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Type of bind: Audio CD
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780743570206
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
ISBN number: 0743570200
Label: Simon & Schuster Audio
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Audio
Quantity: 6
Printing Date: October 09, 2007
Publishing house: Simon & Schuster Audio
Sale Popularity Level: 370359
Studio: Simon & Schuster Audio
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Product Description:
When Margaret Lea opened the door to the past, what she confronted was her destiny.
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 inventions that have brought her fame and fortune but have kept her violent and tragic past a secret. Now old and ailing, she at last wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. She summons biographer Margaret Lea, a young woman for whom the secret of her own birth, hidden by those who loved her most, remains an ever-present pain. Struck by a curious parallel between Miss Winter's story and her own, Margaret takes on the commission.
As Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good, Margaret is mesmerized. 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.
Margaret succumbs to the power of Vida's storytelling but remains suspicious of the author's sincerity. She demands the truth from Vida, and together they confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves.
The Thirteenth Tale is a love letter to reading, a book for the feral reader in all of us, a return to that rich vein of storytelling that our parents loved and that we loved as children. Diane Setterfield will keep you guessing, make you wonder, move you to tears and laughter and, in the end, deposit you breathless yet satisfied back upon the shore of your everyday life.
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 very first time. At their initial meeting, the conversation begins:
'You have given nineteen different versions of your life story to journalists in the last two years alone.'
She [Vida] shrugged. 'It's my profession. I'm a storyteller.'
'I am a biographer, I work with facts.'
The game is afoot and Margaret must spend some time sorting out whether or not Vida is actually ready to tell the whole truth. There is more here of Margaret discovering than of Vida cooperating wholeheartedly, but that is part of Vida's plan. The transformative power of truth informs the lives of both women by story's end, and The Thirteenth Tale is finally and convincingly told. --Valerie Ryan
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Rated by buyers 
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Diane Setterfield's novel is based on the story Vida Winter, a well-renowned author in England. Her dark and tormented past led her to finally divulge her story to Margaret Lea, a quiet, passionate librarian. Even though both women seem to be complete opposites, the readers discover that they both suffer from separation from family and the death of a twin which gives them more in common than they expected.
The Thirteenth Tale is a story about a dysfunctional family, where the birth of a girl named Isabelle led to incestuous feelings from a brother, and the birth of two twin girls; Adeline and Emmeline. However, the readers find out that there are more secrets in the house than just the strange twins. There is a presence of a ghost that drives away the mistress, Hester, and the strange transformation of the radical Adeline into a smart, sensible mistress of the mansion. During Winter's recollection, the readers discover her true identity and the mystery of the twin is resolved.
As for Margaret, she has her own set of troubles to deal with. Her mother's coldness towards her existence and her father's indifference was something she had to endure all her life. The readers discover a hidden passion within Margaret, despite her bland introduction, and as the story progresses, she begins to take charge of her situation and actively solves the mystery behind Winter's life. During her work, she encounters a man named Aurelius, who is connected to the family and towards the end of the novel, they both find a family in each other.
The book was an enjoyable read, and even though the content matter seemed too dramatic at first, Setterfield's use of subtlety left the readers wondering in the end. A plot based on an average family is marvelously unraveled as secrets begin to pour out and I believe the readers will find something to relate to in this book, especially those who are twins or are close to their siblings.
Rated by buyers -
This is an excellent book. It started off a bit slow but really picked up speed. I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend this book.
Rated by buyers -
If I were to endeavor a plot summary here, my guess is that many readers would be (not unjustifiably) put off by what seems to be a sensationalist, V.C. Andrews-ish, melodramatic series of coincidences, assumed identities, secret twins, incest, ghosts, and murder. I don't know if there's any way that a mere summary can do this book justice. Diane Setterfield's genius is that when you're reading "The Thirteenth Tale," you become so wholly engrossed with the characters and the stories they tell that improbable events - which would make you laugh scornfully in the hands of any other author - instead seem to make perfect sense. Each new lurid detail only pulls you deeper into the story, eliciting very real sympathy for the characters living out this tragedy.
