Aug 11 2008

Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale

Published by at 6:40 pm under books,reviews

I finished this last night. I tried not to, I really did, because I knew that once I had turned the last page, I’d never experience the joy of reading this wonderful story for the first time ever again. But I couldn’t help myself, I had to keep reading, faster and faster…I had to know… And what a satisfying ending.

It’s a Gothic novel about twins, and it also shares many of the same attributes as Zafon’s wonderful Shadow of the Wind: books, fire, and hidden identities. If you liked that, you’ll love this one, but it is also very much more of a “women’s novel,” written for anyone who ever loved Wuthering Heights, or The Lady in White, or The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, or Middlemarch, or Jane Eyre. Above all Jane Eyre, especially if, like me, you lost interest in that book the first time you read it after the part when Jane’s first friend dies, and she returns from school.

So what are you waiting for? Go! Go! Times a-wasting. Start reading!

That means you especially, Mum.

8 responses so far

8 Responses to “Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale”

  1. # Mumon 11 Aug 2008 at 7:44 pm

    Luce,
    I shall get it a.s.a.p
    I adored all the titles you mentioned.

  2. # Pages tagged "the thirteenth tale"on 12 Aug 2008 at 12:00 pm

    [...] bookmarks tagged the thirteenth tale Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale saved by 5 others     hazelhimself bookmarked on 08/12/08 | [...]

  3. # Teresaon 12 Aug 2008 at 12:33 pm

    Hmm, I keep looking at this book and wondering if I should try it. Now, maybe I will :)

  4. # Julianne Douglason 14 Aug 2008 at 11:22 pm

    Okay, okay, I’ll add it to the pile! BTW, did you ever read The Historian? Just started it and am wondering whether it will be my kind of thing or not…

  5. # lucypickon 15 Aug 2008 at 6:07 pm

    I read The Historian last year. I was underwhelmed — as a kind of junky, genre novel it was just fine, but I know it had pretensions to literary fiction that, for me, were not met. I’d love to hear what you thought when you’re done.

    The 13th Tale will not disappoint.

  6. # Sarahon 18 Aug 2008 at 3:48 pm

    I loved The Thirteenth Tale, and envy those about to read it for the first time! That didn’t prevent me from reading it a second time, though :)

  7. # Elizabethon 16 Sep 2008 at 4:14 pm

    I absolutely LOVE this book!!!

    (I also love your blog, which I didn’t know existed until just now, when I followed the link at the bottom of your email.)

    Elizabeth Musselman

  8. # lucypickon 17 Sep 2008 at 3:34 pm

    Thanks so much, Elizabeth!

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