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The Thirteenth Tale  By  cover art

The Thirteenth Tale

By: Diane Setterfield
Narrated by: Bianca Amato,Jill Tanner
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Publisher's summary

All children mythologize their birth... So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter's beloved collection of stories, long famous for the mystery of the missing thirteenth tale. The enigmatic Winter has always kept her violent and tragic past a secret. Now old and ailing, she summons a biographer to tell the truth about her extraordinary life: Margaret Lea, a young woman for whom the secret of her own birth remains an ever-present pain.

Disinterring the life she meant to bury for good, Vida mesmerizes Margaret with the power of her storytelling. Hers 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, and a devastating fire. Struck by a curious parallel between their stories, Margaret demands the truth from Vida, and together they confront the ghosts that have haunted them.

The Thirteenth Tale is a return to that rich vein of storytelling that our parents loved and 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.

©2006 Diane Setterfield (P)2007 Simon & Schuster Audio

Critic reviews

  • Audie Award Finalist, Literary Fiction, 2007

"Bianca Amato is stunning as Margaret....[her] respect for the power of story and the written word is heard in every utterance. Jill Tanner accomplishes a tour de force as the enigmatic and mysterious Vida. In conversation her voice has the hesitancy and fragility of an elderly woman, but her voice takes on the strength and power of a master storyteller as she weaves her spellbinding life story." (AudioFile)
"Readers will be mesmerized by this story-within-a-story tinged with the eeriness of Rebecca and the willfulness of Jane Eyre. The author skillfully keeps the plot moving by unfurling a new twist in each chapter and leaves no strand untucked at the surprising and satisfying conclusion. A wholly original work told in the vein of all the best gothic classics. Lovers of books about book lovers will be enthralled." (Booklist)

What listeners say about The Thirteenth Tale

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    6,618
  • 4 Stars
    2,982
  • 3 Stars
    1,163
  • 2 Stars
    358
  • 1 Stars
    219
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5,593
  • 4 Stars
    1,487
  • 3 Stars
    430
  • 2 Stars
    93
  • 1 Stars
    75
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4,774
  • 4 Stars
    1,820
  • 3 Stars
    740
  • 2 Stars
    214
  • 1 Stars
    142

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • JE
  • 01-28-10

Simply Amazing Story--2 missing chapters

This story is absolutely amazing. It is captivating and enthralling. However, the unabridged Audible copy of this story is missing two chapters near the end of the second file (as the story is so long that it requires two files). As it is, KEY story ending information is left out. Audible has been informed of this problem and I assume it will be corrected at some time.

Ultimately this is not a story to be missed. However, if you are looking for an unabridged copy of the book, this is not currently it.

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292 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Once you finish it, you'll listen again!

I have never been a fan of gothic novels...and after listening to this for about 15 minutes, I wondered why I had gone against my intial instincts, and purchased this book . If I had actually been reading this,(instead of listening) at this point it would have been tossed! What a tragedy that would have been! For I would have missed the chance to be transported into Vida Winter's world. Like Margaret, for me the story took over, and I found my self unable to stop listening. Margaret herself grabbed hold of me, for I, too, understood her love of stories. When I finished it, I knew I had to hear it again, because now that I knew the story, I wanted to listen to the words and visualize the beautiful imagery that Ms. Setterfield created.(and besides I wasn't quite ready to let these characters go...)
Barnes and Noble has created the word, "unputdownable" for this new book club they have created. I heartily concur! This particular delicacy is meant to be savored. Enjoy...

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169 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

A return to the moors...

Perhaps you went through a British lit phase like I once did, where you read all things Bronte, Dickens, and Austen. The Thirteenth Tale is a marvelous return to the Bronte-type books, with vast estates on the moors complete with twisted passages, secrets , and ghosts. It is the life story of Vida Winter, England's most famous living author, at the end of her life--and it is the first time she's told this version (the truth) to anyone. It is told to Margaret Lea, whose own life is twisted in on itself because of a secret she discovered as a child, and it is large, and complex, and wonderfully gothic. The narrators do a terrific job of creating these two women's voices and characters, and give a beautifully nuanced reading.

