Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Chatto and Windus (1994), Edition: illustrated edition, 154 pages
Description
Glowing with narrator Virginia Leishman's finely tuned phrasing, The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye is the perfect introduction to A.S. Byatt, an author who continues to receive international awards and acclaim. Her wondrous fairy tales are iridescent stories full of spells, marvelous creatures, and beautiful princesses. The title tale focuses on Dr. Gillian Perholt, a narratologist. The sturdy, middle-aged scholar travels the world, speaking at international conferences about the art of storytelling. She immerses herself in the study of fabulous, archetypical heroes: patient Griselda, lovely Scheherazade, brave Gilgamesh. But when she is given the fairy tale's three wishes-chances to alter her own story, the choices she makes are both timeless and surprisingly unique. A.S. Byatt, whose imaginative novels sparkle with layers of imagery and drama, focuses on the magic that is created each time a storyeller speaks. The five stories that comprise The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye are as fascinating and finely crafted as ivory puzzles.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Sean191
This is the third collection of short stories I've read from Byatt. It falls in between the two others (Little Black Book being the high point). I enjoyed the first few stories in this collection and was happily moving through the book when I got to the last story, which shares the name of the book
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title. I thought it was going to be a mundane piece about a relationship falling apart (as many of Byatt's stories seem to be), but it went into a bit a fairy tale midway through (as many of her other stories tend to do). So, it was saved and to me, saved my enjoyment of the book. Show Less
LibraryThing member carmilla222
This is a collection of fairy tales and the first four or five are BORING. They are kind of what you would expect if someone was going to re-tell little red riding hood: a more modern heroine, a more nuanced evil, a blurring of the lines between good and bad, etc. Really, I found them all to be
But the last story, the title story, is the best. Skip all those others and just read The Djinn. The language is lush and seductive and kind of over-the-top exotic. Maybe that makes it a guilty pleasure, like eating Turkish delight for dinner, but it's a lot of fun.
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lame.But the last story, the title story, is the best. Skip all those others and just read The Djinn. The language is lush and seductive and kind of over-the-top exotic. Maybe that makes it a guilty pleasure, like eating Turkish delight for dinner, but it's a lot of fun.
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LibraryThing member bostonbibliophile
Wonderful short stories of mixing the modern world with the fantastic. Byatt is a gifted short story writer and those contained in this volume are wonderful examples of her craft and style.
LibraryThing member kmaziarz
Byatt, best known for her novel “Possession,” here pens five fairy tales for adults. None of the stories are retellings of traditional tales, per se, yet all are familiar, borrowing as they do from the understood and recognized conventions of the fairy tale format.
The real stand-outs in the
The real stand-outs in the
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collection are “The Tale of the Eldest Princess,” in which the title character recognizes just what sort of fairy tale she’s found herself living and decides to change her own fate by leaving that story for her own; and the title story, which is also the longest and most fully realized. This tale is set in the present day, starring Gillian, a contemporary middle-aged woman who lives and works as a narratologist…a studier of stories. Despite its contemporary setting, however, the language and description is that of fairy tales, lending an aura of mystery and magic to common things. Gillian is a collector of art glass and, while in Turkey at a narratology convention, acquires a lovely glass bottle with a secret locked inside—an ancient and beautiful djinn. Familiar with the conventions of the story she’s found herself within, Gillian attempts to wish the correct wishes and finds that there is simply no way to do so. Show Less
LibraryThing member flying_monkeys
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Of the five stories in The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye I enjoyed "The Story of the Eldest Princess" and "The Glass Coffin" the most. However, the other three were just okay.
Of the five stories in The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye I enjoyed "The Story of the Eldest Princess" and "The Glass Coffin" the most. However, the other three were just okay.
LibraryThing member AltheaAnn
I read this for the Mythic Fiction book group here on Goodreads, but never got around to going and posting about it over there...
