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The Thirteenth Tale (novel)
Encyclopedia
The Thirteenth Tale is a gothic suspense
novel
published in 2006. It is Diane Setterfield
's debut novel
.
, has never been forthcoming when it comes to her past. Her entire life is a secret, and for fifty years reporters and biographers have attempted to discover the truth. With her health quickly fading, Ms. Winter enlists a bookish amateur biographer named Margaret Lea to bear witness to the tragic story of the Angelfield family, their eccentric beginnings as well as their demise. Margaret, who has family secrets of her own, must unravel the mysteries of the past in order to reconcile not only Miss Winter with her ghosts, but also Margaret with her own.
The novel begins with Margaret returning to her apartment above her father's antiquarian bookshop. She finds a hand-written letter on the steps from Winter; it requests her presence at the author's residence and the chance to pen her life story before she succumbs to a terminal illness. The request takes Margaret by surprise – she doesn’t know of Winter, nor has she read any of her dozens of novels.
While pondering whether to accept the task of recording Miss Winter’s personal story, Margaret begins to read her father’s rare copy of Winter’s "Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation". She is spellbound by the stories and confused when she realizes the book only contains twelve stories. Where is the thirteenth tale? Intrigued, Margaret agrees to meet Winter and act as her biographer.
As Vida Winter unfolds her story, she shares with Margaret the dark family secrets that she has long kept hidden as she remembers her days at Angelfield, a now burnt-out estate that was her childhood home. Margaret carefully records Winter’s account and finds herself becoming more and more deeply immersed in the strange and troubling story. In the end, both women have to confront their pasts and the weight of family secrets, as well as the ghosts that haunt them still.
The switches between character narration and the story of Vida Winter is marked by a graphic that clearly show which character is narrating that section of the chapter. It is also made more obvious by the lack of dialogue in it. When talking about the past, dialogue is rarely shown, maybe for realistic reasons. If you were recounting a story, it'd be very hard to narrate the exact dialogue that was said so long ago. If that was the reason then it would be explainable that there is an increasing amount of dialogue when the story is located in the present; particularly between Lea and Aureius.
‘The Thirteenth Tale’ is told through a first person point of view, commonly Margaret Lea’s. In this way, the reader only knows what Margaret knows, and is able to solve the mystery with her. The first person point of view also shifts to other characters, such as Vida Winter, who presents her own view through the story she tells Margaret, and Hester Barrow, who presents her own view through the entries in her diary. Vida Winter originally tells her story through a third person point of view but then changes to first person, which causes Margaret Lea to speculate about the truthfulness of her story. This change is later explained in the book, when the idea of a third sister is introduced.
‘The Thirteenth Tale’ is divided into three sections: Beginnings, Middles and Endings. Each section is introduced by a titlepage with the name of the section and a photograph which hints what will happen in that particular section of the book. The ‘Beginnings’ titlepage has a photograph of two pairs of black buckled shoes, like the shoes the little girls wear on the cover of the book. Placed side by side, the pairs of shoes suggest similarity and bonds; they cause the reader to speculate about the theme of twins, as twins often wear matching clothing pieces. The ‘Middles’ titlepage constitutes of a picture of a fancy doorknob on a slightly ajar door. The opening of the door represents the reader going further into the story, opening another door and proceeding and in turn, revealing some more secrets. At this point in the book the reader, with Margaret Lea, begins to unravel the mystery wrapped around Vida Winter and the Angelfield/March family. The ‘Endings’ titlepage is represented by a photograph of ripped pages of books, crumpled and folded over each other. The words on the pages indicate that the pages are from Charlotte Bronte’s ‘Jane Eyre’, a book which is known to have impacted a few characters in the story, such as Margaret Lea and Vida Winter. ‘Jane Eyre’ provides a link between all of these characters, and the ripped pages indicate the ending of all their stories.