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91 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Unique, highest quality writing, excellent read.

I tend to get overwhelmed picking new authors and books, so many times I get a book based on the customer reviews. This was one such purchase. I got way more than my money's worth in this wonderfully complex tale. It does start out slow--but the wait is worth it. I am usually good at picking out the end of a book, but this one keep me on the edge of my seat, listening for hours and hours at a time so I could find out how the mysteries unfolded. In a world where NOT well-written, fluffy serial books are being acclaimed, I am not sure everyone will find this story's dark tale as easy of a read. It is more complex that the normal fluff that I have read lately, and for that I am grateful! This story, rich in detail and emotion, has deep secrets it will not give out easily. It is a journey the reader is taken on, and the journey is not neatly packaged in a Hollywood blockbuster style. The story is layered and revealed thus. Beautifully written, perfectly narrated, and completely original, this book is well worth the time and money.

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81 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Combination mind-numbing and truly great

I can't figure out how the first hour of material of this novel got past an editor. It was tortuously slow, and I quit listening after four different attempts over several months. The first narrator may have contributed to this, with her very slow speech. Finally, stuck in a car for many hours, I gave it another try. After more than an hour, this story became mesmerizing. The first part could have been well-written as a short first chapter, and the book would have kept all its integrity, and more people would have kept reading it instead of giving up. If readers are so bored they can't continue - it seems like a serious flaw in a novel, no matter what the author or editor thought they were 'setting up'. First hour plus is a '1' and the after that is even more than a '5'.

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71 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Haunting and beautiful tale

This debut novel is a skillfully written and artfully narrated piece of fiction--what I would rate as true literature--that is well worth a listen or a read. The plot is so well crafted that you are carefully drawn into the story as it slowly yet enjoyably unfolds. I was a little skeptical at first, seeing that the publisher is really pushing this novel, but I would recommend it to those who appreciate an original and satisfying book.

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70 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Painfully slow for me

I'm a very patient listener, but I found this story to be painfully slow from start to finish. I finished it, but it took a fair amount of effort on my part to keep myself focused on the story as it progressed.

I'm actually fairly confused as to why there are so many 'rave' reviews on this book and so many other reviews that seem to reflect my feelings that it was was very hard to enjoy. I guess I'll chalk it up to a person's individual taste. My recommendation is that if you are a reader that likes books with a fair amount of action involved with the main characters, then this novel may not be for you.

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51 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Do You Believe in Ghosts?

This stunning debut by Diane Setterfield held me bound to the story for hours on end, taking breaks now and then to think about it and savor what had been said, and anticipate what was about to come.

Margaret Lea is the somewhat lonely, solitary daughter on an antiquarian bookseller. She has lived her life surrounded by the wonderful books in her father's store, her job being to keep the thousand's of volumes dusted and orderly, and take care of things when her father is gone to one book fair or another as he searches out worthy additions to the shop. She, too, became a lover of books, eventually becoming a writer of biographies.

Britain's most famous author, Vida Winter (what a great name) seeks out Ms. Lea, as she is dying and wants to tell her story to just the right biographer. Margaret thinks of herself as a "talented amateur" when it comes to her writing, and wonders why this famous author is seeking her out for this astonishing challenge. Vida Winter has something in common with this biographer as it turns out, and this secret along with many other's is woven into the tale with the skill of someone who had been writing books for decades.

I won't go into the specific story details, as the author's summary and other reviews have done that--but I do want to say that the fantastic narration by Bianca Amato and Jill Tanner makes this book so delicious to hear. I think without a doubt, the audio version increases the enjoyment of this story ten fold.

