The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye: Five Fairy Stories - Couverture souple

Byatt, A. S.

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0679762221 ISBN 13 : 9780679762225

Editeur : Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1998

Synopsis

Gillian Perholt, an independent and sensible scholar, no longer young, is given a bottle of beautiful 'nightingale's eye' glass by a Turkish friend. Inside it is trapped a huge (and very male) djinn, a magical genie who must grant her three wishes in return for his release. Gillian's use of her wishes -- she is an expert in fairy stories and in what can go wrong with wishes -- is careful and surprising. The story takes the professor and the djinn from Istanbul to Toronto and Madison Avenue. The two discover one another's worlds, with respect, and something more. 'The Glass Coffin' and 'Gode's Story' are included here, with three contemporary additions: 'The Story of the Eldest Princess, ' 'Dragons' Breath, ' and the incomparable novella-length title story. Byatt's inventive and enticing stories are both magical and very modern. They are fairy tales for adults, which retain the mystery and beauty of the world we imagine as children.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

The magnificent title story of this collection of fairy tales for adults describes the strange and uncanny relationship between its extravagantly intelligent heroine--a world renowned scholar of the art of story-telling--and the marvelous being that lives in a mysterious bottle, found in a dusty shop in an Istanbul bazaar. As A.S. Byatt renders this relationship with a powerful combination of erudition and passion, she makes the interaction of the natural and the supernatural seem not only convincing, but inevitable.

The companion stories in this collection each display different facets of Byatt's remarkable gift for enchantment. They range from fables of sexual obsession to allegories of political tragedy; they draw us into narratives that are as mesmerizing as dreams and as bracing as philosophical meditations; and they all us to inhabit an imaginative universe astonishing in the precision of its detail, its intellectual consistency, and its splendor.

"A dreamy treat.... It is not merely strange, it is wondrous."
-- Boston Globe

"Alternatingly erudite and earthy, direct and playful.... If Scheherazade ever needs a break, Byatt can step in, indefinitely."
-- Chicago Tribune

"Byatt's writing is crystalline and splendidly imaginative.... These [are] perfectly formed tales."
-- Washington Post Book World

Quatrième de couverture :

'Those new to the world of Byatt might well begin here, with these tales-within-tales, which one can read as anything from contemporary allegories - such as the superb "Dragon's Breath", evoking every idyll that ever fell foul of war or famine - to sheer celebrations of storytelling itself' - Vogue

'The familiar elements of fairy story come to life under A.S. Byatt's touch. . . with lightness, precision, grace' - Observer

'A cerebral extravaganza, bristling with ideas' - Spectator

'The fairy story is obviously a form that fascinates A.S. Byatt, it suits her spare, cool prose and this collection enables her to create very different effects. . . a beautifully produced book' - Financial Times

'This book is a work of art' - Daily Telegraph

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Date d'édition: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0679762221
• ISBN 13: 9780679762225
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 288