Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful fairty tales for adults!
Review: A.S Byatt is one of the most talented and brilliant writers today. The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye is an engaging collection of adult fairy tales that are a delight to read. Byatt has a wonderful way with the English language. Her writing is delicate and precise without being too precious. "The Story of the Eldest Princess," "The Glass Coffin," and "Dragon's Breath" are my favorites. Byatt has such incredible range and depth, and it shows in this fine short story collection. This is not a large volume, there are only five stories here, but it's a wonderful way to spend a few hours transported into other worlds by an extremely talented writer. Highly recommended...
Rating: 
Summary: Refreshing collection of eccentric fairy tales?for adults
Review: A.S Byatt's has this ability to intrigue readers. Five stories with different settings and morals but share a common theme-Fantasy. With interesting characters like humans,creatures,black magic, super power genie ,etc....Their Fate and destiny were decided or affected by magical or mystical intervention. At first I thought I was reading a children book. After further reading those stories fascinated me and they have double-meanings depending on which aspects and prospectives we have. I have my own interpretion to those tales which were purely my subjective views... Beside having a fun time reading fairy tales, I also learnt a lesson or two... This book consists of 4 short stories and a semi-long one namely "The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye". Each story entertained and amazed me in a certain way. "The Glass Coffin" is a tale about a little tailor's adventure journey in a forest. To me it's about making choices in Life.... "Gode's Story" is a tragic love story about a young sailor and a miller's daughter. It's illustrate the importance of having Faith and self-believe... "The Story of the Eldest Princess" is about a princess's quest to restore the blue sky. The moral of the story to me is to set the standard and bearing consequences of own doings. "Dragon's Breath" is a story about bravery, own survival and fear. "The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye" showed me what is finding yourself, learning from your own experiences and not losing imagination and follow your dream. All in all I found this book entertaining,meaningful and a good attempt for the idea of adult fairy tales which were not all had happy everafter endings....
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful, but Tedious
Review: First, I should warn readers that I did not finish the book. Obviously, this would normally disqualfy me from writing, but I am making an exception because the fact that I didn't finish is actually relevant. I stopped reading, not because the book was too bad, but because the book was far too well-written. The first four tales, revisions of old Victorian classics, were charming, beautiful, and deeply meaningful. However, they did not quite have the special quality necessary to make them really stand out -- or even worth reading a second time. But that's not why I quit reading.
"The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye," a fairy-tale in novella format, comprises the last two-thirds of the book. It is beautifully written in the same lyrical prose as the shorter pieces. This is the problem. It is a style better suited to shorter pieces; in anything longer than a few pages, it's exhausting and tedious. My mind got tired of going "ooh" and "aah" and shut down three pages into "Djinn." I simply could not continue reading.
Byars's writing is beautiful, original, innovative, lyrical and fine. Continuously so, relentlessly so, persistently and neverendingly so! That is why my rating is so low and my review so ungenerous. There is such a thing as too much beauty, especially when it's all flying at you all at once, with thirty more pages of it to go, and not an ordinary phrase in sight.
Rating:
Summary: Rainy day kinda of a book
Review: I love the way that Byatt pulls you in with the story of mystery and magic, where real life intervenes with fables and fairy tales. I have been a great admirer of her work since I read Possession. This book however, there are stories that are boresom. When I finally reached the story of the title I was somewhat disappointed. It was the plot that had me confused. I wished that she went more with the meaning of the story. What I loved about it was how she mixed reality with fanasty, even though the flashbacks of the character seem to be inapporiate at the time,but I love the humor of the Djinn. It's a good book to read on a rainy day or night.
