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Our Reader's Guide to The Thirteenth Tale
Our inaugural selection is The Thirteenth Tale, a novel of ghostly legacies, descended from Jane Eyre.

January, 2007 -- Diane Setterfield's remarkable first novel begins like a reader’s dream: a bookseller’s daughter returns to the shop one night to discover a letter from England’s best-loved writer, a woman whose life is shrouded in rumor and legend. Reading the strange missive from the famous Vida Winter, Margaret Lea is puzzled by its invitation to discover the truth about the author’s mystifying past. Later that evening, unable to sleep, Margaret returns to the shop from her bedroom upstairs in search of something to read. Passing over her old favorites—The Woman in White, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre—she can’t resist the temptation of the rarest of her correspondent’s books, Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation, the recalled first edition of a book that contained only twelve stories. Falling under Vida Winter’s spell for the first time, Margaret reads it straight through. Not long afterward she is standing in the opulent library of Miss Winter’s Yorkshire home, transported by the romance of books into a mysterious tale of her own.

Only five short chapters into Setterfield’s deft, enthralling narrative, her readers too have been transported: they’ve inhaled the dusty scent of Lea’s Antiquarian Bookshop, shared the sense of adventurous comfort Margaret absorbs from her late-night reading, and been seduced by the glamorous enigma of Vida Winter. Yet The Thirteenth Tale has just begun. Commissioned by Miss Winter to compose her unvarnished biography, Margaret is soon swept up in the tragic history she must unravel—a story stranger and more haunting than any the celebrated author has ever penned, encompassing a grand house, a beautiful yet doomed family, passion, madness, ghosts, and a secret that holds readers spellbound until the very end. Richly atmospheric and deeply satisfying, Setterfield’s debut revives in all their glory the traditions of gothic and romantic suspense exemplified by the works of Wilkie Collins, the Brontës, and Daphne du Maurier. Old-fashioned in the best sense, it’s an urgently readable novel that’s nearly impossible to put down.

*Download the PDF version of our Reader's Guide *
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About the Author

The Thirteenth Tale is Diane Setterfield’s first novel. Born in Berkshire, England, she was educated at Theale Green Comprehensive School and Bristol University. A former academic, she has taught at various universities in England and in France, specializing in 20th-century French literature, especially the works of André Gide. She has also run her own business teaching French to people intending to move across the Channel.

The Thirteenth Tale was in part inspired by Setterfield’s wish to return to the storytelling richness of the books she treasured in her youth. “I read French literature almost exclusively for more than a decade,” she explains, “so when I left academia, I really wanted to go back to the English classics which I loved so much as a teenager. It was very nostalgic for me to write in that sort of style.” As she worked on The Thirteenth Tale, Setterfield’s talent was spotted by the novelist Jim Crace during a writing course she had enrolled in to advance the prospects of publication.

In her early forties, Diane Setterfield is married and lives in Harrogate, North Yorkshire.

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Get the most out of The Thirteenth Tale with these reading group discussion questions.
  1. When do you think The Thirteenth Tale takes place? The narrator gives some hints, but never tells the exact date. Which aspects of the book gave you a sense of time, and which seemed timeless? Did the question of time affect your experience with the novel?
  2. Books play a major role in this novel. Margaret, for example, sells books for a living. Miss Winter writes them. Most of the important action of the story takes place in libraries. There are stories within stories, all inextricably intertwined. Discuss the various roles of books, stories, and writing in this novel.
  3. Miss Winter asks Margaret if she’d like to hear a ghost story – in fact, there seem to be several ghost stories weaving their way through. In what ways is The Thirteenth Tale a classic gothic novel?
  4. Compare and contrast Margaret, Miss Winter, and Aurelius – the three “ghosts” of the novel who are also each haunted by their pasts.
  5. It is a classic writer’s axiom that a symbol must appear at least three times in a story so that the reader knows that you meant it as a symbol. In The Thirteenth Tale, the novel Jane Eyre appears several times. Discuss the appearances and allusions to Jane Eyre and how this novel echoes that one.
  6. Dr. Clifton tells Margaret that she is “suffering from an ailment that afflicts ladies of romantic imagination” when he learns that she is an avid reader of novels such as Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and Sense and Sensibility. What do you think he means by drawing such a parallel? What other parallels exist between The Thirteenth Tale and classic 19th-century literature?
  7. When did you first suspect Miss Winter’s true identity? Whether you knew or not, looking back, what clues does she give to Margaret (and what clues does the author give to you)?
  8. The title of this novel is taken from the title of Miss Winter’s first book, Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation, a collection of twelve stories with a mysterious thirteenth left out at the last minute before publication. How is this symbolic of the novel? What is the thirteenth tale?
Further Reading: Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca
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Praise for The Thirteenth Tale

FROM OUR BOOKSELLERS
“It’s not often that I would even dare to compare a book to Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, but The Thirteenth Tale is one that I will. This book is absolutely wonderful. It’s a classic gothic tale, with ghosts and a grand house, good and evil and a secret that will have you guessing until the very end.”
--Sessalee Hensley, Barnes & Noble Fiction Buyer

“In about five pages—I was hooked! I could not put the book down! Neglecting everything from the dishes, to sleep I finished the book in two short nights and have been thinking about it ever since”
--Jessica Flowers, Barnes & Noble, Bloomington, IL

“WOW! When I was down to the final few chapters, I almost didn’t want to go to work so I could finish! And I LOVE my work, so that should tell you how great I thought the book was.”
--Teresa Patek, Barnes & Noble, Crystal Lake, IL

FROM WRITERS AND REVIEWERS
“Setterfield’s sensible heroine is, like Jane Eyre, full of repressed feeling—and is unprepared for both heartaches and romance. And like Jane, she’s a real reader and makes a terrific narrator.”
--Publishers Weekly

“Anyone picking up this novel will not be able to put it down. Pick it up.”
--Elizabeth Jane Howard, author of The Cazalet Chronicle

“Simply brilliant — I haven’t enjoyed a first novel so much for absolutely ages.”
--Kate Mosse, author of Labyrinth

“This thoroughly absorbing and strangely otherworldly novel captivates the reader from the very first page.”
--Robert Goddard, author of Into the Blue

“Setterfield has crafted an homage to the romantic heroines of du Maurier, Collins and the Brontës.... Setterfield’s debut is enchanting Goth for the 21st century.”
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“A ruined mansion in the English countryside, secret illegitimate children, a mad-woman hidden in the attic, ghostly twin sisters–yep, it’s a gothic novel, and it doesn’t pretend to be anything fancier. But this one grabs the reader with its damp, icy fingers and doesn’t let go until the last shocking secret has been revealed.”
--Library Journal