on both. It has the flavor of old classics, and the comparisons with the Bronte sisters and Daphne du Maurier fit well. Yet Setterfield also manages to achieve her own signature.

Margaret Lea loves books more than people, and so the world of a quaint old bookshop of old leather tomes that one picks up only with gloved hands suits her just so. She lives in the world of words on paper, and she writes her own. An obscure biography she'd written becomes, then, what brings her out of the dusky shop and into the dusky world of Vida Winter. Vida Winter is a famed author, a reclusive artistic sort that the outside world can never quite capture. She won't let it. What interviews she does are all yet more storytelling, each one elaborately contradicting any other. Yet when life nears its end, even those who enjoy living in the secrecy of elaborate, however colorful, lies, come to long for truth at last. Vida Winter calls young Margaret to her home to tell her the truth.

Why Margaret? Something in her first written biography gives her away. Even when writing factually about others, after all, every honest writer will tell you - there is, deep inside the words, their own truth. Vida Winter knows that, and she senses in the young woman's work an understanding for the complexities of sibling relationships. Even, as chance would have it, and especially that of twins.

So the story unfolds, expertly, little by little and logically, building upon itself. Here is a twisted love, here is ugliness and beauty, here is human nature gone wild, and rivalry intertwined with lifelong bond. We find tragedy and adultery, banishment and reunion. All of this is revealed in Vida Winter's voice, even as she grows ever nearer "the wolf" in the shadows, death, that with waning patience awaits her. Alongside Winter's voice is the young biographer's, and we see the parallel lines and hear the echoes. Winter has indeed chosen correctly. If anyone will recognize the truth in the lies, this one will.

Expertly done. Setterfield holds firm to the end. Draw the blinds, start the fire, settle in for the read.
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Jamie rated it:

(review of isbn 0743298039)

03/19/08

Read in March, 2008

recommended to Jamie by: good reads, I think
recommends it for: so many people

Oh to be lost in a book. That's really the reason I read, the reason I read more often than I write and so on. I have a favorite memory: it is me, at thirteen or fourteen, lying on a bedsheet I carried from the laundry room and spread out in the field across the street from my childhood home. It was spring, nearly too cool to be comfortable, but the grass was dry and very green and filled with tiny little pastel flowers, which are decidedly not "real" snow drops, but that's what I'd...more Oh to be lost in a book. That's really the reason I read, the reason I read more often than I write and so on. I have a favorite memory: it is me, at thirteen or fourteen, lying on a bedsheet I carried from the laundry room and spread out in the field across the street from my childhood home. It was spring, nearly too cool to be comfortable, but the grass was dry and very green and filled with tiny little pastel flowers, which are decidedly not "real" snow drops, but that's what I'd called them since I was a child.
I'd had Daphne DuMauier's Rebecca on my shelves for about a year. I'd borrowed it from some Language Arts teacher who was critical of my typical reading choices, however furvent, and suggested I up the reading level a bit. The paper back was spider-webbed with age and the pages brown and flaking, but I did like the very narrow picture: lovely dark eyes framed by red hair: Rebecca. And so, at last, the book had ripened and I read it in the field until it grew too dark to see and I moved inside. I can still feel the flowers touch my arms as I turned the pages, feel the "crush" of my stomach as I decided I loved Mr. De Winter I though I could only get from easy visuals like movies. And so began my love affair with the Gothic novel.
Others would follow: Jane Eyre, re-read in an apartment in Paris during the great, dreary rains of late winter, wrapped in a quilt, drinking black tea, and, of course, as of late, The 13th Tale. Where to begin--I loved Margaret Lea, the timid, Jane Eyre-ish narrartor who leads a very exact little life above her bookshop: dinner and in bed to read by eight with cocoa and hot water bottle, her old gothic novels with their nicely wrapped up endings, and I loved the eccentric Miss Winter, in her Mistlewaith Mannor of a house on the moores with topiary gardens, cats and tapistries. The food listed in these novels, the soup and sandwiches denoting lunch as apposed to the steak and kidney pie for dinner, it all sounds better with served at a small table in a dark, cozy room in a mannor house with a high antique bed overstuffed with linens.
Granted, this was a gothic novel with a bit of an edge: like Rebecca's maybe/maybe not lesbian connotation, the Angelfield's have a knack for not only mental illness and general instability as well as seemingly profound agoraphobia, but they also like to "hurt" themselves and each other: physically. There was absolutely a plethora of rusty wires, kept needles removed from sewing kits, revolvers, pires and cans of petrol.
But, like Jane Erye, there were also ghosts to go with the madness and other lovely things, as well as asylums, (twins!), trains, hats, gloves and libraries. It's no wonder Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney cartoon...it too, fits this bill.
The book wasn't perfect, but how can anything be? I wasn't ready for it to be over, exactly, but begining to understand on my own, which is the sign of a worthwhile mystery. No mystery should be impossible to unravel--it's all about the story, the trail of the ribbon, as apposed to simply the unvailing. I loathe totally impractical silliness in mysteries. I much prefer a long lineage of a well oiled, detailed distraction. Very good book.
PS: there was a stone cottage, too. I do love that, too....less

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Jesse rated it:

(review of isbn 0743298020)

02/06/08

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: Fans of Bronte and Austen

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I know a lot of people who have read this book and raved about it. I'm not one of them.

Don't get me wrong, its an interesting book. It plays on a love of books in its reader, as well as a love of classic British countryside dramas (Bronte, Austen,...etc). It goes for an authentic feel with its tackling of this sub-genre's topics, but being a tad more graphic and sensational. The best description of it I could come up with is a cross between Austen, Bronte, and V.C. Andrews. Murder, twin...more I know a lot of people who have read this book and raved about it. I'm not one of them.

Don't get me wrong, its an interesting book. It plays on a love of books in its reader, as well as a love of classic British countryside dramas (Bronte, Austen,...etc). It goes for an authentic feel with its tackling of this sub-genre's topics, but being a tad more graphic and sensational. The best description of it I could come up with is a cross between Austen, Bronte, and V.C. Andrews. Murder, twins, incest, physical and psychological abuse, adultery, even madness all abound in this story. Its melodramatic to a fault. That being said I still enjoyed the book, I just didn't find its narrative structure, plot devices, or twists wholely original. Now for one bit of technical nitpickery.

I read this book, and couldn't guess what decade it took place in until the very end. There was little to no use of telephones until the later quarter of the book, most communication seems to be done in person or via post. There are cars, but they aren't described very well. There are trains, but again they are left rather vague. I got the feel from the people and the culture you encountered that it wasn't pre-WWII England, but I couldn't quite place that either. Its not until the end of the book when a child is heard to want to play "rockets" that I could even hazard a guess at around the 1950's or 1960's. All of this added up to a kind of timeless feel, but in an annoying way. I like to know when a story is set, particularly when the atmosphere is nearly as important as characters (as it is in this sorty of British melodrama). This factor lead me to believe that either the authoress didn't feel that period was an important piece to her novels immersion level for the reader, or that she simply couldn't be bothered to do adequate research into areas she didn't know enough about. Either way it lead to the book being less enthralling than it could have been. Still, all in all its much more interesting that the usual Bestseller type of book.
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Ukrainer rated it:

(review of isbn 0743298020)

10/04/07

Read in October, 2007

Occasionally, I peruse the New York Times and Amazon.com’s bestsellers lists to see what the kids are reading. Diane Setterfield’s novel The Thirteenth Tale popped out from the rest. Words like “ghost story” and “haunted” intrigued me. It is now October—the perfect time to read a haunted ghost story.

I kept waiting for the book to be spooky, scary, frightening—anything Halloween-like. I was disappointed. In fact, I almost abandoned the book after the first 100 pages. The...more

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Jo Ann marked it as to-read (review of isbn 0743298020)

10/02/07

bookshelves: to-read

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 gi...more 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:
<blockquote> "You have given nineteen different versions of your life story to journalists in the last two years alone."</blockquote> <blockquote>She [Vida:] shrugged. "It's my profession. I'm a storyteller."</blockquote> <blockquote>"I am a biographer, I work with facts."</blockquote>
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.
Margaret has a story of her own: she was one of conjoined twins and her sister died so that Margaret could live. She feels an otherworldly aura sometimes or a yearning for a part of her that is forever missing. Vida's story involves two wild girls--feral twins (is she one of them?)--who would have been better off being suckled by wolves. Instead, their mother and uncle, involved in things too unsavory to contemplate, combine to neglect them woefully. There's also a governess, a Doctor, a kindly housekeeper, a gardener, and another presence--a very strange presence--which Margaret perceives as a ghost at first. Making obeisance to other great ghost stories, there is a deadly fire, a beautiful old house gone to ruin, and always that presence....
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...less

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Trin rated it:

(review of isbn 0743298020)

06/04/07

bookshelves: booksaboutbooks, english-lit, fiction

Read in May, 2007

Vida Winter is a bestselling author—a modern day Charles Dickens—but her past is entirely unknown; she gives one interview per year and always lies. Then, out of the blue, she hires bookstore clerk and amateur biographer Margaret Lea to take down her life story. The majority of the novel comprises Winter's history as transcribed by Margaret, and Margaret's own life and investigations. The mood of the piece intentionally harkens ba...more

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Laura rated it:

The Thirteenth Tale : A Novel

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