The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Little Miss Ghost Twin
Story ☆★★★★
A book within a book, The Thirteenth Tale is perfect for lovers of Victorian gothic melodrama. The story is flooded with reference to Jane Eyre, Great Expectations and probably a dozen others I didn't even realise.
To take that kind of sweeping family drama and make it palatable to a 21st century audience can't be the easiest. But on the other hand, with the current BBC adaptation of The Woman in White, perhaps this generation needs a bit of mystery and intrigue.
The story that Vida tells of her life (delivered with no questions, no interruptions and no skipping ahead) is a good one. It has all the highs and lows that lead to a page-turner. It centres around a crumbling house which, as Margaret dictates the story, is a burned out ruin. The house-as-supporting-cast will be familiar for those who enjoyed Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger as much as I did.
The story outside of the story is a little harder to swallow. Margaret Lea's life growing up and living in a secondhand bookshop, emotionally estranged from her mother due to her own twin-related past trauma, is a bit too Dickensian. Somehow, transported out from Angelfield's sweeping grounds and crumbling walls, the melodrama is just a tad too strong, and ties together a tad too neatly.
For Setterfield is very certain that her reader gets a satisfyingly tidy ending. I could think of no loose ends. But somehow, that left me a little disappointed. All tricks were revealed, and everyone lives (or dies) happily ever after. This is achieved through a Lord of the Rings style multiple-endings that grows a little tedious after coming to the second epilogue.
Style ☆★★★★
"How is your book?" my other half asked me about fifty pages in.
I made a face. "It's a bit flowery."
And indeed it is. There are more than a few moments of purple prose. And when these passages occur in Margaret's narrative, it does make reading occasionally cringey. The magic happens when the story is overtaken by Vida Winter, and somehow the gothic grandeur of her childhood fits the writing style very well.
The story switches around between dictation of Vida's life, and Margaret's wanderings in the 'present'. It's not always immediately clear when a switch has taken place, which can leave the reader behind a little, but I didn't find this overly distracting.
The style is also easy enough to steam through the book. I happily sat with it for hours at a time, working through at around 95 pages a day.
Substance ★★★★★
I'm not entirely sure that it's coincidence that while reading The Thirteenth Tale, I decided on the research topic for my PhD. The topic in mind is the 21st century ghost story and postmodern gothic. The Thirteenth Tale has a lot of depth in this field. Its ghost stories (purposely plural, for there are many ghosts in this story) are literal and figurative, and while it feels like quite a traditional piece of fiction, the intertextuality is numerous.
Setterfield references the Brontes and Wilke Collins by name throughout, but there are also some beautiful little nods to these stories that will recall various moods and themes to the reader's mind: from the burned out shell of Angelfield mentally pasted over Thornfield Hall, to the spookily similar sisters who, like in The Woman in White, no one can quite tell apart.
It's always a genuine joy to find a book that is really nice and quick to read, but also has layers upon layers for the reader who likes to spend some time thinking out all the possible connections.
The Verdict ☆★★★★
If you're looking for a good gothic story that won't tax the brain too much, this is the book for you. If you're looking for a delicately balanced schooling in intertextuality, this is the book for you. Diane Setterfield has held a remarkable balance in The Thirteenth Tale. Just grit your teeth through the multiple endings!
Comments
Post a Comment