1. Books play an important role in The Thirteenth Tale. Discuss Margaret and Miss Winter's relationships to books and stories. Could you relate with them? What is your relationship to books? Do you agree with Miss Winter that stories can reveal truth better than simply stating it?
2. The two houses in The Thirteenth Tale--Angelfield and Miss Winter's estate--are prominent in the story. How do the houses reflect the characters who live in them? What do you think they represent?
3. Why do you think Margaret obeyed Miss Winter's summons?
4. Miss Winter asks Margaret if she would like to hear a ghost story. Who are the ghosts in the story? In what ways are different characters haunted (Margaret, Miss Winter, Aurelius)?
Discuss Margaret and Miss Winter's relationships to books and stories.
ReplyDeleteMargaret is surrounded by antiquarian books all day and even devotes 6 hours each night to reading her historic romances. She doesn't seem to leave the shop much or interact with people and she is mostly interested in has-beens. Miss Winter also is rather reclusive and abides inside stores 24/7, either her own fabrications or a crazy true story.
Could you relate with them?
Yes, I could, although they both seem to have much more of a literal love for stories, using them in their work, whereas I love them for their ability to help me escape, learn about new places/people/things, and for their ability to get me carried away on a new train of thought. I think, like Margaret, I might get so carried away in a story that I’d fall off a high wall too, but if I had a rule of only reading while sitting, I might never read anything. I used to read while standing in line for lunch, at the post office, etc.
Do you agree with Miss Winter that stories can reveal truth better than simply stating it? Definitely.
Why do you think Margaret obeyed Miss Winter's summons? It was a researcher’s curiosity about the last tale.
I very much enjoyed this book, and at the end kept thinking, WHAT? WHAT? As I caught some of the clues, but certainly not enough of them to figure out the truth. I felt like it was similar to the Esme Lennox book, where there were twists and turns and I enjoyed that.
ReplyDelete1. I love love love to read, and if I could, I would devote a chunk of time each night to it. I like to read anything,and so thought it was interesting that Margaret only enjoyed the classics and that she researched those that were deceased, like she had a fear of the living.
2. I think in some ways, the two houses were similar, as they were both odd. Clearly the Angelfield house was odd from the start as they mentioned over and over that it was built wrong and then with the years of disrepair, it was a perfect place for the odd characters. And since no one really noticed what was going on, an easy setting for the "ghosts" and really the third girl to sneak around. Miss Winter's estate is so quiet...but really, it is dark and heavy and mysterious, just like the place they grew up.
3. I think like Naomi it was out of curiosity. Although interesting that she had never read any of her work until she received the letter.
4. I love when this comes back later on, that she would tell a story of two sisters...and at the time we assume about HER and her sister, but really it was about the sisters and she was a third party of sorts. There are numerous ghosts in the story, Margaret's sister, which I think we go into more in another question, and then the third sister is like a ghost.
I really, really enjoyed this book too- much more than I thought I would, honestly. Usually this type of book is not really my thing, but it grabbed me right away.
ReplyDelete1. I love to read, but could not do it nonstop like Margaret does. I felt sorry for her- I feel like she literally had no life because her nose was always in a book.
2. Angelfield was falling apart, dilapidated- it was dysfunctional, just like the family that lived in it. Ms. Winter's estate was covered in thick fabric, curtains, heavy furniture, etc. which I felt represented hiding secrets, keeping them covered up.
3. I think she obeyed the summons because she needed SOMETHING to do with her life. I never really understood why Ms. Winters chose her in the first place- I kept thinking there would be some tie between the 2 women (other than their parallel twin stories). I thought she was going to find out she was her granddaughter or something :)
Sorry I'm late!
ReplyDelete1. I totally relate to the women's obsession with books. In fact, the language they used to describe books was one of my favorite things about the novel. I adore both reading and writing - they've always been my two greatest passions, so I felt at home in the women's obsessions.
2. Angelfield was a mess. Falling apart, messy, disgusting - much like the mess of a family that lived within it. Ms. Winter's house seemed like a rebounding opulence from the home she grew up in, although all the excess also aloud a silencing of the secrets she kept.
3. I think Margret obeyed the summons out of an extension of her obsession with the novels. I don't think she could resist Vita any more than she could resist her books.
4. I think every single character in the novel was haunted (ah, the gothic novel tradition! I love it!). Every character was haunted by the dysfunction of the previous generation and haunted by their own sins and mistakes.
I loved the book as well and didn't want it to end, but I did want to find out all the secrets within the tale.. I love books that keep you hooked until the very end and then leave you thinking of the book and the characters long after you finish the book.
ReplyDeleteI love reading and have always been a reader.. My mom created a little bookclub with me over the summers while I was in junior high. If I read a certain number of books, I could pick out a new babysitter's club book:) I enjoy reading but not really realistic for me to read all day:)
Sometimes I forgot that there were two houses in the story, since they both seemed to be "Haunted" in someway..I think both houses represented secrets within the family..
I think that being such a fun of reading she could not say no to Miss Winter.
For awhile I thought that Aurielus was a ghost, at certain points in the book I had to reread just to make sure they were real characters or ghosts..
Great book choice right before Halloween:)