Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

Dennis Wilson Wise (University of Arizona)

Ed. by Dimitra Fimi, University of Glasgow
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1968 - 1968

Places

United States (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Fantasy

Resources

In all likelihood, most readers and critics will always closely associate Peter S. Beagle with his best-known work, The Last Unicorn (1968), an allusive metafictional quest narrative originally conceived as a James Thurber-type spoof on fairy tales. As a fantasist emerging during the late 1960s, though, when The Lord of the Ring’s surging popularity would soon make J. R. R. Tolkien nearly synonymous with fantasy, Beagle quickly showed readers what else the form might accomplish. In The Last Unicorn, Beagle combines the extant tradition of fairy tales and non-realist texts—including T. H. White, Lord Dunsany, and others—with contemporary popular culture and canonical Anglo-American literature. …

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2729 words

Citation: Wise, Dennis Wilson. "The Last Unicorn". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 November 2019 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=38972, accessed 16 April 2024.]

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