Rating: 
Summary: Mainly of interest for collectors
Review: "The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye" is a thematic collection of short stories and one novella, all more or less written in the fairytale convention. As a potential reader, you should be aware that this is not a regular volume by Byatt, but rather a collector's item. Snip: (...).
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: 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: Many Spirits in an Exquisite Bottle
Review: Despite the narrator's confession in the title story that she is all brains and no body--completely at a loss in the sensuous--this beautiful collection of tales is an example of the intellect and the senses working together in the highest fashion. There is not only keen wit and delightful description at work in these stories, but also a kind of spiritual refreshment unavailable in most postmodern literature, whatever its other virtues. One can only hope that , like her protagonist Gillian Perholt, A.S. Byatt finds prolonged life in the creation and recreation of narratives for our continued delight.
Rating:
Summary: Byatt's best, light and charming
Review: Djinn takes what I've always considered AS Byatt's superior way with description and mood, and marries it with a sharp storytelling sensibility that I hadn't credited her with before. Fun and lovely fairy tales for adults, and a very appealling main character in the narratologist Gillian Perholt. Not a deep book, but I think Byatt tried with Possession to write a deep book and to my eye it wasn't in her. These stories are really suited to her talents. I do love the way her writing invites the reader right into a cozy interior world.
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: 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: Sheer poetry
Review: I have read several of the reviews to see how others felt about this book which I read at one sitting. I agree with the person who wrote - incomplete - I definitely wanted more (didn't realise that my choice was a selection). The book itself is a delight - hand cut pages , small, a pleasure to hold and read, the stories are interesting , arresting - one has to reread to think it thru' - An evening of enjoyable reading.
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.
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