The Thirteenth Tale

by Diane Setterfield | Literature & Fiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 0743298020 Global Overview for this book
Registered by Antof9 of Lakewood, Colorado USA on 12/5/2006
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3 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by Antof9 from Lakewood, Colorado USA on Tuesday, December 5, 2006
The latest book for Book Club, I better get reading!

Journal Entry 2 by Antof9 from Lakewood, Colorado USA on Friday, January 26, 2007
I finished this with the BBC (Barely a Book Club), but missed the last week of discussion because I was out of town. The BBC's blog entries on this book are here.

I'm being forced to write my journal entry on this (which is good) because this book is on the wish list of a BookCrosser I'm sending a bookring to. Yay! I'm glad I found someone interested in this book :)

So ... overall, I found this very dark and without much hope. I find that's what I'm looking for in books lately, and I missed it in this one. It was definitely intriguing -- so much so that once I started it, I couldn't put it down, but I didn't love it. And I was often frustrated with it.

And ever since becoming a BookCrosser, I always seem to find the parts in a book that are talking about books or reading. This book didn't disappoint, and I *loved* this part -- because I totally knew exactly what the author meant. I felt like she was actually telling her own story here, speaking as the character Margaret:
Still in my coat and hat, I sank onto the stair to read the letter. (I never read without making sure I am in a secure position. I have been like this ever since the age of seven when, sitting on a high wall and reading The Water Babies, I was so seduced by the descriptions of underwater life that I unconsciously relaxed my muscles. Instead of being held buoyant by te water that so vividly surrounded me in my mind, I plummeted to the ground and knocked myself out. I can still feel the scar under my fringe now. Reading can be dangerous.)


And then there's this one -- again, I think the author is a true lover of books:
It was while I was reading "The Mermaid's Tale" -- the twelfth tale -- that I began to feel stirrings of an anxiety that was unconnected to the story itself. I was distracted: my thumb and right index finger were sending me a message: Not many pages left. The knowledge nagged more insistently until I tilted the book to check. It was true. The thirteenth tale must be a very short one.

I continued my reading, finished tale twelve and turned the page.

Blank.

I flicked back, forward again. Nothing.

There was no thirteenth tale.


And last, there's this:
I read old novels. The reason is simple: I prefer proper endings. Marriages and deaths, noble sacrifices and miraculous restorations, tragic separations and unhoped-for reunions, great falls and dreams fulfilled; these, in my view, constitute an ending worth the wait. They should come after adventures, perils, dangers and dilemmas, and wind everything up nice and neatly. Endings like this are to be found more commonly in old novels than new ones, so I read old novels.


Now can you see why I was sure I'd love this author? She totally gets books and reading. The problem is that she tried to write a book, and it wasn't so great. I felt like there were a lot of things that needed explaining, and there were several things where she chose an easy way out, rather than working hard, not the least of which was the ending. The majority of book club felt like her "resolution" was a total cop-out. I wasn't that upset by it, but I definitely felt like it was weak.

I've written more than I needed to, so I'll stop here. It's weird to have read a book as quickly and voraciously as I did this one and to also be disappointed in it.

Journal Entry 3 by Antof9 from Lakewood, Colorado USA on Friday, January 26, 2007
Now it can go on to a home that's been looking for it! Here's a RABCK for you, Bibliocrates! I hope you enjoy it :)

Journal Entry 4 by Bibliocrates from Pueblo, Colorado USA on Wednesday, January 31, 2007
I got this book from Antof9 today as a RABCK. Thank you very much for sending me this book Antof9, but I just got this very book from RalieghDog several weeks ago in a RABCK drawing. I will find another home for it via RABCK.com shortly.

To be read...

From the Publisher
A compelling emotional mystery in the timeless vein of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, about family secrets and the magic of books and storytelling.

Margaret Lea works in her father's antiquarian bookshop where her fascination for the biographies of the long-dead has led her to write them herself. She gets a letter from one of the most famous authors of the day, the mysterious Vida Winter, whose popularity as a writer has been in no way diminished by her reclusiveness. Until now, Vida has toyed with journalists who interview her, creating outlandish life histories for herself - all of them invention. Now she is old and ailing, and at last she wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. Her letter to Margaret is a summons.

Somewhat anxiously, the equally reclusive Margaret travels to Yorkshire to meet her subject - and Vida starts to recount her tale. It is one of gothic strangeness featuring the March family; the fascinating, devious and wilful Isabelle and the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline. Margaret is captivated by the power of Vida's storytelling. But as a biographer she deals in fact not fiction, and she doesn't entirely trust Vida's account. She goes to check up on the family, visiting their old home and piecing together their story in her own way. What she discovers on her journey to the truth is for Margaret a chilling and transforming experience.

Journal Entry 5 by Bibliocrates from Pueblo, Colorado USA on Wednesday, January 31, 2007
This book is on its way to DreamSE22 as a RABCK to fulfill a wish. I hope you enjoy it!

Journal Entry 6 by DreamworldBooks on Sunday, March 11, 2007
OMG, thank you SO MUCH for the RABCK! I had wanted it when it first came out, but of course couldn't afford to pay full price for it. Thank goodness for bookcrossing! Thank you for your kind generosity, Bibliocrates. I really appreciate it and I can't wait to read this book! I hope I like it.

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