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

First US edition. 12mo. Pp. ix, 274. Quarter-bound black cloth, over black paperboards, stamped in gilt to front cover and spine. D/w design by Andrea Pinnington, incorporates a painting detail by an unknown 19th century Persian artist. Illustrated with drawings and engravings.

Signed by Author to title page.

A collection of five modern fairytales by the author of Possession, which won the Booker Prize and Irish Times/Aer Lingus International Fiction Prize in 1990. The stories are 'The Glass Coffin', 'Gode's Story', 'The Story of the Eldest Princess', 'Dragon's Breath', and 'The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye' and they range from fables of sexual obsession to allegories of political tragedy. The first two tales, originally woven into her magnum opus, Possession, were subject to a persistent campaign by readers to have them published separately. "Byatt's writing is crystalline and splendidly imaginative. These [are] perfectly formed tales." –Washington Post Book World