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The Thirteenth Tale

Diane Setterfield (Goodreads Author)

3.96 · Rating details · 252,758 ratings · 21,331 reviews

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

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Hardcover, 406 pages

Published September 12th 2006 by Atria Books

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3.96 ·

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· 252,758 ratings · 21,331 reviews

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Jul 06, 2007 Kristina A rated it it was ok

Shelves: neo-victorian

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 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? ...more

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Aug 07, 2013 Emily May rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2014, mystery-thriller

“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 Thirteenth Ta ...more

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Sep 13, 2007 Lisa Muller rated it really liked it

"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
"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.

...more

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Jul 27, 2014 Navessa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2016-favorites, 2016, all-the-feels, all-time-favorite, believe-the-hype, mental-health, saved-the-genre, holy-mother-of-plot-twists, historical-fiction, divisive-characters

"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 amateur biographer named Margaret Lea, telling her that she has chosen her to be her official biographer. That she is finally ready to tell the truth.

What follows is…something I find myself at a loss to describe. Setterfield's prose is of the magical variety. The kind that lifts from the pages to wrap you in its spell and transport you bodily into the book. At one point in the story, Setterfield perfectly describes how I felt when I finally set it down:

"There was a sudden rush in my head, I felt the sick dizziness of the deep-sea diver come too fast to the surface. Aspects of my room came back into view, one by one. My bedspread, the book in my hand, the lamp still shining palely in the daylight that was beginning to creep in through the thin curtains. It was morning. I had read the night away."

I immediately woke up my fiancé (at 5 a.m. on a Saturday) and began to whisper to him about what I had just read. Speaking at full volume didn't seem right, sacrilegious even, because I was still caught in this book's thrall and the ghosts of those who haunted the pages seemed to stalk my waking mind.

I finished it four days ago, and still my fingers twitch toward my beautiful hardcover copy. Because The Thirteenth Tale is a book that you need to read at least twice in your life. The first time, to learn the truth. The second time, to see with eyes wide open what is really taking place within these pages.

This is easily one of my top 10 books of all time.

Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest ...more

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Jul 27, 2013 Jessica ❁ ➳ Silverbow ➳ ❁ Rabid Reads-no-more rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, historical-fiction, rabid-reads-reviews, fantasy, that-bitch-is-cray, revolting, magical-realism

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

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Jul 20, 2008 Libby rated it did not like it

Shelves: 2008-misses, mysteriousness

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 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! ...more

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Sep 19, 2009 Dem rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, recommended

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 family facininating, manipulative ...more

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Oct 16, 2016 Amalia Gavea rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, british-literature, favorites

''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 creation ...more

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Oct 24, 2007 Rachel Burton rated it it was amazing

Shelves: general-fiction, 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 House at Rive ...more

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Oct 13, 2013 Bionic Jean rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-authors-q-t, kindle, ghost-horror-supernatural, mystery-crime

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

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Apr 01, 2011 Julie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: re-read, gothic

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+

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Sep 24, 2009 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, crime-mystery, gothic, 21th-century, historical, contemporary, fantasy, adult

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

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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: lit-brits, reviewed, suspense, 2013, historical-mystery, gothic, debut, favs-recent, psycho-mental

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

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Dec 29, 2007 Heather rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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 figured out an ...more

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Mar 28, 2017 Lindsay - Traveling Sister rated it it was ok

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 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 quarter of the book, the story got very 'strange', for lack of a better term. The strangeness wasn't to do with the talk of ghosts, it was the actual stories themselves. One of the main characters, Vida Winter, was telling her biographer her back story which was filled with several absurd childhood situations and peculiar stories, none of which sat well with me. During these scenes, I really lost interest and had to work hard to plug through and keep myself focused. Often I found it hard to talk myself into picking this book back up to continue reading. Several of the characters were extremely unlikable.

What I liked about the book was the bookshop and library atmospheres. The author, Diane Setterfield, did a fabulous job of making me feel as though I were right in these rooms with the characters. I also enjoyed that this was essentially a book about books and book lovers.

I will finish with some quotes that captivated me (all of these from the first 25 pages).

"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."

"Though my appetite for food grew frail, my hunger for books was constant."

