The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
>> Tuesday, March 31, 2009
-Anna
The story is a bit dark - incestuous siblings, madness, feral twins - but the writing quickly drew me in, and I was captured by its mystery.
The main character, Margaret, is the epitome of an avid reader. As she states, "I read old novels. The reason is simple: I prefer proper endings. Marriages and deaths, noble sacrifices and miraculous restorations, tragic separations and unhoped for reunions, great falls and dreams fulfilled; these in my view, constitute an ending worth the wait. They should come after adventures, perils, dangers and dilemmas, and wind everything up nice and neatly. Endings like this are to be found more commonly in old novels than new ones, so I read old novels."
I too, prefer proper endings. Some may call it predictable, but that's what I want. Proper endings.
2 comments:
That quote describes you perfectly! So, would you say Harry Potter had a proper ending? And the Twilight series had too MUCH of a proper ending? And what have you read that you didn't like b/c it DIDN'T have a proper ending? I like thinking about this and where I stand...
When I read this quote, I immediately thought of Jane Austen's novels. They have proper endings that bring contented sighs and dreamy eyed looks. When I was younger, I only wanted to read books with proper endings, and though they still remain my favorite, I have a little room for sad or surprise endings. Not much room...but a little.
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