In its playing with our expectations of certain types of fiction, is the work doing more than simply check boxes? I think it does. In fact, much of the pleasure to be taken from this book is catching the allusions and motifs. The shades of Wilkie Collins and Henry James also loom large, as do those of the brothers Grimm. Certainly, the tones of the Brontës resonate throughout The Thirteenth Tale especially those of Charlotte Brontë in Jane Eyre.

In other words, Vida Winter’s life contains so many of the ingredients of a gothic novel that Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale is itself often referred to as such.

What Vida Winter reveals is a history of grief, loss, melancholy, sado-masochism, love, and cruelty a tale including missing persons, foundling children, trusty retainers, madness, fire, death, and possibly a ghost. This is a major commission indeed, given that Winter has hitherto refused to share her background with any other researchers and has over the decades spun many fictions around her own life. Accepting, with many reservations, an invitation from the highly successful and prolific novelist Vida Winter to write Winter’s biography, Margaret finds herself in an isolated house in Yorkshire listening to Vida Winter recall both her own childhood at Angelfield House and the history of the Angelfield family and village. Father and daughter collaborate not only in the father’s business but in living “around” the mother’s inability to deal with the death of Margaret’s twin sister not long after birth. The story follows Margaret Lea, a somewhat reclusive bibliophile and sometime biographer who works with her father in his antiquarian bookshop. A quick review of other reviewers’ comments revealed divided opinion on this novel. Toronto: Random-Anchor, 2007.įor some reason, I had never found/made time to read The Thirteenth Tale despite my being aware of its stature as an international bestseller, so when a copy was lent to me with the injunction, “let me know what you think,” I was grateful for the opportunity to make up for my previous omission.

The 13th tale review