I know that a lot of our readers have read this book so I am hoping to open up a conversation with our covenant of readers. I feel that I don’t really have anything new to say that hasn’t already been said by other reviewers which is why I am writing a ponderings post about my feelings instead. This is a very hasty summary which does not fully recapitulate this quite complex little book.

She falls in love with the prince and in the end she is transformed back into a Unicorn but for better or worse she is a changed Unicorn because she experienced what it is like to be human. At one point, in order to save her life, the magician manages to control his magic and to transform her into a young woman which is how she learns things that as a Unicorn she is unable to (since Unicorns know nothing of mortality, of love and of loss). They go through Adventures and Perils on their way to meet a King (the Villain), his Son (the Hero) and the Red Bull – the Ultimate Danger that the Unicorn has to face. On her Quest, she is joined by two Companions: a frustrated magician called Schmendrick (who has a lot of potential but can’t seem to control his magic) and a middle-aged woman called Molly Grue. A book that has been published over 40 years ago (in fact, my edition celebrates its 40th anniversary) and which follows the story of the Last Unicorn in the world as she leaves her comfy forest in search of answers about what happened to her fellow unicorns. This is another entry in the Ana-is-catching-up-with-the-fantasy-classics-which-were-not-available-to-her-as-a-child-growing-up-in-Brazil series. Beagle is a true magician with words, a master of prose and a deft practitioner in verse.Warning: this post contains ALL THE SPOILERS. Tolkien, but he stands squarely and triumphantly on his own feet.The book is rich, not only in comic bits but also in passages of uncommon beauty.

“Beagle.has been compared, not unreasonably, with Lewis Carroll and J.R.R.

“Almost as if it were the last fairy tale, come out of lonely hiding in the forests of childhood, The Last Unicorn is as full of enchantment as any of the favorite tales readers may choose to recall.A delicate, sensitive, yet powerful rendering of all the intangibles that make a fairy tale unforgettable.”- St. Beagle is (in no particular order) a wonderful writer, a fine human being, and a bandit prince out to steal readers’ hearts.”-Tad Williams If you've already read it, you need to read it again.”-Patrick Rothfuss “ The Last Unicorn is the best book I have ever read. “Written in lyrical prose and rife with both whimsical humor and philosophical ruminations on what it means to be human, Beagle spins a quasi-medieval fairy tale that remains timeless.”- Time “Comes alive and stays alive on bright intensity of imagination.”- The New York Times Book Review

The last unicorn paperback