NOTE: For those who have been waiting for the next treasure by Ms. Setterfield, Audible has her next book, "Bellman & Black," listed as a new release coming out next month. I can't wait. Seven years between publications--this author is not one to churn out a book every year as some do, and I hope it will be as enchanting as this one.

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49 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Behind Green Eyes

Margaret Lea is plucked from obscurity to be the biographer of the most famous author in England~Vida Winter~ months before Winters croaks. Sutterfield doesn't convincingly establish Vida Winter as the greatest living author in my mind. And even though we learn EVERYTHING about her life (she even has memories of her mother's birth) we do not learn where she gets her ability to create award winning fiction and the adoration of millions of readers who breathlessly await her next novel like I suppose people awaited Daphne du Maurier's next novel 80 years ago.

My main issue with this novel is that is is filed under Historical Fiction when it really should be considered to be a romance/mystery. The book combines Jane Eyre , Wuthering Heights & The Woman in White into a single tome, but ultimately fails as TRUE historical fiction. If one is a fan of romance (I am not) then I suppose it is a fascinating tale of incest, crumbling, gothic mansions replete with gardens, rich, dysfunctional family their ghosts and their servants, English moors and rain. I don't have anything against this book, it's just mislabeled. It's an average romance masquerading as an important work of fiction. The Thirteenth Tale reminds of the above mentioned books, but all mushed together, instead of following one, elegant storyline.

If you like this genre of books, then I think you will be quite pleased. It's lurid, voyeuristic and fantastical, and it doesn't lag. It is serviceably performed, not outstanding. But reviewers need to understand their genres. When I think of historical fiction, the setting is firmly fixed behind true events. This book does not establish its self as true historical fiction. It's Romance/Mystery and nothing more.

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45 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars
  • MJ
  • 05-25-13

The Book That Never Ends

I really wanted to like this book and I know I'm going to get a lot of "unhelpful" votes for this review. Please know that it isn't all bad. The story did have some good points. Ms. Setterfield writes wonderfully descriptive passages and her style is lovely in places, but she uses a lot of odd similes ("the words flew out of my mouth like a bird hitting a window"). Huh???
The first half of the book was good. I was very interested in the story and engaged with the characters (however unlikeable they were), but sometime after the break between sections, I stopped caring about what was happening. The book became tedious. I got fed up when I had to listen to a portion of the twins' story re-told through Hester's diary entries. No doubt they contained important information that the author wanted to convey, but by that time I'd had enough. Where was the editor?! I was constantly checking to see how much time was left, which is never a good sign.

A number of reviewers have referred to "the twist" and how they thought it was excellent. Well, I was disappointed in it. I thought, "is this _really_ where she's going with the story?" Since I hate spoilers, I'll say no more about that. I will say though that there's only so much self-pity that a reader can tolerate. I'd be interested in hearing a real-life twin's opinion. Not being a twin myself, perhaps I can't relate, but Margaret seems overly attached to (no pun intended), and longing to be reunited with, a twin sister she's never even met. Obsessed is probably a better word because she sees and hears her sister everywhere. Strange.

A word about the narrators: I can't figure out why there was a need for two. I understand what the director was trying to accomplish, but the book isn't written in a way that's conducive to using two different voices. There are too many places in the narrative where the characters' stories overlap and the narrator who is portraying Vida ends up reading a passage written from Margaret's point of view, and vice versa. It could be confusing if the listener isn't rapt (which admittedly, I was not). Also, I have listened to several books narrated by one of these ladies and, once again, she does a fine job here; however, I had forgotten the promise I made to myself that I would never listen to another audiobook narrated by the other reader. She is not native to England and the way she pronounces certain words is irritating, like nails on a chalkboard, to me. I mean no disrespect. It's just a pet peeve that I wish I could get over.

I'm sorry to be so critical. If you loved this book, I'm happy you found enjoyment where I could not. If you did not like it, I encourage you to write a review and tell us why not. Books, like any art-form, are subjective. What one person finds merit in, another thinks is rubbish. Such is life.

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35 people found this helpful