The Last Unicorn

A unicorn lives alone in a lilac wood, certain that she is immortal and untouched by time. Then she learns that she may be the last unicorn left in the world, and she leaves the wood to find the others and learn what became of them.

Her search begins badly. Mommy Fortuna's Midnight Carnival catches her, a show where ordinary animals are dressed up as mythical beasts. Schmendrick, a magician whose spells rarely work as intended, frees her and joins her quest. Molly Grue, who has waited her whole life for a unicorn, soon follows.

The three travel on to the bleak kingdom of King Haggard. His adopted son, Prince Lir, and a terrifying Red Bull are both part of the answer to what happened to the unicorns.

The novel was published in 1968 and is a fantasy that reads as part fairy tale, part elegy. The tone is wry and often funny, set against a sadder undercurrent, and the prose is ornate and musical. It moves at the pace of a long road trip, with comic company and a growing sense of loss, and it has held a place on fantasy reading lists for decades.