Book Cover
APPEAL FACTORS
This good is a modern classic of gothic fiction. The main character is lovable and easy to connect with. The female characters are dynamic. The title itself captures the reader's interest making one ask themselves, "what is the thirteenth tale?"
THE AUTHOR
Diane Setterfield
SIMILAR TITLES/AUTHORS
The Forgotten Garden by Katie Morton
The Seance by John Harwood
The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovett
AWARDS
Dilys Award Nominee 2007
ALA Alex Award 2007
The Quill Award for Debut Author 2007
ANNOTATION
Margaret discovers that she has many common secrets with the famous Vida Winter.
SUMMARY
Margaret is the daughter of a book shop keeper. She works in the book shop and is a voracious reader. She has come to especially like biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. She has even written and published a few essay-like biographies.
One day she receives a 6 page letter from a woman named Vida Winter. Vida is the most famous contemporary author of the age. She has published 56 novels that have won international fame and adoration. Hundreds of journalists and biographers have attempted to write about her life and tried to get her to divulge her history. She skillfully rejected and lied to all of them. However, Vida has asked Margaret via this letter to be the one who will write her true life story.
When Margaret meets Vida she finds Vida to be harsh, unbending, and without pretense. She as commissioned Margaret to write her biography due to her age and failing health. The only requirement she puts in place is that the biography will be told as a story and that there will be a beginning, middle, and end, and that Margaret is not to try and skip ahead. Thus Margaret begins to both write and learn the dark past of Vida Winter.
Firstly, Vida Winter is not her real name. It is what she had legally changed it to. Before Vida there was Adeline Angelfield. Before Adaline Angelfield there was Isabelle and Charlie Angelfield. This brother and sister lived a life of sadism and as a result twin girls were born, Adaline and Emmeline. The two girls grew up neglected and unruly. However, with the help of a governess, a housekeeper, and a gardener Emmeline was able to drag herself out of the social and intellectual poverty she was flung into by Isabelle and Charlie. Adaline, however, remained quiet, suspicious, and furiously and obsessively loyal to Emmeline. In the end it was this obsessive and jealous behavior that led Adaline to do terrible things-even murder. However, there was another girl. One that no one knew existed-except the housekeeper and the gardener. She had no name, but she lived in the house with the other girls. Finally, after a colossal confrontation between Adaline and Emmeline, which resulted in a fire and the death of Adaline, this girl who was unknown to anyone alive, was mistaken as Adaline, and she took on the identity as if Adaline never died.
Margaret, who divulges her own painful past to Vida, tells her story of being a conjoined twin whose twin sister died after they were surgically separated. This was a secret kept from her until she accidentally happened upon the birth certificate of her twin when her parents were gone from the house. This painful truth damaged her relationship with her mother for many years. However, Vida and Margaret are able to find healing and comfort as they confront their painful pasts and the ghosts that live there.
MY REVIEW
This book is magical, haunting, thrilling, heartbreaking, and life changing! I felt as if my life would never be the same when I finished this book. The author has a way with words in which gives them a breath and life of their very own. As I listened to the audio recording of the book I felt transported to the very scenes in which were being described to me. I could picture each character perfectly in my mind. I could feel the pain, hope, love, fear, anger, and even sadistic joy of the characters. The depravity of the House of Angelfield, the scandal of Isabelle and Charlie, the inpredictable plot twist of Adeline all made for a deliciously satisfying story. Setterfield is a master storyteller, which she magnificently displays through Vida Winter-whom if she was real I'd love to meet her.
Just when you think you've figured out the mystery and believe that the twists and turns have been passed Setterfield turns it all upside down and inside out. This books is the most hauntingly beautiful gothic style story I've read since Wuthering Heights.
RATING
Quality: Gold
Popularity: Diamond
Margaret discovers that she has many common secrets with the famous Vida Winter.
SUMMARY
Margaret is the daughter of a book shop keeper. She works in the book shop and is a voracious reader. She has come to especially like biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. She has even written and published a few essay-like biographies.
One day she receives a 6 page letter from a woman named Vida Winter. Vida is the most famous contemporary author of the age. She has published 56 novels that have won international fame and adoration. Hundreds of journalists and biographers have attempted to write about her life and tried to get her to divulge her history. She skillfully rejected and lied to all of them. However, Vida has asked Margaret via this letter to be the one who will write her true life story.
When Margaret meets Vida she finds Vida to be harsh, unbending, and without pretense. She as commissioned Margaret to write her biography due to her age and failing health. The only requirement she puts in place is that the biography will be told as a story and that there will be a beginning, middle, and end, and that Margaret is not to try and skip ahead. Thus Margaret begins to both write and learn the dark past of Vida Winter.
Firstly, Vida Winter is not her real name. It is what she had legally changed it to. Before Vida there was Adeline Angelfield. Before Adaline Angelfield there was Isabelle and Charlie Angelfield. This brother and sister lived a life of sadism and as a result twin girls were born, Adaline and Emmeline. The two girls grew up neglected and unruly. However, with the help of a governess, a housekeeper, and a gardener Emmeline was able to drag herself out of the social and intellectual poverty she was flung into by Isabelle and Charlie. Adaline, however, remained quiet, suspicious, and furiously and obsessively loyal to Emmeline. In the end it was this obsessive and jealous behavior that led Adaline to do terrible things-even murder. However, there was another girl. One that no one knew existed-except the housekeeper and the gardener. She had no name, but she lived in the house with the other girls. Finally, after a colossal confrontation between Adaline and Emmeline, which resulted in a fire and the death of Adaline, this girl who was unknown to anyone alive, was mistaken as Adaline, and she took on the identity as if Adaline never died.
Margaret, who divulges her own painful past to Vida, tells her story of being a conjoined twin whose twin sister died after they were surgically separated. This was a secret kept from her until she accidentally happened upon the birth certificate of her twin when her parents were gone from the house. This painful truth damaged her relationship with her mother for many years. However, Vida and Margaret are able to find healing and comfort as they confront their painful pasts and the ghosts that live there.
MY REVIEW
This book is magical, haunting, thrilling, heartbreaking, and life changing! I felt as if my life would never be the same when I finished this book. The author has a way with words in which gives them a breath and life of their very own. As I listened to the audio recording of the book I felt transported to the very scenes in which were being described to me. I could picture each character perfectly in my mind. I could feel the pain, hope, love, fear, anger, and even sadistic joy of the characters. The depravity of the House of Angelfield, the scandal of Isabelle and Charlie, the inpredictable plot twist of Adeline all made for a deliciously satisfying story. Setterfield is a master storyteller, which she magnificently displays through Vida Winter-whom if she was real I'd love to meet her.
Just when you think you've figured out the mystery and believe that the twists and turns have been passed Setterfield turns it all upside down and inside out. This books is the most hauntingly beautiful gothic style story I've read since Wuthering Heights.
RATING
Quality: Gold
Popularity: Diamond
GENRE & SUB GENRES
Fiction
Mystery
Historical
Historical Fiction
Gothic
Mystery
Historical
Historical Fiction
Gothic
APPEAL FACTORS
This good is a modern classic of gothic fiction. The main character is lovable and easy to connect with. The female characters are dynamic. The title itself captures the reader's interest making one ask themselves, "what is the thirteenth tale?"
THE AUTHOR
Diane Setterfield
The Forgotten Garden by Katie Morton
The Seance by John Harwood
The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovett
AWARDS
Dilys Award Nominee 2007
ALA Alex Award 2007
The Quill Award for Debut Author 2007
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