A collection of 5 stories - 4 very short, and one novella-length (the title story). The first 4 stories were excellent - but 4.5 stars for the first half of the book, and
The Glass Coffin -
A humble tailor granted magical gifts, a sleeping princess, an enchanted prince, an evil magician and a happy ending. The familiar elements meshed together by Byatt's exquisite writing create a fresh story which could have come straight from a 19th-century book of fairy tales.
Gode's Story -
A handsome young sailor's careless ways come back to haunt him - literally - in this tragedy.
The Story of the Eldest Princess -
In a kingdom with three Princesses, an unexplained phenomena occurs - the sky turns green. The eldest princess heads out on a quest to discover the reason for this change, and to turn the sky back to blue. On the road, she encounters some elements that you might expect from a quest story - and some things that you might not.
Dragon's Breath -
A village is plagued by dragons (?) that sap the will and rob life of meaning. More allegorical-feeling than the others, but a thoughtful and lovely tale.
The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye -
This is the one, sadly, that I really didn't like at all. This clearly semi-autobiographical story of a modern "narratologist" who meets a ridiculously handsome djinn-in-a-bottle, and, of course, grants her three wishes, just felt self-indulgent, annoyingly metafictional, and rather dull.
Overall, the book left me with the same feelings I've had about most of Byatt's work - except here my positive and negative feelings were sharply divided. Usually the brilliantly lovely parts and the dull parts of her books are more intertwined.
I did love the selection of nineteenth-century illustrations as headers for each story.
A collection of 5 stories - 4 very short, and one novella-length (the title story). The first 4 stories were excellent - but 4.5 stars for the first half of the book, and
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2 stars for the second half (actually, it's a little more than half) averages out to 3.The Glass Coffin -
A humble tailor granted magical gifts, a sleeping princess, an enchanted prince, an evil magician and a happy ending. The familiar elements meshed together by Byatt's exquisite writing create a fresh story which could have come straight from a 19th-century book of fairy tales.
Gode's Story -
A handsome young sailor's careless ways come back to haunt him - literally - in this tragedy.
The Story of the Eldest Princess -
In a kingdom with three Princesses, an unexplained phenomena occurs - the sky turns green. The eldest princess heads out on a quest to discover the reason for this change, and to turn the sky back to blue. On the road, she encounters some elements that you might expect from a quest story - and some things that you might not.
Dragon's Breath -
A village is plagued by dragons (?) that sap the will and rob life of meaning. More allegorical-feeling than the others, but a thoughtful and lovely tale.
The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye -
This is the one, sadly, that I really didn't like at all. This clearly semi-autobiographical story of a modern "narratologist" who meets a ridiculously handsome djinn-in-a-bottle, and, of course, grants her three wishes, just felt self-indulgent, annoyingly metafictional, and rather dull.
Overall, the book left me with the same feelings I've had about most of Byatt's work - except here my positive and negative feelings were sharply divided. Usually the brilliantly lovely parts and the dull parts of her books are more intertwined.
I did love the selection of nineteenth-century illustrations as headers for each story.
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LibraryThing member amerynth
"The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye" is the second book by A.S. Byatt I've read this year. I enjoyed it as much as "The Children's Book," which means I hope to read her masterwork "Possession" in the near future.
"Djinn" is a collection of stories -- four short stories and the title story, which is
I like the way Byatt writes for the most part, though sometimes she gets a big bogged down in tangential stuff that admittedly sometimes brings up an interesting observation. This book overall was a fun little batch of stories.
"Djinn" is a collection of stories -- four short stories and the title story, which is
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novella length. They are fairy tales with a twist and most are lovely. I thought the title story was the weakest -- it wanders a lot before getting around to the interesting bits. By far, the strongest was "The Story of the Eldest Princess," which was a clever take on the fate of the oldest adventurers who set out on a quest.I like the way Byatt writes for the most part, though sometimes she gets a big bogged down in tangential stuff that admittedly sometimes brings up an interesting observation. This book overall was a fun little batch of stories.
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LibraryThing member streamsong
Four short fairy tales followed by the title fairy tale novella, The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye.
