The unicorn and her friends also pass through the cursed town of Hagsgate, where fruitful fields and financial prosperity are juxtaposed with the bleak hearts and faces of the townspeople, who know the curse will come home to roost at some point. There’s the shabby traveling Midnight Carnival of the witch Mommy Fortuna, who disguises ordinary animals to look like magical, mythic ones, but her caged beasts include one actual magical creature, the deadly harpy Celaeno. The pages of The Last Unicorn practically turn themselves, as Beagle’s imagination spins one memorable scene after another. And none of them will ever be the same again. A spoiled, soft prince who is inspired to become heroic by his love for the unicorn. Molly Grue, a woman beaten down by her harsh life, whose heart and wisdom become indispensable to the quest. So the unicorn’s quest continues and, despite her preference for solitude, she gathers a few devoted friends around her: Schmendrick, a mediocre (if not downright terrible) magician with infrequent strokes of brilliant magic, enchanted to remain ageless until he can capture and control the magic hidden deep within him. The butterfly (in one of his few lucid moments) tells her that her people have been herded away by a Red Bull.

A ditsy butterfly, who speaks mostly in quotes and bits of song, is one of the few that identifies her as a unicorn. Very few people recognize her for what she is as she travels mostly they see just a beautiful white mare, and try to capture her for all the wrong reasons. Unable to find peace after hearing this, the unicorn leaves her forest to try to find what has become of all the other unicorns, and to rescue them if they need it. But one day overhears passing hunters grumbling that they must be in the forest of a unicorn (“Creatures that live in a unicorn’s wood learn a little magic of their own in time, mainly concerned with disappearing”) and that this unicorn must be the last one in the world. Its lyrical language is embellished with whimsical humor and given heft by bittersweet life lessons.Ī shy unicorn keeps to herself in her lilac wood, where time passes slowly, if at all, and leaves remain grain and never fall.

Like a fine tapestry, this gorgeous fairy tale weaves together unicorns and harpies, wizards and witches, dark-hearted kings and brave heroes. Beagle’s classic The Last Unicorn turns fifty years old this year, and it’s remained in the public eye and continues to capture hearts like very few fantasies of its age.

Final review, first posted on Fantasy Literature:

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle