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The Thirteenth Tale
by
All children mythologize their birth...So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter's collection of stories, which are as famous for the mystery of the missing thirteenth tale as they are for the delight and enchantment of the twelve that do exist.
The enigmatic Winter has spent six decades creating various outlandish life histories for herself -- all of them inv ...more
The enigmatic Winter has spent six decades creating various outlandish life histories for herself -- all of them inv ...more
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Hardcover, 406 pages
Published
September 12th 2006
by Atria Books
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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

“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.”
I don't know if I've ever loved words so much.
Lots of people told me that this was a book I needed to read, but many of those people also warned me that I might find it slow. So I went into The Thirt ...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 s ...more

this book has been sitting on my TBR for yearsss. its one of those books that sounds interesting and i want to read it, but i have never been in the mood to actually pick it up. until now, when i finally forced myself to read it.
and boy, i had NO idea i was going to get a gothic ghost story. the format is very ‘the seven husbands of evelyn hugo,’ but instead of hollywood, its victorian jane eyre. it was a complete surprise how kind of spooky this story is. i really dont want to say much because ...more
and boy, i had NO idea i was going to get a gothic ghost story. the format is very ‘the seven husbands of evelyn hugo,’ but instead of hollywood, its victorian jane eyre. it was a complete surprise how kind of spooky this story is. i really dont want to say much because ...more

"Tell me the truth."
These are the words that a young journalist speaks to Vida Winter in the beginning of this book. Vida is an author famous for spinning magical tales. In books, and about her life. Each time she releases a new story, she grants multiple interviews, in which every journalist asks her the story of her life, and leaves thinking that they, finally, after decades of deceptions, are the one she's told the truth to.
But she never does. Until now.
Out of the blue, she writes to an ...more

May 10, 2015
Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
own
Reread, although I would liked to have listened to the audio. Maybe next time!

Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾
www.melissa413readsalot.blogspot.com
This book was so good! I can't believe I have had this book in my stacks for a few years now! The story is so bizarre and sad. I loved it!
When Margaret is called upon by Vida Winter, a famous author, to come and write her biography she has no idea what she is in for with this woman.
Vida tells the story of her life as a child, but she is not who she seems. The twist ending ...more

Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾
www.melissa413readsalot.blogspot.com
This book was so good! I can't believe I have had this book in my stacks for a few years now! The story is so bizarre and sad. I loved it!
When Margaret is called upon by Vida Winter, a famous author, to come and write her biography she has no idea what she is in for with this woman.
Vida tells the story of her life as a child, but she is not who she seems. The twist ending ...more

Reviewed by: Rabid Reads
So here's my problem with gothic literature: it's so habitually grotesque that it's predictable.
If there's not incest, there's a crazy wife in the attic. If there's not a crazy wife in the attic, there's a murderous illegitimate son who's not right in the head. Or conjoined twins. Or a dying gypsy's curse. Or something equally unsettling.
So even if you guess the HEP Big Secret wrong, whatever it actually is isn't going to make a dent. B/c you've already imagined the worst ...more
So here's my problem with gothic literature: it's so habitually grotesque that it's predictable.
If there's not incest, there's a crazy wife in the attic. If there's not a crazy wife in the attic, there's a murderous illegitimate son who's not right in the head. Or conjoined twins. Or a dying gypsy's curse. Or something equally unsettling.
So even if you guess the HEP Big Secret wrong, whatever it actually is isn't going to make a dent. B/c you've already imagined the worst ...more

The perfect October/ Autumn Read
Not since Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier has a book so entranced and haunted me . I rarely read a book twice but when this came up for a sit in book group I was so excited as I longed to pull the curtains and welcome in the Autumn nights with this wonderful multi-layered mystery with its gothic athmosphere that gave me chills down my spine.
Set in the English Country side Angel field House stands abandoned and forgotten. It was once the imposing home of the March ...more

This book has been on my tbr for the last three years! Then with time, I lost track of my old list to be read and moved on to reading other books which sparked my interest.
Then recently I came across these books which I thought I would red but had never looked at them again, so I decided to start reading my old interests... This turned out to be the first one!
After a long long time, I came across a story that had me captivated until the last word. It kept me awake at night, every moment I tried ...more
Then recently I came across these books which I thought I would red but had never looked at them again, so I decided to start reading my old interests... This turned out to be the first one!
After a long long time, I came across a story that had me captivated until the last word. It kept me awake at night, every moment I tried ...more

Sep 24, 2009
Ahmad Sharabiani
rated it
really liked it
Shelves:
fantasy,
gothic,
adult,
historical,
contemporary,
crime-mystery,
united-states,
fiction,
21th-century
The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield
The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield is a gothic suspense novel, the author's first published book in (2006).
Vida Winter, a famous novelist in England, has evaded journalists' questions about her past, refusing to answer their inquiries and spinning elaborate tales that they later discover to be false. Her entire life is a secret: and, for over fifty years, reporters and biographers have tried innumerable methods in an attempt to extract the truth fro ...more
The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield is a gothic suspense novel, the author's first published book in (2006).
Vida Winter, a famous novelist in England, has evaded journalists' questions about her past, refusing to answer their inquiries and spinning elaborate tales that they later discover to be false. Her entire life is a secret: and, for over fifty years, reporters and biographers have tried innumerable methods in an attempt to extract the truth fro ...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 tu
...more

''We live like latecomers at the theatre; we must catch up as best we can, dividing the beginning from the shape of later events.''
The Thirteenth Tale had been ''waiting'' in my TBR list for almost two years, before I finally decided to start reading it. It proved to be a rare bibliophile's experience.
In the Gothic Literature group October Reading and in a recent discussion with a friend in Goodreads, I described Diane Setterfield's novel as foreboding. Each scene, each sentence is a creatio ...more
The Thirteenth Tale had been ''waiting'' in my TBR list for almost two years, before I finally decided to start reading it. It proved to be a rare bibliophile's experience.
In the Gothic Literature group October Reading and in a recent discussion with a friend in Goodreads, I described Diane Setterfield's novel as foreboding. Each scene, each sentence is a creatio ...more

This one of my favorite books. I don't re-read books very often. This is one of the few that would make the list. This book has been reviewed about 3000 times, so I'm not going to add more to the pile. I will just stay I recommend this book to all book lovers no matter what genre you prefer. A+
...more

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 House at Rive ...more
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 House at Rive ...more

The Thirteenth Tale is a gothic suspense novel from 2006 with echoes from several Victorian novels. The familiar device of a "story within a story" is employed, and sometimes it even contains another story. This story-telling tradition strongly reminds the reader of earlier classic tales. In fact the "rule of threes" goes throughout this book echoing its fairytale feel. There is the structure of the book itself, "Beginnings, Middles and Endings". There are three generations in the earlier sag
...more

Jul 20, 2012
Florence (Lefty) MacIntosh
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
fans of SUSPENSE!
Recommended to Florence (Lefty) by:
Book Club
Shelves:
2013,
suspense,
lit-brits,
debut,
favs-recent,
reviewed,
psycho-mental,
gothic,
historical-mystery
Amazing for a debut! While a homage to classic gothic novels no need to be a fan - pick it up if you’re into mysteries with plenty of psychological twists, ambiance and above all – suspense! Setterfield excels in the slow build, at stringing you along, feeding you morsels bit by tantalizing bit…almost toys with you until you grow impatient, at least I did. About 1/3 of the way in I reconciled myself to the fact that she insisted on setting her own pace and simply would not be rushed. That’s when
...more

2 stars. I really, really wanted to like this book more than I did. Unfortunately, I finished it with a sense of disappointment.
My interest wavered throughout the novel, going on a roller coaster ride of ups and downs. Unfortunately, there were more downs than ups.
The book started off with a bang! I was thrilled to have the feeling of settling into a well-written historical fiction/family drama/mystery, my absolute favourite genre combination. Sadly, this feeling was short-lived. After the first ...more
My interest wavered throughout the novel, going on a roller coaster ride of ups and downs. Unfortunately, there were more downs than ups.
The book started off with a bang! I was thrilled to have the feeling of settling into a well-written historical fiction/family drama/mystery, my absolute favourite genre combination. Sadly, this feeling was short-lived. After the first ...more

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

Jan 08, 2017
Violet wells
added it
I can’t remember why I bought this and it’s probably not fair that I rate it because at times I felt like I was reading a novel in a language I don’t understand. The best way I can think of describing it is Bronte fan fiction. At times it felt more like a product than a labour of love. The biggest problem for me was the question of how seriously I was supposed to take this novel. Just a bit of light-hearted fun with its constant smoking mirrors and playfully preposterous premises? But maybe ther
...more

Here I am, looking at other reviews to figure out what genre this is. So, this is Gothic suspense? WOW! I was guessing mystery, but with so much atmosphere, it seeped into my bones! What an incredible book!
This was a 15 hour audio book, and due to life circumstances, I was not able to listen continuously. What I can say is that every time I listened, I was completely drawn into another world.
It is the story of a famous recluse writer, Vida Winters. She is an invalid now, but has one final tale ...more
This was a 15 hour audio book, and due to life circumstances, I was not able to listen continuously. What I can say is that every time I listened, I was completely drawn into another world.
It is the story of a famous recluse writer, Vida Winters. She is an invalid now, but has one final tale ...more

Feb 18, 2008
Russell
rated it
did not like it
Recommends it for:
Vapid idiots who enjoy romance novels but hate sex
Dear god. I listened to this abortion of a story in the car last weekend. It was so awful that words cannot describe how idiotic it was. Contrived doesn't begin to describe it. Melodrama on top of melodrama. Secret family members. Ghosts. The main character fainting at the drop of a hat. Ugh, I wanted every last character to die screaming. If this is what people read (and apparently there are people who actually enjoyed this catastrophe, in fact it has a higher rating than some Cormac McCarthy n
...more

Wow! I was really surprised how much I loved this book. There are a lot of mixed reviews and it seems to me that people either. Hated it or loved it and I was afraid that I was going to be one of those that hated it. I love the Gothic Suspense genre and this book definitely is a classic so this was not the case. I loved it more than I ever thought I would. I feel that those that hated it just do not like the gothic suspense genre.
The. Best adjective to describe this book would be mysterious. Vi ...more
The. Best adjective to describe this book would be mysterious. Vi ...more

I hate not to finish reading a book I've started, so I went on and finished it fast. Sigh. I really wanted to like The Thirteenth Tale, for one I was reading with my friend Vessey. Besides that, there was a lot in the story for me to enjoy: an antiquarian bookstore; a lonely protagonist whose best friends are books, plus a secondary character who is a mysterious, isolated writer. And some nice passages, like:
"There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you p...more

Nov 14, 2014
Margitte
rated it
it was amazing
Shelves:
2015-read,
drama,
fiction,
murder,
favorites,
family-sagas,
mystery,
thriller,
suspense,
british-author
Margaret Lea never imagined the outcome when she, as a devoted modern, bibiophile, living with her parents on top of their book store, wrote a biographical essay, The Fraternal Muse on the Landier brothers, for a hardback collection of essays on writing and the family in the nineteenth century. She was a diletante, talented amateur in the company of professional and academic writers.
A is for Austen, B is for Brontë, C is for Charles and D is for Dickens. That is how she learned to read and writ ...more
A is for Austen, B is for Brontë, C is for Charles and D is for Dickens. That is how she learned to read and writ ...more

Nov 15, 2007
Jamie
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
so many people
Recommended to Jamie by:
good reads, I think
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
...more

What a wonderful story! Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale has elements of old fashioned gothic novel, horror, and mystery, along with literary “Jane Austen” styled romance.
The world famous author Vida Winter, who has always kept her past and personal life an absolute secret, is dying. Therefore she wants to tell her OWN story, a true story, unlike the fiction she writes or the multiple fake mini-biographies she's prone to giving out in interviews. She selects Margaret Lea, whose father ow ...more
The world famous author Vida Winter, who has always kept her past and personal life an absolute secret, is dying. Therefore she wants to tell her OWN story, a true story, unlike the fiction she writes or the multiple fake mini-biographies she's prone to giving out in interviews. She selects Margaret Lea, whose father ow ...more

DISCLAIMER
: This is not a review. These are just some random thoughts that were skittering through my mind while I was reading this book.
WARNING: The following is filled with passages picked up from the book, which may not be of any interest to anyone but me. (Yes I might have ended up highlighting more than half of the book). So read at your own peril!
According to me, there are two kind of listeners of music. One who prefers lyrics of a song over its melody and rhythm; the second kind are ...more
WARNING: The following is filled with passages picked up from the book, which may not be of any interest to anyone but me. (Yes I might have ended up highlighting more than half of the book). So read at your own peril!
According to me, there are two kind of listeners of music. One who prefers lyrics of a song over its melody and rhythm; the second kind are ...more

I got a lot of satisfaction from the dark mysteries in this old-fashioned tale, which makes homage to “Jane Eyre” and “The Woman in White.” It hooked me right from the beginning, where Margaret Lea is working in her father’s antiquarian bookstore in London and gets a letter from a famous reclusive writer, Vida Winter, inviting her to consider writing her biography. She balks because she has only written obscure biographies of obscure dead literary figures, but the letter intrigues her with its p
...more

“I have always been a reader; I have read at every stage of my life and there has never been a time when reading was not my greatest joy. And yet I cannot pretend that the reading I have done in my adult years matches in its impact on my soul the reading I did as a child.”
This seems to me the perfect book for booklovers. The above quote really resonated with me as I can definitely relate to it.
This is an interesting story, situated in the world of literature. Famous, reclusive author, Vida Win ...more
This seems to me the perfect book for booklovers. The above quote really resonated with me as I can definitely relate to it.
This is an interesting story, situated in the world of literature. Famous, reclusive author, Vida Win ...more
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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Gothic Literature: 4. 13th Tale: chp Demolishing the past - the end (finis!) | 4 | 31 | Jan 12, 2021 12:36AM | |
Gothic Literature: 3. 13th Tale: chp After Charlie- chp The diary & the train | 2 | 25 | Jan 06, 2021 11:46AM | |
Gothic Literature: 2. The 13th Tale: chp Doctor & Mrs Maudsley - Gone! | 2 | 23 | Jan 05, 2021 07:02AM | |
Gothic Literature: 1: The Thirteenth Tale: Beginnings to chp Merrily & the... | 5 | 35 | Jan 04, 2021 01:46AM | |
What's the Name o...: SOLVED. Historic saga 2 red haired sisters green eyes, 1 wild child, live with father/brother. Nurse locks her in but sees her playing with sister; thinks she has seen ghost. Father/brother goes mad, Girl researches house present day, leather satchel. [s] | 6 | 121 | Nov 12, 2020 04:22AM | |
Story Atlas Book ...: Let's Discuss: The Thirteenth Tale | 8 | 54 | Nov 07, 2020 07:09PM | |
spoiler alert: was it adeline or emmeline? | 76 | 3174 | Nov 05, 2020 08:28AM |
“…a mistress of the craft of storytelling.”
The Guardian
Diane Setterfield is a British author. Her bestselling novel, The Thirteenth Tale (2006) was published in 38 countries worldwide and has sold more than three million copies. It was number one in the New York Times hardback fiction list for three weeks and is enjoyed as much for being ‘a love letter to reading’ as for its mystery and style. Her ...more
The Guardian
Diane Setterfield is a British author. Her bestselling novel, The Thirteenth Tale (2006) was published in 38 countries worldwide and has sold more than three million copies. It was number one in the New York Times hardback fiction list for three weeks and is enjoyed as much for being ‘a love letter to reading’ as for its mystery and style. Her ...more
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“People disappear when they die. Their voice, their laughter, 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 exception 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 the 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.”
—
1795 likes
“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.”
—
1676 likes
More quotes…