"The hours between eight in the evening and one or two in the morning have always been my magic hours. Against the blue candle-wick bedspread the white pages of my open book, illuminated by a circle of lamplight, were the gateway to another world." ...more

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Jul 07, 2015 Debbie "DJ" rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audio-book, gothic-suspense, favorites

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

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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

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May 10, 2015 Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: own

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 threw me right off the bus. I didn't see that one coming at all, but I should have expe ...more

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Feb 11, 2015 Mary Beth *Traveling Sister* rated it it was amazing

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

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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 women read (and apparently there are people who actually enjoyed this catastrophe, in fact it has a higher rating than some Cormac McCarthy no ...more

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Dec 21, 2013 Lindsey Rey rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2015, mystery

[4.5 Stars]
This was an absolute gem!

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Nov 14, 2014 Margitte rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2015-read, favorites, british-author, mystery, family-sagas, reviewed, murder, chicken-soup-for-the-soul-read, drama, fiction

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 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 write. The book store was her everything.

The second floor was her favorite place of discovery. It was where the Nineteenth-century literature was found: biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, diaries and letters of people gone a long time ago. And by opening and reading a few pages of all the books in the shelves, looking for something missing in herself, she gave all these people a chance to be alive again, even if it was only through their words. Being dead could be very lonely, she thought. Reading could be dangerous as well. She learnt that lesson early in life when she was sitting on a wall, reading, and fell off when she relaxed her muscles too much. From then on she always chose a secure, safe position to sit down when opening a book.

She had to be with the deceased. It was an urge, a need, an instinct.

P. 19: People disappear when they die. Their voices, 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 humour, 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 kind of magic.

As a ten-year-old, she discovered an old tin underneath a bed which changed her life forever. She discovered the reason why she wanted to give a voice to the deceased.

P. 9: There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner.

A letter from Britain's most famous author, Vida Winter, invited her to write the author's biography.

All through her life, Vida Winter entertained journalists with various versions of her life story. None of them were ever the same.

P.5: I have nothing against people who love truth. Apart from the fact that they make dull companions. Just so long as they don't start on about storytelling and honesty the way some of them do. Naturally that annoys me. Provided they leave me alone, I won't hurt them.

And now, suddenly after all these years, she wanted Margaret Lea, in particular, to write down the real truth - the one story she could never share, the story that needed to come alive for the dead to rest in peace...

P. 66: The story is not only mine; it is the story of Angelfield. Angelfield the village. Angelfield the house. And the Angelfied family itself. George and Mathilda; their children, Charlie and Isabelle; Isabelle's children, Emmeline and Adeline. Their house, their fortunes, their fears. And their ghost. One should always pay attention to ghosts...

The biography turned out to be an elongated, painful confession.

How many times have I gone back to the border of memory and peered into the darkness beyond? But it is not only memories that hover on the border there. There are all sorts of phantamasgoria that inhabit that realm. The nightmares of a lonely child. Fairytales appropriated by a mind hungry for story. The fantasies of an imaginative little girl anxious to explain to herself the inexplicable. Whatever story I may have discovered on the frontier of forgetting, I do not pretend to myself that it is the truth.'

'All children mythologize their birth.'

Margaret Lea became more than just a biographer.

"I'm going to tell you a story about twins" Miss Winter said that first night in her library. Words that with their unexpected echo of my own story attached me irresistibly to hers."

She needed to become Sherlock Holmes to unravel the haunted history of the old mansions and its inhabitants. In the process, her own life story would entwine with that of Miss Winter's, and in one moment of vertiginous, kaleidoscopic bedazzlement, she would finally take the fragmented and the broken and mend it, tidy it up and put it in order. The chaos and clutter would be banished, doubt will be replaced with certainty, shadows with clarity, lacunae with substance. Everything was put in place before the wolf came to collect, but only because the diary of the governess, miss Hester Barrow , was discovered...

Finally, The Thirteenth Tale could be told: the final, the famous, the unfinished story. But it would be Vida Winter herself who wrote it. Although she was the only one who could bring the deceased alive again, Miss Margaret Lea was the only person who understood where it was coming from.