Death is explored throughout the story; from the beginning to the end. In the very beginning, in Margaret's story, Margaret's twin sister died. In Vida Winter's story, Isabelle's mother died at child bearing leaving her father, George, depressed. If Isabelle's mother didn't die, then perhaps, the 'curse' on the family wouldn't have been landed. Isabelle may have grown up normally and stably. Charlie, the disturbed brother may have improved his behaviour. The many deaths that occurred in The Thirteenth Tale build on the story like bricks to a building. Each death determines what follows after.
George's life was saved by the Missus who gave him Isabelle and after that, he was fatally attached to his daughter. Isabelle was raised without order or routine. She would get food whenever she was hungry and grew up to become an unstable girl. When she told him she was going to leave to marry Roland, he released a wave of uncontrolled aggression on Isabelle and died from septicaemia because he wound a piece of her hair around his finger. The next death was Isabelle's, years later. She died from the flu in a mental institution and that lead to the death of Charlie, her brother who like George was fatally attached to her. He followed in his father's footsteps by locking himself in his room. He then went to the place he used to go with Isabelle and shot himself.
Leaving the family without a legal master of Angelfield, the Missus and John-the-dig were left to manage the family themselves. The Missus soon died of old age and John-the-dig came after her. Adeline fiddled with the safety hatch when he was on the ladder.
Adeline died in the Angelfield house fire. Emmeline died near the end at an old age and Vida Winter let the 'wolf' inside of her win when she finished telling her story.
Death is linked with grief and loss. It is a sad but also a natural thing. Once a person is gone, the warmth of their breath, their laughter, their bones, perish, never to be felt again. But in a book, the characters can live forever. When the ink is on paper, it is preserved. You can relive them.
The theme of death is mentioned by Margaret as something essential to a good book; that is, an old novel. "I read old novels. The reason is simple: I prefer proper endings. Marriages and death..."part One, Beginnings. Seeing that the author has included many deaths in her novel that have been summarised above, she must have understood death and strived to write an 'old novel'.
Identity
Is the main theme of the book, with the key character Margaret suffering from feeling like half the person she is once she discovers that her twin has died. All throughout the book her character struggles with the feeling that there is something out there that was once a part of her, and that because that part no longer lives she can’t be a whole person.
Loss
Is also a recurring theme in the book that is closely linked to identity, as it was the loss of Margaret’s twin that first led her to question her identity and who she was. Loss is common in Vida Winters story of the twins, with Isabelle departing for a mental asylum, Charlie committing suicide, Hester Barrow disappearing, and John the dig and Missus dying. Finally, at the end of the book, Vida Winter, known as the ghost of Angelfield house, loses her most beloved person, her cousin Emmeline.
Reconciliation
Is a theme that was present in the last part of the book, when Margaret meets her missing half, her twin, and feels complete. Vida Winter was also re-united with her cousin in death at the end of the book.
Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre is an often recurrence in the novel, a leitmotif if not anything else. Jane Eyre, in a sense very much draws a parallel and yet, the complete opposite of Jane Eyre.
Hester, like Jane was a governess at a manor, employed by a wealthy master. Hester, like Jane, is the dominant female. But unlike Jane, Hester does not fall in love with the master of the house- Charlie. Charlie was not Edward Rochester and had never in the book met Hester.
"Charlie was less directly influenced. He kept out of her way and that suited both of them. She had no desire to do anything but her job, and her job was us. Our minds, our bodies, and our souls, yes, but our guardian was outside her jurisdiction, and so she left him alone. She was no Jane Eyre and he was no Mr Rochester." — p. 175
Jane Eyre is the first title to creep into the book, and once having found its place, never left. Only when the girl in the mist comes to be, is the connection between Miss Winter's story and that of Jane's- the outsider in the family.
Jane Eyre moves from the beginning as a book that is often discussed, to an important part of the story; the inner furniture of Margaret's and Miss Winter's minds. Most conversations between Vida Winter and Margaret centre-point Jane Eyre. Miss Winter's example with the burning books focuses Jane Eyre as the "only hope" and the last one to burn. Aurelius is found with a torn page from Jane Eyre. The significance of the book in the novel is vital and is a leitmotif; often recurring. It is obvious that Diane Setterfield is paying homage to Jane Eyre and its sisterhood of novels.
