Studious biographer Margaret Lea is shocked when she receives a letter from renowned novelist, Vida Winter. The inimitable Winter is aging and ill, and she beseeches Margaret to come to her home and hear her story. It is the unforgettable tale of the doomed and beautiful Angelfield family, and Lea is immediately as captivated by the account as she is by her extraordinary storyteller. But she is also skeptical, and becomes determined to discover how much of this tragic story is real. As Margaret gets closer to ascertaining the truth, she must also reconcile her own hidden family secrets. Beautifully atmospheric and haunting, this inspired first novel is reminiscent of classic works such as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, and is certain to take its place among them as a timeless masterpiece.
--This text refers to the
Audio CD
edition.
The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
You may have noticed that some of our books are identified as "deckle edge" in the title. Deckle edge books are bound with pages that are made to resemble handmade paper by applying a frayed texture to the edges. Deckle edge is an ornamental feature designed to set certain titles apart from books with machine-cut pages. See a larger image. |
Book Description
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Editors' Pick: Chosen as one of the Top 50 Books of 2006. See more editors' picks and customers' favorites for the year in our Best Books of 2006 store.
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Settle down to enjoy a rousing good ghost story with Diane Setterfield's debut novel, The Thirteenth Tale. Setterfield has rejuvenated the genre with this closely plotted, clever foray into a world of secrets, confused identities, lies, and half-truths. She never cheats by pulling a rabbit out of a hat; this atmospheric story hangs together perfectly.
There are two heroines here: Vida Winter, a famous author, whose life story is coming to an end, and Margaret Lea, a young, unworldly, bookish girl who is a bookseller in her father's shop. Vida has been confounding her biographers and fans for years by giving everybody a different version of her life, each time swearing it's the truth. Because of a biography that Margaret has written about brothers, Vida chooses Margaret to tell her story, all of it, for the first time. At their initial meeting, the conversation begins:
"You have given nineteen different versions of your life story to journalists in the last two years alone."
She [Vida] shrugged. "It's my profession. I'm a storyteller."
"I am a biographer, I work with facts."
The game is afoot and Margaret must spend some time sorting out whether or not Vida is actually ready to tell the whole truth. There is more here of Margaret discovering than of Vida cooperating wholeheartedly, but that is part of Vida's plan. The transformative power of truth informs the lives of both women by story's end, and The Thirteenth Tale is finally and convincingly told. --Valerie Ryan
From Publishers Weekly
Former academic Setterfield pays tribute in her debut to Brontë and du Maurier heroines: a plain girl gets wrapped up in a dark, haunted ruin of a house, which guards family secrets that are not hers and that she must discover at her peril. Margaret Lea, a London bookseller's daughter, has written an obscure biography that suggests deep understanding of siblings. She is contacted by renowned aging author Vida Winter, who finally wishes to tell her own, long-hidden, life story. Margaret travels to Yorkshire, where she interviews the dying writer, walks the remains of her estate at Angelfield and tries to verify the old woman's tale of a governess, a ghost and more than one abandoned baby. With the aid of colorful Aurelius Love, Margaret puzzles out generations of Angelfield: destructive Uncle Charlie; his elusive sister, Isabelle; their unhappy parents; Isabelle's twin daughters, Adeline and Emmeline; and the children's caretakers. Contending with ghosts and with a (mostly) scary bunch of living people, Setterfield's sensible heroine is, like Jane Eyre, full of repressed feeling—and is unprepared for both heartache and romance. And like Jane, she's a real reader and makes a terrific narrator. That's where the comparisons end, but Setterfield, who lives in Yorkshire, offers graceful storytelling that has its own pleasures. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Diane Setterfield is a former academic, specializing in twentieth-century French literature. She lives in Yorkshire, England.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
702 of 729 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I almost never review books on Amazon, but I just finished reading "The Thirteenth Tale" and logged onto Amazon to see if Diane Setterfield had written any other books and in the process browsed the existing reviews. I found that I could agree with neither the positive nor the negative reviews. A majority of the positive reviews simply fawn over the book without explaining why it is so good. Many of the reviews are filled with overworked hyperbole. Many of the negative reviews struck me as so vitriolic that I wonder if the reviewer had forgotten their meds before starting the review. And so, I decided to write a review. I'm not going to tell you whether it is a good or a bad book, I'm going to tell you if I liked it or not and why.
I enjoyed the book for the following reasons:
1. The plot interested me (see book description if you don't already know the plot).
2. The writing is excellent. Richly descriptive without being so wordy that I felt like skimming paragraphs.
3. I found the characters interesting, believable and well-developed.
4. The pacing of the story was just how I like it in a book of this genre. Slightly meandering with a steady rise and fall of tempo. This gives me plenty of exciting reading, but also allows me places to stop reading when I need to go to bed or do something else.
Is this book great literature? Hell, I don't know and don't care. I enjoyed reading it and that's what reading is all about for me.
I enjoyed the book for the following reasons:
1. The plot interested me (see book description if you don't already know the plot).
2. The writing is excellent. Richly descriptive without being so wordy that I felt like skimming paragraphs.
3. I found the characters interesting, believable and well-developed.
4. The pacing of the story was just how I like it in a book of this genre. Slightly meandering with a steady rise and fall of tempo. This gives me plenty of exciting reading, but also allows me places to stop reading when I need to go to bed or do something else.
Is this book great literature? Hell, I don't know and don't care. I enjoyed reading it and that's what reading is all about for me.
578 of 605 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
When a first novel is immediately (and enthusiastically) compared to the works of such literary luminaries as the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, a large dose of skepticism is in order. I read this book with a jaundiced eye, expecting to eventually uncover at least one unconvincing character, a plot twist that failed to surprise, or a passage less than vivid, unworthy of the masters.
I did not.
Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale carries the reader along like a turbulent river, with unexpected eddies and undertows you can't escape. The characters are absolutely true to the worlds of Dickens and Austen, but they're originals, not derivatives. They grieve and you do, they rejoice and you do, they die and you do- almost. The whole atmosphere of the book is powerful and sweeping, in the manner of Henry James or even Joseph Conrad. (Well, minus all those ships, of course.) If I had to pick one story that gave the same overall effect, I'd pick The Turn of the Screw, since the ghost element in Setterfield's book is equally shocking and unique, although James's classic novella lacks the grand span and scope of The Thirteenth Tale. Then again, Setterfield's characters could just as easily find a home in Dickens' dangerous London squalor or in the halls of a Bronte mansion, the air thick with secrets and heavy with troubled specters anxious to make themselves known.
Intriguing, daring and even downright heart-pounding at times, The Thirteenth Tale might well give you nightmares at the end, but they'll be the best- and most original- nightmares you've ever had.
-Mark Wakely, author of An Audience for Einstein
I did not.
Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale carries the reader along like a turbulent river, with unexpected eddies and undertows you can't escape. The characters are absolutely true to the worlds of Dickens and Austen, but they're originals, not derivatives. They grieve and you do, they rejoice and you do, they die and you do- almost. The whole atmosphere of the book is powerful and sweeping, in the manner of Henry James or even Joseph Conrad. (Well, minus all those ships, of course.) If I had to pick one story that gave the same overall effect, I'd pick The Turn of the Screw, since the ghost element in Setterfield's book is equally shocking and unique, although James's classic novella lacks the grand span and scope of The Thirteenth Tale. Then again, Setterfield's characters could just as easily find a home in Dickens' dangerous London squalor or in the halls of a Bronte mansion, the air thick with secrets and heavy with troubled specters anxious to make themselves known.
Intriguing, daring and even downright heart-pounding at times, The Thirteenth Tale might well give you nightmares at the end, but they'll be the best- and most original- nightmares you've ever had.
-Mark Wakely, author of An Audience for Einstein
643 of 681 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Vida Winter, England's most famous and reclusive writer, is nearing the end, and before she goes she wants her amazing life story to be recorded for posterity. For this, she engages a lonely young biographer, Margaret Lea, who has a few secrets of her own. When these two forceful women meet, the stage is set for an ever-mounting series of shocking surprises.
I've always been a fan of the Gothic style of romantic mystery, and some of my favorite authors are the Brontës, Daphne du Maurier, Mary Stewart, and Robert Goddard. If you share my love of windswept moors, bleak houses and strange families, you're in for a real treat. THE THIRTEENTH TALE is a masterful, deliberately old-fashioned story of secrets, ghosts, sexual obsession, murder, madness--you name it, and it's here.
This is a beautiful book. I'm going to give copies to a few friends, and I plan to read it again. The only other books I've actually read twice are GREAT EXPECTATIONS, WUTHERING HEIGHTS, and REBECCA. What else can I say? Enjoy.
I've always been a fan of the Gothic style of romantic mystery, and some of my favorite authors are the Brontës, Daphne du Maurier, Mary Stewart, and Robert Goddard. If you share my love of windswept moors, bleak houses and strange families, you're in for a real treat. THE THIRTEENTH TALE is a masterful, deliberately old-fashioned story of secrets, ghosts, sexual obsession, murder, madness--you name it, and it's here.
This is a beautiful book. I'm going to give copies to a few friends, and I plan to read it again. The only other books I've actually read twice are GREAT EXPECTATIONS, WUTHERING HEIGHTS, and REBECCA. What else can I say? Enjoy.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mystery in England
Very well-written story, well designed with twists and turns that unfold to reveal a surprise ending. Read more
Published 6 hours ago by annette
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Read
I had never read anything by this author so opted to have a sample sent to my Kindle - WOW! I was totally drawn in by the author's extensive vocabulary and her intricate knowledge... Read more
Published 14 hours ago by booklover
5.0 out of 5 stars
What a tale
Good storytelling. A very satisfying book for a rainy day or evening. If you like romantic classics you will like this.
Published 15 hours ago by lovesclassics
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of my all time favorites
This is one of those books that will always be on my top 10 list. The story and characters were engaging, unique, and unforgettable.
Published 1 day ago by JW
1.0 out of 5 stars
Boring
After reading the summary on Amazon, I thought the book sounded very interesting. This book ended up being *very* boring. The descriptions of every. single. detail. Read more
Published 2 days ago by spatterson42
5.0 out of 5 stars
Standing applause
Not your usual "who did it". Will read more from this author. The "twisting" kept my mind bent & satisfied
Published 2 days ago by Deborah M. Haber
4.0 out of 5 stars
Felt like I was in a different century
This was a good read. It had an old world feel about the people and was a very interesting read with a hook of a plot in the end I was not expecting. Worth the read.
Published 3 days ago by sharon meeks
4.0 out of 5 stars
Unexpectedly good
I couldn't put it down. Full of surprises and twists and turns. If you like books about books this is a must read.
Published 3 days ago by Rachel Messing
4.0 out of 5 stars
good read
A modern take on a Gothic novel. Grabs and holds the reader's attention. I enjoyed the slow unfolding of the tale.
Published 3 days ago by J. DuPont
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating book
I really liked this book. Fascinating view of past practices and research into psychology. Characters I cared about. I recommend it.
Published 4 days ago by Egwhit
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
So You'd Like to...
|
|