COMMENTS. It is certainly one of the most mesmerizing and gripping tales I have read in a very long time. And one of the best in the suspense thriller genre, for sure. While reading the book, I was constantly thinking about Manderley, the mansions, in Rebecca(Daphne Du Maurier). The gothic elements in Jane Eyre(Charlotte Brontë) - which features very strongly in the narrative, changed this book into a modern version of the old classics, such as The Woman In White( Wilkie Collins); Wuthering Heights(Emily Brontë); Rebecca(Daphne Du Maurier), and The Turn Of The Screw (Henry James).

I simply cannot recommend this book high enough. A story of books and haunted houses. What a fabulous combination. ;-)

There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner. - You have been warned!

...more

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Jul 29, 2016 Jaya rated it really liked it

Shelves: mise-en-abyme, historical, mmxvi, buddy-group-read, kindle, them-covers, crayyzzzy-train, shinpi-surirā-sasupensu-hanzai, high-octane, cacao-72-percent

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 th ...more

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Jan 13, 2017 Lizzy rated it it was ok

Shelves: reading-with-vessey, read-2017, fiction, stars-1-2

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 pri
...more

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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 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. ...more

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Nov 02, 2013 Michael rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, mystery, psychological-thriller, books-about-books, mental-illness, england

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 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 praise of the power of stories:

My gripe is not with lovers of the truth but with truth itself. What succor, what consolation is there in truth, compared to a story? … When fear and cold make a statue of you in your bed, don’t expect hard-boned and fleshless truth to come running to your aid. What you need are the plump comforts of a story. The soothing, rocking safety of a life.

Margaret travels to Winter’s spooky Yorkshire estate to interview her about the job. She finds the author testy and untrustworthy given all the conflicting tales she has passed to journalists about her life. But Lea changes her mind on the job when Winter confesses her tale has something to do with twins. As Margaret learned late in life that she herself was a twin whose sister died in her infancy, Winter’s tale is of compelling personal interest to her. Winter spins out her secret story over a long period of time, forbidding any questions.

The tale is of twins, Adeline and Emmeline, living in an isolated gated estate in a family that has fallen on hard times. They end up mostly under the care of the housekeeper and gardener, “Missus” and “John-the-dig”. The frail housekeeper, Missus, gives up trying to civilize them :
She didn’t want to see it: she tried not to see it for a long time, but in the end she realized. The twins were odd, there was no two ways about it. They were strange all through, right into their very hearts.

The twins seem to be opposites:
The Missus hardly knew what worried her more: Adeline’s persistent and merciless aggression, or Emmeline’s constant, ungrudging acceptance of it. For Emmeline, though she pleaded with her sister to stop tormenting her, never once retaliated. Instead, she bowed her head passively and waited for the blows that rained down on her shoulders and back to stop. The Missus had never once known Emmeline to raise a hand against Adeline. She had the goodness of two children in her, and Adeline the wickedness of two. In a way, the Missus thought, it made sense.

The family doctor intervenes by getting them a Scottish governess, Hester, who institutes a regular regime. She finds reading them Bronte or Dickens has some ability to capture their attention, otherwise focused on their own little world. She has some insights, which she shares with the doctor:
“The way I look at it is this,” she said. “In a number of ways, you could view the twins as having a divided a set of characteristics between them. Where an ordinary, healthy person will feel a whole range of different emotions, display a great variety of behaviors, the twins, you might say, have divided the range of emotions and behaviors into two and taken one set each. One twin is wild and given to physical rages; the other is indolent and passive. One prefers cleanliness; the other craves dirt. One has an endless appetite for food, the other can starve herself for days. “

I don’t see this information as a spoiler. For both Margaret and the reader, it is merely the stage for the mystery:
I thought about the story. I had warmed to the Missus and John-the dig. Charlie and Isabelle made me nervous. The doctor and his wife had the best of motives, but I suspected their intervention in the lives of the twins would come to no good.
The twins themselves puzzled me. I knew what other people thought of them. John-the-dig thought they could not speak properly; the Missus believed they didn’t understand other people were alive; the villagers thought they were wrong in the head. What I didn’t know—and this was more than curious—was what the storyteller thought. In telling her tale, Miss Winter was like the light that illuminates everything but itself.