Isolation
Isolation: From the start of the novel, we know that Margaret is an isolated child. She has "no siblings" and her relationship with her mother isn't a strong and loving one. Margaret's retreat from the world would have left her feeling unbearably isolated if she did not have the indirect human contact made through reading. And it is reading that is able to make her withdraw into herself as she does yet it also brings her back out. Reading "Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation" takes her to Miss Winter and then to Aurelius. Her isolation found in reading, enables her to have a more open relationship with her father and contemplating changes of an even greater kind.
Isabelle, as a young baby, was neglected by her father. Living in Angelfield, both Charlie and Isabelle did not have much contact with the outside world.
Emmeline and Adeline were also ignored at their birth. While their mother was at an asylum and their uncle locked up in his room, the twins were isolated to a point. From that, they were able to become the people they were- cold and brutal. Isolation does many things to a person. Charlie, Isabelle, Emmeline, Adeline and Angelfield are not normal.
Twins
In the mythologies of many cultures around the world, twins make frequent appearances. They appear both fortuitous in some and ominous in others. Twins in mythology are often cast as two halves of the same whole, sharing a bond deeper than those of other ordinary siblings, or facing fierce rivalry. Sometimes twins can represent some "other" aspect of the "self"- either a doppelganger or a shadow. Often in mythology the twin is evil, or the other one may be human and the other is semi-divine.
In cases where the "evil twin" is not physically distinguishable from the "good twin", a typical plot resolution will involve the banishment and unmasking of the "evil twin".
In the modern usage, the words "evil twin" and "doppelganger", have come to be virtually interchangeable. While the evil twin does not connote the sense of "supernatural harbinger of death", it can be used to mean "a physical copy of one's self that has an altered morality".
The supernatural aspects of the book often recur and the sightings of doppelgangers tense up the air.
When Hester thinks she sees Adeline and Emmeline playing in the woods, she is later told to have seen a ghost. A doppelganger.
The bond shared by Adeline and Emmeline is one of deep meaning. Only the two together, can you create a whole and the absence of one can cause great physical and emotional trauma. When Hester and Dr Maudsley experiment with original case study research, the separation of the twins is painful for all to see. It greatly affected the mental abilities of each twin. The heartfelt pain of losing not just a sibling, but a twin, the one who shared a bond deeper than any other.
"She was lost, absent from herself. Without her sister, she was nothing and she was no one. It was just the shell of a person they took to the doctor's house." — p. 205.
The separation also proved painful, it was no ordinary separation and each twin would have rather died than live on without the other. To them, there was just no point in living anymore.
"The separation of the twins was no ordinary separation. Imagine surviving an earthquake. When you come to, you find the world unrecognisable. The horizon is in a different place. The sun has changed colour. Nothing remains of the terrain you know. As for you, you are alive. But it's not the same as living. It's no wonder the survivors of such disasters so often wish they had perished with others. " — p. 206
in 2006. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00F13FA3D540C7B8CDDA90994DE404482
Some of the various reviews include:
Kirkus Review - "a contemporary Gothic tale whose excesses and occasional implausibility can be forgiven for the thrill of the storytelling. Setterfield's debut is enchanting Goth for the 21st century. "
Library Journal - "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."
The Washington Post - "The Thirteenth Tale keeps us reading for its nimble cadences and atmospheric locales, as well as for its puzzles, the pieces of which, for the most part, fall into place just as we discover where the holes are. And yet, for all its success - and perhaps because of them - on the whole the book feels unadventurous content to rehash literacy formulas rather than reimaging them."
!
Reference:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40440.The_Thirteenth_Tale
Suspense
Suspense is a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety about the outcome of certain actions, most often referring to an audience's perceptions in a dramatic work. Suspense is not exclusive to fiction, though. Suspense may operate in any situation where there is a lead-up to a big event or dramatic...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
published in 2006. It is Diane Setterfield
Diane Setterfield
Diane Setterfield is a British author whose 2006 debut novel, The Thirteenth Tale, became a New York Times #1 bestseller...
