Review: The Tirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

The Tirteenth Tale

Author: Diane Setterfield 

Published: September 12th 2006

Publisher: Orion

Number of pages: 416

Format: Hardback

Source: Bought

Purchase: Amazon, TBD, B&N

From Goodreads: 

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.

My Review

The Tirteenth tale is a novel about death, about life and about survival. 

Usually, when I start a book, I prefer to have as little information as possible: a couple lines from the synopsis might be enough, I prefer to discover everything by reading the full thing. So when I started The Tirteenth Tale, I just knew that it was about the story of Vida Winter and her desire to finally unveil her life to the world through Margaret's narration. Little did I know about the creepy setting, the dark atmosphere and the disturbed characters this book would contain. I saw it defined around the web as a modern gothic novel and I couldn't agree more.

As you might know, I love this kind of stories. I loved how the author skillfully brought to life the Angelfield mansion and its occupants: the house - decadent, rotting, abandoned - just a mirror of the family's soul. Diane Setterfield creates a range of complex characters with perversed minds and dark souls, yet she helps you understand the psycology of all of them. All this characteristics, make up for such a twisted story. 

I loved the fact that the narration is left to Margaret, which is an outsider in Vida's story and represents all of the readers' doubts and questions. I really liked how the narration of the story in the end  helps both characters in finding a personal balance, even though I would have liked for Margaret's growth to be a little more explored in the ending, so that I could actually think of her as a protagonist and not just a medium between Vida and the world. Vida, infact, appears to be much more central in the book than Margaret herself. Consequently, every time the narration switched to Margaret's own life, it was inevitable to feel a little frustrated by the break in Vida's narration.

The fact that the literary world has such a power in the book is one of the reason why it was so fascinating. And I'm not just talking about a book that was practically set inside a bookshop, nor about the constant references to literary masterpieces such as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. I'm talking about how the act of reading and writing especially, seemed to be irrevocably linked to the life of the protagonists. Vida could not find peace until her very last story was concluded: the cathartic power of narration being her only chance at finding comfort.

The author herself, plays a lot with all the instruments of narration, but you won't get her refinement until the very end - and this is why I would really like to re-read the book to try and see if the mystery could be solved from the hints she gave! (Maybe you will be cleverer than me?!)

The only point that I feel like criticising a little bit, is the whole "13th tale" mystery. I know that what the author came up with was the only solution to the issue, but it felt like it was placed there just to have an ending to all the unfinished businesses Vida had: more space should have been given to how the 13th tale was actually brought to the public. 

This, and a narrative style that was brilliant, evocative yet heavy and tiring at times, prevent me from giving this book 5 full stars. But I will certainly buy any other thing Setterfield has written and will write!

Rated 4.7