The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche and Other Odd Acquaintances [Paperback]

Peter S. Beagle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2003

This overview of Peter Beagle's extraordinary career as a fantasist contains seven short stories and three essays as well as a new preface by the author. It also features the original whimsical Chesley Award-winning cover illustration by talented Bay Area artist Michael Dashow. "The Last Unicorn, Beagle's most beloved novel, was an underground bestseller in the late 1960s and 1970s. This collection includes two of Beagle's popular unicorn stories, "Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros" and "Julei's Unicorn," as well as "Lila the Werewolf," which is anthologized in the "Oxford Book of Fantasy, and a tribute to J. R. R. Tolkien, "The Naga."

Editorial Reviews

Review

". . .one of my favorite writers." -- Madeline L'Engle, author of A Wrinkle in Time

"Beagle is a great American fantasist. A book collecting short stories throughout his career is a must read..." -- Ellen Datlow, co-editor of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror

"Beagle is the magician we all apprenticed ourselves to. . .I envy people reading these stories for the first time." -- Lisa Goldstein, author of The Red Magician

"[The author] lives and writes in a universe where anything can happen, and probably will." -- GreenManReview.com

About the Author

Peter S. Beagle is the author of numerous screenplays and books, including The Last Unicorn, Giant Bones, and Tamsin. He is a multiple winner of both the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award and the Locus Award. His classic story, "Come Lady Death," first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly and has now been elected to the Fantasy Hall of Fame. He lives in Oakland, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 186 pages
• Publisher: Tachyon Publications; 3 edition (September 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892391090
• ISBN-13: 978-1892391094
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,013,741 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars And Now, Live From New York, It's Pliny The Elder..., January 7, 2007

By 

Robert I. Hedges - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche and Other Odd Acquaintances (Paperback)

This is an odd little collection of sundry works spanning a long period in Peter S. Beagle's career. I read on average two fiction books a year (I read mostly technical nonfiction), but was so intrigued by the title of this book, that I purchased it for some light reading. On the whole I enjoyed it quite a bit, though the final section of elderly magazine columns were a bit past their prime.

I was extremely pleased at an introductory concept Beagle explained in the preface: he had conceived of a mock-newscast featuring Pliny the Elder reporting on news about mythical beings. From this concept, "The Naga" is the only representative story available. I liked "The Naga" but must say that my favorite in the book was the book from whence the title came, "Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros," a truly amusing and charming story about friendship, featuring a rhino that thinks it's a unicorn. (Or is it?) I was also very entertained by "Julie's Unicorn." I was not enthralled with the title, but found the cavorting around art galleries and in a VW microbus named "Madame Schumann-Heink" to be much better than I had expected. On the down side, I did not really care for the darkness in "Lila the Werewolf," and also found it drag a bit, though Beagle demonstrated his exceptional grasp of character development in the characters of Lila and her mother.

The nonfiction magazine efforts were uninspiring to me, and I especially tired of the lengthy piece "The Poor People's Campaign" about a misdirected, misguided, crime-infused post-Martin Luther King civil rights action in Washington. Although Beagle was clearly sympathetic to the movement, I think he was extremely balanced in his coverage, and made no effort to hide the unattractive underbelly of the campaign. I actually thought the piece was well written (although I don't even pretend to agree with him on LBJ's motivations) but was in need of editing: it comes in at 17 pages, and would have been much more powerful at 10 or 12.

Overall, this is a charming collection of Beagle works from a variety of publications and formats, across a long period of time. I recommend the book without reservation.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What a wonderful little book...., February 4, 2005

By 

Tamiko - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche and Other Odd Acquaintances (Paperback)

I've read this three times now, and each time the collection just gets better. As an introduction to Peter S. Beagle, it's a good starting point, especially if you find the whimsicality of The Last Unicorn to your liking. Even the cover art by Mike Dashow introduces you to the unique worlds created by Peter Beagle. The title story alone is worth the price of the book, and, ah, if only we could all have a visitor like that to our library! I do recommend this - as well as all of Peter's titles - and this one is easily found through the publisher, Tachyon, as well. Kudos to them for printing such a delightful book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Loved the Rhinoceros and Lady Death, but not much else., August 20, 2008

By 

J. Ng "Tribblewing" (New York, NY, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche and Other Odd Acquaintances (Paperback)

At Balticon 40, Neil Gaiman and Peter S. Beagle shared a stage for the first time. Gaiman revealed that his character Death from "The Sandman" was inspired by Beagle's short story, "Come Lady Death". That noteworthy tidbit aside, this short story anthology's namesake is the jewel of the bunch. It's a poignant absurdist tale of a philosophical rhinoceros who fancies itself a unicorn, and the lonely intellectual old professor who becomes its friend.

The other tales weren't as strong or richly textured, but I felt these two tales were worth my purchase of the whole collection.