Review:The Last Unicorn

The Last Unicorn
by Peter Beagle


I've just finished reading this to the kiddos. What a delightful story! I started out reading one chapter a day but began reading 2 a day near the end. And yesterday I finished the last 4 chapters in a marathon read-aloud because you just can't stop reading with 2 chapters left to go. That's where the action is at it's most dramatic point.


The Last Unicorn is about a unicorn who realizes that she is the only one left. She wanders the world to find out what happened to all the rest and comes to hear of the evil King Haggard and the Red Bull, who have been rounding up all the unicorns. She seeks them, the King and his monster, out with the help of an incompetent magician and old hag of a lady. Once they find King Haggard the real excitement begins.


As I said, I read this to the kiddos but I now know that this was not the best choice of a read-aloud for smaller children. I think I enjoyed the story more than the kids did, though Dragon Slayer and Goldilocks were begging for more in the end.


From the very beginning the language is quite poetic and full of images that you feel rather than see. This was great most of the time but sometimes it became a bit confusing. Here are my favorite excerpts:

The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. She was very old, though she did not know it, and she was no longer the careless color of sea foam, but rather the color of snow falling on a moonlit night. But her eyes were still clear and unwearied and she still moved like a shadow on the sea.

"But the true secret of being a hero lies in knowing the order of things. The swineherd cannot already be wed to the princess when he embarks on his adventure, nor can the boy knock at the witch's door when she is away on vacation. The wicked uncle cannot be found out and foiled before he does something wicked. Things must happen when it is time for them to happen. Quests may not simply be abandoned; prophecies may not be left to rot like unpicked fruit; unicorns may go unrescued for a long time, but not forever. The happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story."

My copy comes with a second book by Beagle, A Fine and Private Place. It looks interesting. Anyway, I highly recommend the Last Unicorn to fantasy lovers over the age of 10. It is a pleasant way to spend an evening or two.

And, this was the first title I've completed for the Once Upon a Time Challenge. High fives to me! I'll be finishing the Iliad in a day or two and starting Stardust as a read-aloud and Grimms' Fairy Tales to myself.