The Thirteenth Tale
Diane Setterfield
Book Review
Daphne du Maurier’s classic Rebecca is an all-time favourite book of mine. A prototype of Gothic fiction, the narrative, from the famous first lines to the unforgettable ending, is utterly spellbinding. I have scoured many contemporary novels for a similar immersive reading experience and The Thirteenth Tale is one of a small cohort of books that comes up to scratch.
My own paperback, lent to an acquaintance, was never returned, and its spot in my bookshelf stands empty. Additionally, that particular edition is no longer available. My personal experience was thus congruous with an important theme in the book- loss.
The story begins with Margaret Lea, a shop assistant in her father’s antiquarian bookshop. An unapologetic bibliophile and novice biographer, her quiet life is upturned when she receives an offer to write the story of England’s most successful novelist, ailing octogenarian and accomplished liar, Vida Winters.
Vida is brazen and imposing in person. But beneath the carefully constructed facade, Margaret recognises something that she herself relates to- a hitherto unspoken anguish stemming from an irreparable loss.
Vida’s story spans three generations of the aristocratic Angelfield family, their friends and servants of the household. In particular, it is the story of the twins, Adeline and Emmeline March.
The story progresses, per Vida’s preference, in the three-act structure- the beginning, the middle and the end. The narrative is engrossing throughout and transitions between past and present seamlessly. The author spins a dense web of dark shadows, eerie sounds and forbidden passions. There is an undercurrent of dread that grows and intensifies as the suspense peaks and then troughs in the denouement.
Margaret and Vida are contrasting personalities who share more in common than they, or the readers, realise at first. Margaret is an introvert with a tendency to brood. But she is also a strong-willed woman whose curiosity is the boon and bane of her existence. Vida, for all her flamboyance, is insecure and more sensitive and kind-hearted than she would care for anyone to know.
The accessory characters are all written to perfection- the Missus, John the dig, Doctor Maudsley, Hester and the twins. In particular, Adeline and Emmeline, the shadow protagonists and their unearthly bond are sure to leave the reader with goosebumps.
The Thirteenth Tale is a dark, heavy novel, true to its genre. The reader is lured in by the beauty of the prose and the promise of a heady plot and the author succeeds in delivering both and then some.
Quotes and notes-
Some of my favourite Vida-isms-
“My gripe is not with lovers of the truth but with truth herself. What succour, what consolation is there in truth, compared to a story? What good is truth, at midnight, in the dark, when the wind is roaring like a bear in the chimney? When the lightning strikes shadows on the bedroom wall and the rain taps at the window with its long fingernails? No. 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 lie.”
“Politeness. Now there’s a poor man’s virtue if ever there was one. What’s so admirable about inoffensiveness, I should like to know. After all, it’s easily achieved. One needs no particular talent to be polite. On the contrary, being nice is what’s left when you’ve failed at everything else. People with ambition don’t give a damn what other people think about them.”
“People whose lives are not balanced by a healthy love of money suffer from an appalling obsession with personal integrity.”
“All children mythologise their birth. It is a universal trait. You want to know someone? Heart, mind and soul? Ask him to tell you about when he was born. What you get won’t be the truth: it will be a story. And nothing is more telling than a story.”
Vida’s words, spoken and written, are mesmerizing.
‘There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner.’
This quote is in itself a commentary on all the preceding and subsequent words from the book that I’ve chosen for this section.
Some of Margaret’s thoughts that resonated with me-
“Of course, I loved books more than people.”
“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, to capture the spirit of The Thirteenth Tale-
“Once upon a time there was a fairy godmother, but the rest of the time there was none. This story is about one of those other times.”