Rating:
Summary: A Treat for Byatt Fans
Review: I loved this book but I really think you have to have read Byatt's Booker Prize winning novel, "Possession," in order to best understand and relate to the stories in "The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye." In "Possession," Byatt created two wonderful Victorian characters, Randolphe Ash and Christabel La Motte, both writers. Two of the fairy tales contained in this collection of Byatt originals, "The Glass Coffin," and "Gode's Story," are the work of "Ash" and "La Motte." This is not to say that a reader will not enjoy them if he or she has not read "Possession." It only means that he will not derive the maxiumum amount of enjoyment from the stories. The other two stories, "The Story of the Eldest Princess" and "Dragons' Breath," as well as the title novella, are meditations on the art of storytelling and all are very good. "The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye," in particular, is excellent. The only thing I didn't like about some of these stories, "The Story of the Eldest Princess," especially, is the thread of feminisim that runs through them. But, on further reflection, I suppose that is typical of all fairy tales, to some extent. "The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye," tells the tale of a modern day storyteller who loves to meditate on the tales of Scheherazade. It is a rather pessimistic tale, from some standpoints, though not entirely, and the storyteller is a very clever one. She proves this cleverness when she winds up with a djinn of her very own. Byatt's characters never seem to be black or white; instead, they are simply people with very differing views on life and the choices that should be made. The characters in this book are no different and that is one of things that makes them so charming and believable. These aren't the typical "happily ever after" fairy tales of your childhood. They are, rather, meditations and reflections instead. But they are meditations and reflections that do contain more than a bit of magic. If you like your fairy tales told with a modern touch and if you prefer them on the esoteric side, this might be a book you'll really enjoy.
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Summary: Twisted tales and fresh perspectives
Review: I've always found A.S. Byatt to be not only entertaining, but also educational. Reading her books is like attending an English lecture by a favorite professor. Suddenly you realize that three hours have gone by and you've been so engrossed that you didn't notice. A.S. Byatt is a wordsmith of the highest order. Her little volume of tales provides a feast for anyone who enjoys the vagaries of the English language. Who wouldn't want to be a "narratologist", like the main character in the title story? I love that word....wish I'd coined it myself! The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye, a collection of adult fairy tales, provides a delightful juxtoposition of fantasy and reality, present and past. Things are not what they seem. But of course, if you know anything about fairy folk, you already know this to be true. It's a real treat to find fairy tales that capture the shifting, mercurial nature of "the little people." If you think you're too old for fairy tales, read a few from Byatt's book. Just remember to keep your wits about you lest the author catch you unawares, blissfully expecting a "happily ever after" that never arrives.
Rating:
Summary: Twisted tales and fresh perspectives
Review: I've always found A.S. Byatt to be not only entertaining, but also educational. Reading her books is like attending an English lecture by a favorite professor. Suddenly you realize that three hours have gone by and you've been so engrossed that you didn't notice. A.S. Byatt is a wordsmith of the highest order. Her little volume of tales provides a feast for anyone who enjoys the vagaries of the English language. Who wouldn't want to be a "narratologist", like the main character in the title story? I love that word....wish I'd coined it myself! The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye, a collection of adult fairy tales, provides a delightful juxtoposition of fantasy and reality, present and past. Things are not what they seem. But of course, if you know anything about fairy folk, you already know this to be true. It's a real treat to find fairy tales that capture the shifting, mercurial nature of "the little people." If you think you're too old for fairy tales, read a few from Byatt's book. Just remember to keep your wits about you lest the author catch you unawares, blissfully expecting a "happily ever after" that never arrives.
Rating:
Summary: Recycled, But Still Good
Review: It is true that these stories are mostly recycled, but they're still worth reading. The title story alone makes the book worth seeking out. Buy the book for fairy story loving friends who haven't read Possession, or get a blanket and cup of something warm and curl up to read it yourself.
Rating:
Summary: very very fun, but most of it is recycled from her novels
Review: So far as I can tell, the Djinn story is the only original thing in this book. The other stories are lifted from her novels in truncated form, kind of pasted in to inflate the size into a book rather than the single story of the title; this is a bit cheap. Nonetheless, the quality of the Djinn story is simply exceptional, a five-star performance that is perceptive, funny, hopeful, and sad. The protagonist is a middle-aged divorcee, whose entire life is displayed in a single magical instant that transforms her - but not her fate. The images are fabulously well drawn, unforgettable really, and will remain engraved in my memory for the rest of my life. Moreover, the subtlety of the encounter with the supernatural is full of delicious ambiguities and a peek into the fantastic that is one of the best I have ever encountered. I loved it, laughed, and felt wonder all at the same moment. So I would warmly recommend this book, so long as the reader knows that the rest of it is somewhat disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: a lovely book
Review: These five stories are told with the shimmering grace and ephemeral colors A.S. Byatt readers have come to expect. And as such, these five realistic fairy tales for adults will surely not disappoint. But these tales are, in some way, something more. Written in different times and for different reasons, they nonetheless "hang together" almost as one whole fairy tale about love, dream, story-telling and the many different ways we have of being free. Free to live our own lives, comfortable with themselves, their worlds, and their selves. Free to know we are, indeed, quite special after all.
I highly recommend this book.
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