Margaret can’t help formulating theories and in breaks from her sessions with Winter is led to do some investigating out in the world. She has hints that there was some tragic disaster involving a fire, but she can’t make the link between the people in story and the author telling the tale. Her slow unraveling of the clues she uncovers makes for an elegant and compelling narrative. Her empathy for the children in the story ties in with her own bereft origins as a twin and help propel a growing bond with the elderly declining author. I appreciated the intricate craft and emotional impact of this read, even though I am not normally attuned to Gothic tales.
...more

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Dec 23, 2011 Rowena rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, readalongs

“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

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Oct 24, 2016 Melissa (Mel’s Bookshelf) rated it really liked it

Yes, this is a book for book-lovers! If I see that phrase in one more review of this one I think I'm going to scream! So just to be fun, I decided to LISTEN to this book on audio (because I'm a rebel like that... and I had severe morning sickness which rendered me unable to read 3 lines in a book without puking for over three months). It wasn't the 5 screaming stars that I was almost expecting from reading some of my friends reviews, but I did like it a lot.

Our story begins when Margaret Lea, a ...more

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Feb 27, 2015 Cathrine ☯️ rated it really liked it

4.5 ★

Well summarized for me in Carol Birch's INDEPENDENT review: "The Thirteenth Tale is a cleverly plotted, beautifully written homage to the classic romantic* mystery novel. Rebecca and The Woman In White spring to mind, but especially Jane Eyre: a book that Setterfield weaves into the substance of the plot, and whose Gothic elements are skillfully reimagined in a peculiar tale of madness, murder, incest, and dark secrets.”
(*romantic defined here as a mysterious or fascinating quality or appe 4.5 ★

Well summarized for me in Carol Birch's INDEPENDENT review: "The Thirteenth Tale is a cleverly plotted, beautifully written homage to the classic romantic* mystery novel. Rebecca and The Woman In White spring to mind, but especially Jane Eyre: a book that Setterfield weaves into the substance of the plot, and whose Gothic elements are skillfully reimagined in a peculiar tale of madness, murder, incest, and dark secrets.”
(*romantic defined here as a mysterious or fascinating quality or appeal, as of something adventurous, heroic, or strangely beautiful')

Book lovers will delight in the prominent role they play throughout the story. This passage reflects why I was so steeped in the pages.

“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….When I was a child books were everything. And so there is in me, always, a nostalgic yearning for the lost pleasure of books.”

So much gratification and indulgence getting lost in the pages for me. It brought back the feelings and sensations of reading the books, and others like them mentioned above, as a younger, innocent reader. I so delighted in it, that unlike my usual habit of reading one star reviews to experience the other POV, I chose to hold on to my passionate response.

"How long did I sit on the stairs after reading the letter? I don't know. For I was spellbound. There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner. Wind themselves around your limbs like spider silk, and when your are so enthralled you cannot move, they pierce your skin, enter your blood, numb your thoughts. Inside you they work their magic. When I at last woke up to myself, I could only guess what had been going on in the dryness of my unconsciousness. What had the letter done to me?"

Why, the same doing great writing and storytelling does to me. There may be imperfections in the pages but it just doesn’t get much better than this for reading enjoyment. If this was a bottle of wine, I would buy a case.
...more

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May 31, 2018 Li'l Owl ~ Incorrigible Reader rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mystery-crime-suspense-thriller, history-historical-fiction, owl-s-audible-audiobooks-own, owl-s-favorite-audiobooks, stand-alone, uk-author-setting, owl-s-favorite-narrators, owl-s-absolute-favourites, owl-s-favorite-books-authors

Everyone has a story....
But silence is not a natural environment for stories. They need words. Without them they grow pale, sicken, and die. And then they haunt you.

Margaret Lea finds a letter on the steps to the bookshop where she lives with her father. She's surprised to find that the letter is for her. Opening it, she sits down on the stairs and begins to read.

Excerpts from the letter:

Miss Lea

Some writers don’t like interviews of course. They get cross about it. “Same old questions,”they ...more

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About Diane Setterfield

Diane Setterfield

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“…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

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Quotes from The Thirteenth Tale

“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.” — 1738 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.” — 1635 likes

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