From Powells.com
British literary Grande Dame A. S. Byatt has been aptly described a "postmodern
Victorian." Her two most celebrated works, Angels
and Insects and her Booker
Prize-winning masterpiece, Possession,
each explore the collision of our rigorous late twentieth century intellect with
the florid nineteenth century imagination. A variation on this theme, The Djinn
in the Nightingale's Eye brings a contemporary sensibility to that Victorian
preoccupation, the fairy tale. In typical style, Byatt is respectful of the genre
she employs; the five pieces in this collection are full of magical keys, dragons,
forest hermits, and kings with three daughters. And yet in her hands, their stories
are as original as they are familiar. Byatt's little tailor does, of course, awaken
the sleeping princess, but she remixes the classic formula and extends the metaphor
in unexpected ways. Witty, lush, highly imaginative, and eerily powerful, The
Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye belongs on the shelf next to Lewis Carroll,
Oscar Wilde, W. B. Yeats, and C. S. Lewis. Farley, Powells.com
Table of Contents
The glass coffin -- Gode's story -- The story of the eldest princess -- Dragons' breath -- The djinn in the nightingale's eye.