This is the first book that I have read by A S Byatt, and I can see how she achieved her popularity. The tales are wonderfully and beautifully told by a true wordsmith. (Isn't that how fairy tales
One of my favorites was The Eldest Princess. Eldest children are often given short shrift in fairy tales and fail their tasks, which are eventually accomplished by the youngest child. In this story, the Princess realizes that she inhabits such a story, but refuses to follow the plot and makes her own way.
Although I enjoyed the title piece The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye, I dislike the framing of this one. In it, a storyteller goes to a convention of storytellers in Instanbul and we hear several of their tales. Then, wandering through a bazaar, our storyteller purchases a rare and beautiful bottle and steps into her own story. To me, the first stories told by the other tellers of tales seem superfluous, almost as if they were added in to make the Djinn story longer.
Still, I'm looking forward to the next A. S. Byatt that I will read.
This is the first book that I have read by A S Byatt, and I can see how she achieved her popularity. The tales are wonderfully and beautifully told by a true wordsmith. (Isn't that how fairy tales
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should be!). One of my favorites was The Eldest Princess. Eldest children are often given short shrift in fairy tales and fail their tasks, which are eventually accomplished by the youngest child. In this story, the Princess realizes that she inhabits such a story, but refuses to follow the plot and makes her own way.
Although I enjoyed the title piece The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye, I dislike the framing of this one. In it, a storyteller goes to a convention of storytellers in Instanbul and we hear several of their tales. Then, wandering through a bazaar, our storyteller purchases a rare and beautiful bottle and steps into her own story. To me, the first stories told by the other tellers of tales seem superfluous, almost as if they were added in to make the Djinn story longer.
Still, I'm looking forward to the next A. S. Byatt that I will read.
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LibraryThing member nillacat
If you like storytelling, if you enjoy Italo Calvino or Borges or Neil Gaiman, you will love this little book of tales. Each is a perfect little postmodern fairy-tale, charming, frightening or enlightening. The tone is illustrated nicely by the Tale of the Eldest Princess, who, realizing she is in
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a story and not liking the role she is playing ("I do not want to be the princess who fails and must be rescued" and she cries), decides, after much reflection and with the brusque encouragement of a dangerous guide, to leave the road and abandon the story and create her own. Along the way she sees sometimes an old woman walking behind her, or ahead of her on the path. Much later she learns that there is always an old woman ahead of you or behind you... and I'm sure she will someday be the old woman to another young woman who chooses to make her own path. Show Less
LibraryThing member dmturner
Lucid, poetical, mysterious, and appealing. The title story, a nest of stories and a meditation on the nature of story and on the roles of men and women in the world, is a marvel. Some of Byatt's images strike horror into my heart in a way no other writer's images can, and she can move my contrary
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heart to joy unlike any other writer, as well. The other stories are gemlike as well. I particularly liked "The Eldest Princess." Show Less
LibraryThing member Charon07
Intellectual fairy tales, in Byatt’s characteristically lush language. The longest, eponymous tale is a modern-day fable, but even more enchanting for being so.
LibraryThing member baswood
The first four stories are indeed pure fantasy fairy stories that take the reader back to a simple childhood fantasy land. They are beautifully and precisely written, but at the end of the fourth story Dragon's Breath I was wondering whether these tales were just an exercise in the execution of
The Djinn in the Nightingale's eye features Gillian Perholt a story teller whose profession as a narratologist takes her to a conference in Ankara Turkey. She is described as English and stolid and a little nervous of flying, but thoughts of tales from the Arabian nights has piqued her interest. She is presenting a paper on Chaucer's tale The Patient Griselda which allows Byatt to retell this piece of literary history whilst adding her own thoughts to the relevance of the story. Gillian meets an old colleague Orhan Rifat who takes her to Istanbul, to museums, to the famous covered market and to Hagia Sophia. Their fascination for stories lead them to re-tell the story of Gilgamesh and his love for Enkidu. A young student of Orhan presents Gillian with a dirty small glass jar which may be very old and here starts Gillian's own fantasy story, because when she uncorks the bottle a huge Genie (Djinn) appears and grants her three wishes for releasing him from his prison.