The framing device is rather straightforward - a famous author, whose life story has until now remained a mystery, has chosen on her deathbed to assign her biography to an amateur author, the daughter of a bookshop owner. We learn about Vida Winter's life as young Margaret Lea does - beginning, then middle, then end, we're informed firmly. As an unrepentant page-flipper who always peeks ahead to the end, this was enormously frustrating - but ultimately rewarding. Setterfield knows how to drop just enough clues and hints to keep us hooked, making the plot twist both a complete surprise and - upon reflection - perfectly obvious.
The pace does lag a bit about 2/3 of the way through. A subplot involving an orphan abandoned 60 years ago who befriends Margaret isn't fleshed out quite fully enough; I never cared about Aurelius quite as much as I did the other characters. All minor quibbles in the face of a book that grabbed me fully, leaving me bereft and adrift when I was done. What to read subsequent that can possibly compare? I will eagerly await future writings from Diane Setterfield.
Rated by buyers -
Wonderful book. Definitely one of the best I've read in a while.
It's the story of two women. Vida Winters - the most beloved living novelist in the British Isles, now 80 years old. And Margaret Lea - a 30ish, introverted antiquarian bookseller and amateur biographer.
Vida Winters past has always been a mystery, fuelled by the hundreds of `fake' life histories that she has fed to various reporters and curiosity seekers. But now she is dying and she wants Margaret to listen to her tale and write her biography.
At very first Margaret wants nothing to do with the project as everything Mrs. Winters has told in the past has been a lie. But slowly she is drawn in (as is the reader) to the story. A tale of wealth & poverty, birth & decay, family & familial indifference, love & loss & twins all set around a dreary and moldering English mansion. As Mrs. Winters story unfolds, so does Margaret's own. The two women are not as dissimilar, as they very first appear.
Although beautifully written, this isn't a fast paced novel. It is dark in both setting and story. Think of the cold moors & of Wuthering Heights, the cruelty in the early part of Jane Eyre. It took me a while to get into the story, but by halfway through I was not only hooked, I couldn't put it down.
But what truly made it wonderful was the ending. The stage was set perfectly for the big reveal on Vida Winters. All the clues were in line. I should have seen it coming and yet I didn't. It is not the stereotypical ending to a book. The author did a masterful job, and I love being surprised like that.
And then I spent the rest of the book crying as everything came into focus. I'd highly recommend the experience.
Rated by buyers -
Early on in Diane Setterfield's 'The Thirteenth Tale', the (fictional) author of the aforementioned 'tale' utters the line I have quoted in the title of this review, "When one is nothing, one invents. It fills a void."
Upon reaching the end of this novel, this one line holds greater meaning than initially suspected.
With so many reviews of this book, I am hesitant to provide a plot synopsis (amongst the many), and will focus on what I consider to be the book's strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths: Where to begin? This is a wonderfully atmospheric, well plotted, literary tale with so many parallels to classic literature tales that it's hard for any lover of classic fiction to NOT like....others have called this simply a 'ghost' story, and in ways it is, but it's that and so much more. Setterfield has crafted such a wonderful premise and tale to support it, with so many subplots, that virtually every character mentioned in this novel is of great interest, and has a 'place' in the story that unfolds.
Weaknesses: I only have one criticism of this novel, for which I have not deducted any 'stars' in this review. One thing that typically 'irritates' me as a reader is when someone is recounting a story, giving a narrative, and somehow has details to relate of conversations that they were not privy to, and do not explain how they learned the details. Granted, in this instance, the details were vital to the story, yet I still loathe the 'leap' one must take in order to simply accept that the person narrating the story 'somehow' found out what they are telling of. Whereas Ms. Winter's narrative of her life story is supposed to be the truth, I hesitate to think that she simply invented filler details....perhaps it was an embellishment of what little she DID know to be fact, but it still leaves me feeling a bit 'flat' in reading such things.
That said, this is a wonderful story....a perfect read for crisp fall afternoons when the shadows seem a bit longer and appear sooner in the day. A tale of death and rebirth, being freed by the truth, and the unburdening of the soul, I plan to recommend this novel to fellow readers over and over and over again.
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