the Gothic Novel

Number 5 in the discussion questions asks you about The Thirteenth Tale and how it fits the definition of a Gothic novel. For those who don't read Gothic novels, here is some background info:

Gothic (goth-IK): a literary style popular during the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. This style usually portrayed fantastic tales dealing with horror, despair, the grotesque and other “dark” subjects. Gothic literature was named for the apparent influence of the dark gothic architecture of the period on the genre. Also, many of these Gothic tales took places in such “gothic” surroundings. Other times, this story of darkness may occur in a more everyday setting, such as the quaint house where the man goes mad from the "beating" of his guilt in Edgar Allan Poe's “The Tell-Tale Heart.” In essence, these stories were romances, largely due to their love of the imaginary over the logical, and were told from many different points of view. This literature gave birth to many other forms, such as suspense, ghost stories, horror, mystery, and also Poe's detective stories. Gothic literature wasn't so different from other genres in form as it was in content and its focus on the "weird" aspects of life. This movement began to slowly open may people's eyes to the possible uses of the supernatural in literature.

List of some Gothic novels that you may have read:

• Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (1818)
• Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (1847) and Villette (1850)
• Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (1847)
• Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist (1838), Bleak House (1854), Great Expectations (1861) and The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870)
• Daphne du Maurier's Jamaica Inn (1936), Rebecca (1938) and Don't Look Now (1970)
• Henry Farrell's What Ever Happened to Baby Jane (1960)
• J.G. Farrell's Troubles (1970)
• Elizabeth Gaskell's The Doom of the Griffiths (1858), The Grey Woman and Lois the Witch
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper (1892)
•  Susan Hill's The Woman in Black (1983)
• Shirley Jackson's The Lottery (1951), A Visit (1952), The Haunting of Hill House (1959) and We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1963)
• W.W. Jacobs's The Monkey's Paw (1902)
• Henry James's The Turn of the Screw (1898) and The Real Right Thing (1899)
•  Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby (1967) 
•  Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987)
•  Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818)
• Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)
• Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) and The Lair of the White Worm (1911)
•  Donna Tartt's The Secret History (1992) and The Little Friend (2002)
•  Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891)
• Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind (2001)

Thirteenth Tale Reading Group Guide

1. Much of the novel takes place in two grand estates --- Angelfield and then Miss Winter’s. How are the houses reflections of their inhabitants?

2. As the story unfolds, we learn that Margaret and Miss Winter are both twins. What else do they have in common?

3. Margaret and her mother are bound by a singular loss --- the death of Margaret’s twin sister. How has each woman dealt with this loss, and how has it affected her life? If her parents had told her the truth about her twin, would Margaret still be haunted?

4. Books play a major role in this novel. Margaret, for example, sells books for a living. Miss Winter writes them. Most of the important action of the story takes place in libraries. There are stories within stories, all inextricably intertwined. Discuss the various roles of books, stories, and writing in this novel.

5. Miss Winter asks Margaret if she’d like to hear a ghost story --- in fact, there seem to be several ghost stories weaving their way through. In what ways is The Thirteenth Tale a classic, gothic novel?

6. Miss Winter frequently changes points of view from third to first person, from “they” to “we” to “I,” in telling Margaret her story. The first time she uses “I” is in the recounting of Isabelle’s death and Charlie’s disappearance. What did you make of this shifting when Margaret points it out on page 204?

7. Compare and contrast Margaret, Miss Winter, and Aurelius --- the three “ghosts” of the novel who are also each haunted by their pasts.

8. It is a classic writer’s axiom that a symbol must appear at least three times in a story so that the reader knows that you meant it as a symbol. In The Thirteenth Tale, the novel Jane Eyre appears several times. Discuss the appearances and allusions to Jane Eyre and how this novel echoes that one.

9. The story shifts significantly after the death of Mrs. Dunne and John Digence. Adeline steps forward as intelligent, well-spoken, and confident --- the “girl in the mists” emerges. Did you believe this miraculous transformation? If not, what did you suspect was really going on?

10. Dr. Clifton tells Margaret that she is “suffering from an ailment that afflicts ladies of romantic imagination” when he learns that she is an avid reader of novels such as Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and Sense and Sensibility. What do you think he means by drawing such a parallel? What other parallels exist between The Thirteenth Tale and classic 19th century literature?

11. When did you first suspect Miss Winter’s true identity? Whether you knew or not, looking back, what clues did she give to Margaret (and what clues did the author give to you)?

12. Margaret tells Aurelius that her mother preferred telling “weightless” stories in place of heavy ones, and that sometimes it’s better “not to know.” Do you agree or disagree?

13. The title of this novel is taken from the title of Miss Winter’s first book, Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation, a collection of twelve stories with a mysterious thirteenth left out at the last minute before publication. How is this symbolic of the novel? What is the thirteenth tale?

14. When do you think The Thirteenth Tale takes place? The narrator gives some hints, but never tells the exact date. Which aspects of the book gave you a sense of time, and which seemed timeless? Did the question of time affect your experience with the novel?

November book: The Thirteenth Tale

If for some reason you didn't get to read the book, here is a 2 minute version:

The Thirteenth Tale- Wikipedia

And a scathing review from The Independent, here , and a nice review from author Carol Birch, also published in The Independent, here. And finally, a mixed review from the Washington Post, here.