Gillian of course wants to know more, wants to know the history of the Djinn, she wants to know his stories. She falls in love with the Djinn, her life has become a fantasy story, how should she frame her wishes, how should she keep her connection with the Djinn, what wonderful things will happen to her now and how can she avoid the pitfalls of wishing for too much or too little. Byatt takes the reader on a wonderful fantasy ride with a knowledgable protagonist ready to ask the questions one might wish to ask if ever you were lucky enough to enslave a Djinn: the right sort of Djinn that is, because Gillian's Djinn is kind, thoughtful and everything you might want a Djinn to be. It becomes a love story and a story that will gladden the heart of the reader and effortlessly take him/her back to childhood fantasies, with the added bonus of delving further into the myths.
The interest and depth of the Djinn story made me wish to re-read the more simple first four fairy stories and so 4 stars for this collection
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fairy tales; something along the lines of a famous author proving to herself that she can write in this vein. However the title story which is of novella length is worth the money spent on this collection. Byatt once again shows how she can mix literature, literary history and fantasy into a satisfying concoction that draws the reader into a compelling story. The Djinn in the Nightingale's eye features Gillian Perholt a story teller whose profession as a narratologist takes her to a conference in Ankara Turkey. She is described as English and stolid and a little nervous of flying, but thoughts of tales from the Arabian nights has piqued her interest. She is presenting a paper on Chaucer's tale The Patient Griselda which allows Byatt to retell this piece of literary history whilst adding her own thoughts to the relevance of the story. Gillian meets an old colleague Orhan Rifat who takes her to Istanbul, to museums, to the famous covered market and to Hagia Sophia. Their fascination for stories lead them to re-tell the story of Gilgamesh and his love for Enkidu. A young student of Orhan presents Gillian with a dirty small glass jar which may be very old and here starts Gillian's own fantasy story, because when she uncorks the bottle a huge Genie (Djinn) appears and grants her three wishes for releasing him from his prison.
Gillian of course wants to know more, wants to know the history of the Djinn, she wants to know his stories. She falls in love with the Djinn, her life has become a fantasy story, how should she frame her wishes, how should she keep her connection with the Djinn, what wonderful things will happen to her now and how can she avoid the pitfalls of wishing for too much or too little. Byatt takes the reader on a wonderful fantasy ride with a knowledgable protagonist ready to ask the questions one might wish to ask if ever you were lucky enough to enslave a Djinn: the right sort of Djinn that is, because Gillian's Djinn is kind, thoughtful and everything you might want a Djinn to be. It becomes a love story and a story that will gladden the heart of the reader and effortlessly take him/her back to childhood fantasies, with the added bonus of delving further into the myths.
The interest and depth of the Djinn story made me wish to re-read the more simple first four fairy stories and so 4 stars for this collection
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LibraryThing member JHemlock
Easy and very literate short stories that ride the classic fair tale train. I have not read any of Byatt's novels, but if they are put together as well as the short stories, then I am sure they are a treat. It seems that she hides the moral of her stories a little deeper but and puts the characters
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in a fluctuating moral compass, which eventually swings heavily in one direction or the other. Show Less
Awards
Mythopoeic Awards (Finalist — Adult Literature — 1998)
Aga Khan Prize for Fiction (1995)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1994
Physical description
154 p.; 4.96 inches
ISBN
0701162783 / 9780701162788
Local notes
A collection of modern fairy tales for adults.
The title story describes the strange and uncanny relationship between its extravagantly intelligent heroine--a world renowned scholar of the art of story-telling--and the marvellous being that lives in a mysterious bottle, found in a dusty shop in an Istanbul bazaar.
"The Glass Coffin"
"Gode's Story"
"Tale of the Eldest Princess"
"Dragon's Breath"
The title story describes the strange and uncanny relationship between its extravagantly intelligent heroine--a world renowned scholar of the art of story-telling--and the marvellous being that lives in a mysterious bottle, found in a dusty shop in an Istanbul bazaar.
"The Glass Coffin"
"Gode's Story"
"Tale of the Eldest Princess"
"Dragon's Breath"