's debut novel
Debut novel
A debut novel is the first novel an author publishes. Debut novels are the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to publish in the future...
.
Plot introduction
Vida Winter, a famous novelist in EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, has never been forthcoming when it comes to her past. Her entire life is a secret, and for fifty years reporters and biographers have attempted to discover the truth. With her health quickly fading, Ms. Winter enlists a bookish amateur biographer named Margaret Lea to bear witness to the tragic story of the Angelfield family, their eccentric beginnings as well as their demise. Margaret, who has family secrets of her own, must unravel the mysteries of the past in order to reconcile not only Miss Winter with her ghosts, but also Margaret with her own.
The novel begins with Margaret returning to her apartment above her father's antiquarian bookshop. She finds a hand-written letter on the steps from Winter; it requests her presence at the author's residence and the chance to pen her life story before she succumbs to a terminal illness. The request takes Margaret by surprise – she doesn’t know of Winter, nor has she read any of her dozens of novels.
While pondering whether to accept the task of recording Miss Winter’s personal story, Margaret begins to read her father’s rare copy of Winter’s "Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation". She is spellbound by the stories and confused when she realizes the book only contains twelve stories. Where is the thirteenth tale? Intrigued, Margaret agrees to meet Winter and act as her biographer.
As Vida Winter unfolds her story, she shares with Margaret the dark family secrets that she has long kept hidden as she remembers her days at Angelfield, a now burnt-out estate that was her childhood home. Margaret carefully records Winter’s account and finds herself becoming more and more deeply immersed in the strange and troubling story. In the end, both women have to confront their pasts and the weight of family secrets, as well as the ghosts that haunt them still.
The Title
The title of the book is derived from a collection of short stories penned by Vida Winter entitled "Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation"; the collection was supposed to contain a total of thirteen stories but was shortened to twelve upon its publication. Though its title was appropriately amended and its cover eventually reprinted to read simply "Tales of Change and Desperation", a small number of books were printed with the original title but only twelve stories. This small press run became a collector's item (one of which Margaret's father is in possession), and many of Vida's fans considered the omission of the thirteenth story a delightful mystery, all of them hungry for the answer to it. During the course of the story, Margaret is asked more than once what she knows about it and why it was never written. At the novel's conclusion, Margaret receives the long-awaited thirteenth tale as a parting gift from Vida.Characters
- Margaret Lea: a bookstore owner's daughter, whom Vida Winter asks to write her biography. The narrator of the book.
- Vida Winter: a famous novelist who has eluded reporters as to her true past, and is now ready to reveal her secrets to Margaret.
- Isabelle Angelfield: the younger of George Angelfield's two children and the mother of twins Emmeline and Adeline.
- Charlie Angelfield: Isabelle's older brother, who harbours an obsessive incestuous and sadistic passion for his sister.
- Emmeline March: the calm, complacent twin. Generally presumed by most to be mentally retarded.
- Adeline March: the angry, violent twin. Miss Winter introduces herself to Margaret as being formerly known as Adeline March.
- Aurelius Love: a resident of the Angelfield village, raised by Mrs. Love, he befriends Margaret.
- John Digence/"John-the-dig": Angelfield's longtime gardener and the Missus' companion.
- The Missus: Angelfield's aged housekeeper who essentially raises the twins along with John-the-dig.
- Hester Barrow: governess to Adeline and Emmeline.
- Dr. Maudsley: the town doctor who, along with Hester, attempts to help the twins through experimentation.
- George Angelfield: Charlie and Isabelle's father, who ignores the former and dotes on the latter after his wife's death.
- Mathilde Angelfield: Charlie and Isabelle's mother, who dies giving birth to Isabelle.
- Judith: Vida Winter's housekeeper.
- Dr. Clifton: Vida Winter's doctor.
- Mrs. Love: a woman who lived in the vicinity of Angelfield and raised Aurelius from the time he was left on her porch as an infant.
