The Thirteenth Tale Study Guide

by Diane Setterfield

About 70 pages (20,879 words)

The Thirteenth Tale (novel) Summary

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The Thirteenth Tale Study Guide consists of approx. 70 pages of summaries and analysis on The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. Browse the literature study guide below:

The Thirteenth Tale is a novel in the tradition of the Bronte sisters by new writer Diane Setterfield. The main character, Margaret Lea, is invited to write the life story of bestselling author, Vida Winter, who has spent her entire career making up her past. Margaret is hesitant, convinced that the master storyteller will lie to her just like she lied to all the others. However, lured by Miss Winter's Victorian style of writing, Margaret takes the contract and quickly realizes that by learning Miss Winter's secret she will be forced to confront a secret of her own. The Thirteenth Tale is a story that has all the elements of classic English literature and all the mystery of a modern day blockbuster. (read more)

Part One, Beginnings: The Letter, Margaret's Story, and Thirteen Tales

Part One, Beginnings: Arrival and Meeting Miss Winter

Part One, Beginnings: And So We Began... and Gardens

Part One, Beginnings: Merrily and the Perambulator and Dr. and Mrs. Maudsley

Part One, Beginnings: Dickens's Study, The Almanacs, In the Archives of the Banbury Herald, Ruins, The Friendly Giant, and Graves,

Part Two, Middles: Hester Arrives, The Box of Lives, and The Eye in the Yew,

Part Two, Middles: Five Notes, The Experiment, Do You Believe in Ghosts?, and After Hester,

Part Two, Middles: Gone! and After Charlie,

Part Two, Middles: Angelfield Again, Mrs. Love Turns a Heel, The Inheritance, Jane Eyre and the Furnace, and Collapse,

Part Two, Middles: The Silver Garden, Phonetic Alphabet, The Ladder, Eternal Twilight, and Fossilized Tears,

Part Two, Middles: Underwater Cryptography, Hair, Rain and Cake, and Reunion,

Part Two, Middles: Everybody Has a Story, December Days, Sisters, A Diary and a Train, Demolishing the Past, and Hester's Diary II,