- Ambrose Proctor: a boy who worked at the Angelfield estate when the twins were about 16, has a more important role in the story that we learn later.
Style
The chapters of the book switch between the past and present day life of the two main characters (Margaret, Vida). At the novel's inception, Margaret divulges her work in her father's antique book store, her one-time jaunt as an amateur biographer, and her haphazard discovery at age 12 that she was born a conjoined twin, her sister dying shortly after their separation, and the pain and longing this discovery has caused her ever since, in addition to her strained relationship with her emotionally withdrawn mother. After we are introduced to Vida Winter the book is sometimes narrated by her in the library sessions that are recorded by Lea. Vida Winter's detailed and vivid recount of her past makes it very easy for Lea to rewrite what she heard earlier that day. This becomes the biography that Winter originally asked Lea to do. The story of Vida Winter's history is at first written in third person past tense, but at a turning point in the story where Charlie is found to be missing, Winter suddenly uses the pronoun "I". This is explained later in the book when Margaret Lea understands all the secrets of the March family . The rest of the book switches from the present Margaret Lea who tries to fight her own ghosts and discover the secret of the March family, whilst the other is the story of the March's seen through the eyes of Vida Winter.The switches between character narration and the story of Vida Winter is marked by a graphic that clearly show which character is narrating that section of the chapter. It is also made more obvious by the lack of dialogue in it. When talking about the past, dialogue is rarely shown, maybe for realistic reasons. If you were recounting a story, it'd be very hard to narrate the exact dialogue that was said so long ago. If that was the reason then it would be explainable that there is an increasing amount of dialogue when the story is located in the present; particularly between Lea and Aureius.
Structure
‘The Thirteenth Tale’ is a book which drifts between two main stories. One tells of the life of amateur biographer Margaret Lea and her exploration of the Angelfield/March family’s past. The other is the story that Margaret is told by author Vida Winter. Throughout the book these two intertwined stories are occasionally interrupted by letters and notes of supporting characters. The change between these different sections in this book is indicated by a small graphic or an asterisk or a new chapter.‘The Thirteenth Tale’ is told through a first person point of view, commonly Margaret Lea’s. In this way, the reader only knows what Margaret knows, and is able to solve the mystery with her. The first person point of view also shifts to other characters, such as Vida Winter, who presents her own view through the story she tells Margaret, and Hester Barrow, who presents her own view through the entries in her diary. Vida Winter originally tells her story through a third person point of view but then changes to first person, which causes Margaret Lea to speculate about the truthfulness of her story. This change is later explained in the book, when the idea of a third sister is introduced.
‘The Thirteenth Tale’ is divided into three sections: Beginnings, Middles and Endings. Each section is introduced by a titlepage with the name of the section and a photograph which hints what will happen in that particular section of the book. The ‘Beginnings’ titlepage has a photograph of two pairs of black buckled shoes, like the shoes the little girls wear on the cover of the book. Placed side by side, the pairs of shoes suggest similarity and bonds; they cause the reader to speculate about the theme of twins, as twins often wear matching clothing pieces. The ‘Middles’ titlepage constitutes of a picture of a fancy doorknob on a slightly ajar door. The opening of the door represents the reader going further into the story, opening another door and proceeding and in turn, revealing some more secrets. At this point in the book the reader, with Margaret Lea, begins to unravel the mystery wrapped around Vida Winter and the Angelfield/March family. The ‘Endings’ titlepage is represented by a photograph of ripped pages of books, crumpled and folded over each other. The words on the pages indicate that the pages are from Charlotte Bronte’s ‘Jane Eyre’, a book which is known to have impacted a few characters in the story, such as Margaret Lea and Vida Winter. ‘Jane Eyre’ provides a link between all of these characters, and the ripped pages indicate the ending of all their stories.
Themes
DeathDeath is explored throughout the story; from the beginning to the end. In the very beginning, in Margaret's story, Margaret's twin sister died. In Vida Winter's story, Isabelle's mother died at child bearing leaving her father, George, depressed. If Isabelle's mother didn't die, then perhaps, the 'curse' on the family wouldn't have been landed. Isabelle may have grown up normally and stably. Charlie, the disturbed brother may have improved his behaviour. The many deaths that occurred in The Thirteenth Tale build on the story like bricks to a building. Each death determines what follows after.
George's life was saved by the Missus who gave him Isabelle and after that, he was fatally attached to his daughter. Isabelle was raised without order or routine. She would get food whenever she was hungry and grew up to become an unstable girl. When she told him she was going to leave to marry Roland, he released a wave of uncontrolled aggression on Isabelle and died from septicaemia because he wound a piece of her hair around his finger. The next death was Isabelle's, years later. She died from the flu in a mental institution and that lead to the death of Charlie, her brother who like George was fatally attached to her. He followed in his father's footsteps by locking himself in his room. He then went to the place he used to go with Isabelle and shot himself.
Leaving the family without a legal master of Angelfield, the Missus and John-the-dig were left to manage the family themselves. The Missus soon died of old age and John-the-dig came after her. Adeline fiddled with the safety hatch when he was on the ladder.
Adeline died in the Angelfield house fire. Emmeline died near the end at an old age and Vida Winter let the 'wolf' inside of her win when she finished telling her story.
Death is linked with grief and loss. It is a sad but also a natural thing. Once a person is gone, the warmth of their breath, their laughter, their bones, perish, never to be felt again. But in a book, the characters can live forever. When the ink is on paper, it is preserved. You can relive them.
The theme of death is mentioned by Margaret as something essential to a good book; that is, an old novel. "I read old novels. The reason is simple: I prefer proper endings. Marriages and death..."part One, Beginnings. Seeing that the author has included many deaths in her novel that have been summarised above, she must have understood death and strived to write an 'old novel'.
Identity
Is the main theme of the book, with the key character Margaret suffering from feeling like half the person she is once she discovers that her twin has died. All throughout the book her character struggles with the feeling that there is something out there that was once a part of her, and that because that part no longer lives she can’t be a whole person.
Loss
Is also a recurring theme in the book that is closely linked to identity, as it was the loss of Margaret’s twin that first led her to question her identity and who she was. Loss is common in Vida Winters story of the twins, with Isabelle departing for a mental asylum, Charlie committing suicide, Hester Barrow disappearing, and John the dig and Missus dying. Finally, at the end of the book, Vida Winter, known as the ghost of Angelfield house, loses her most beloved person, her cousin Emmeline.
Reconciliation
Is a theme that was present in the last part of the book, when Margaret meets her missing half, her twin, and feels complete. Vida Winter was also re-united with her cousin in death at the end of the book.
Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre is an often recurrence in the novel, a leitmotif if not anything else. Jane Eyre, in a sense very much draws a parallel and yet, the complete opposite of Jane Eyre.
Hester, like Jane was a governess at a manor, employed by a wealthy master. Hester, like Jane, is the dominant female. But unlike Jane, Hester does not fall in love with the master of the house- Charlie. Charlie was not Edward Rochester and had never in the book met Hester.
"Charlie was less directly influenced. He kept out of her way and that suited both of them. She had no desire to do anything but her job, and her job was us. Our minds, our bodies, and our souls, yes, but our guardian was outside her jurisdiction, and so she left him alone. She was no Jane Eyre and he was no Mr Rochester." — p. 175
Jane Eyre is the first title to creep into the book, and once having found its place, never left. Only when the girl in the mist comes to be, is the connection between Miss Winter's story and that of Jane's- the outsider in the family.
Jane Eyre moves from the beginning as a book that is often discussed, to an important part of the story; the inner furniture of Margaret's and Miss Winter's minds. Most conversations between Vida Winter and Margaret centre-point Jane Eyre. Miss Winter's example with the burning books focuses Jane Eyre as the "only hope" and the last one to burn. Aurelius is found with a torn page from Jane Eyre. The significance of the book in the novel is vital and is a leitmotif; often recurring. It is obvious that Diane Setterfield is paying homage to Jane Eyre and its sisterhood of novels.
Isolation
Isolation: From the start of the novel, we know that Margaret is an isolated child. She has "no siblings" and her relationship with her mother isn't a strong and loving one. Margaret's retreat from the world would have left her feeling unbearably isolated if she did not have the indirect human contact made through reading. And it is reading that is able to make her withdraw into herself as she does yet it also brings her back out. Reading "Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation" takes her to Miss Winter and then to Aurelius. Her isolation found in reading, enables her to have a more open relationship with her father and contemplating changes of an even greater kind.
Isabelle, as a young baby, was neglected by her father. Living in Angelfield, both Charlie and Isabelle did not have much contact with the outside world.
Emmeline and Adeline were also ignored at their birth. While their mother was at an asylum and their uncle locked up in his room, the twins were isolated to a point. From that, they were able to become the people they were- cold and brutal. Isolation does many things to a person. Charlie, Isabelle, Emmeline, Adeline and Angelfield are not normal.
Twins
In the mythologies of many cultures around the world, twins make frequent appearances. They appear both fortuitous in some and ominous in others. Twins in mythology are often cast as two halves of the same whole, sharing a bond deeper than those of other ordinary siblings, or facing fierce rivalry. Sometimes twins can represent some "other" aspect of the "self"- either a doppelganger or a shadow. Often in mythology the twin is evil, or the other one may be human and the other is semi-divine.
In cases where the "evil twin" is not physically distinguishable from the "good twin", a typical plot resolution will involve the banishment and unmasking of the "evil twin".
In the modern usage, the words "evil twin" and "doppelganger", have come to be virtually interchangeable. While the evil twin does not connote the sense of "supernatural harbinger of death", it can be used to mean "a physical copy of one's self that has an altered morality".
The supernatural aspects of the book often recur and the sightings of doppelgangers tense up the air.
When Hester thinks she sees Adeline and Emmeline playing in the woods, she is later told to have seen a ghost. A doppelganger.
The bond shared by Adeline and Emmeline is one of deep meaning. Only the two together, can you create a whole and the absence of one can cause great physical and emotional trauma. When Hester and Dr Maudsley experiment with original case study research, the separation of the twins is painful for all to see. It greatly affected the mental abilities of each twin. The heartfelt pain of losing not just a sibling, but a twin, the one who shared a bond deeper than any other.
"She was lost, absent from herself. Without her sister, she was nothing and she was no one. It was just the shell of a person they took to the doctor's house." — p. 205.
The separation also proved painful, it was no ordinary separation and each twin would have rather died than live on without the other. To them, there was just no point in living anymore.
"The separation of the twins was no ordinary separation. Imagine surviving an earthquake. When you come to, you find the world unrecognisable. The horizon is in a different place. The sun has changed colour. Nothing remains of the terrain you know. As for you, you are alive. But it's not the same as living. It's no wonder the survivors of such disasters so often wish they had perished with others. " — p. 206
Reception
Only one week after publication, the novel became #1 on the New York Times #1 bestsellerNew York Times Best Seller list
The New York Times Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. It is published weekly in The New York Times Book Review magazine, which is published in the Sunday edition of The New York Times and as a stand-alone publication...
in 2006. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00F13FA3D540C7B8CDDA90994DE404482
Some of the various reviews include:
Kirkus Review - "a contemporary Gothic tale whose excesses and occasional implausibility can be forgiven for the thrill of the storytelling. Setterfield's debut is enchanting Goth for the 21st century. "
Library Journal - "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."
The Washington Post - "The Thirteenth Tale keeps us reading for its nimble cadences and atmospheric locales, as well as for its puzzles, the pieces of which, for the most part, fall into place just as we discover where the holes are. And yet, for all its success - and perhaps because of them - on the whole the book feels unadventurous content to rehash literacy formulas rather than reimaging them."
!
Reference:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40440.The_Thirteenth_Tale