These stories are remarkable. Some I liked more than others. Some I had to skim as they didn't hold my interest. Either way, I loved having all of these stories collected into one place.

"The essential first volume of bestselling author Peter S. Beagle's (The Last Unicorn) short stories demonstrates why he is one of America's most influential fantasists. With his celebrated versatility, humor, and grace, Beagle is at home in a dazzling variety of subgenres. Evoking comparison to such iconic authors as Twain, Tolkien, Carroll, L'Engle, and Vonnegut, this career retrospective celebrates Beagle's mastery of the short-story form.

An unlikely friendship based on philosophy develops between an aging academic and a mythological beast. A mysterious, beautiful attendee who attends a ball thrown in her honor chooses whether or not to become mortal. A dysfunctional relationship is not improved by the consequences of lycanthropy. One very brave young mouse questions his identity and redefines feline wiles.

From heartbreaking to humorous, these carefully curated stories by Peter S. Beagle show the depth and power of his incomparable prose and storytelling. Featuring an original introduction from Jane Yolen (Owl Moon) and gorgeous illustrations from Stephanie Pui-Mun Law (Shadowscapes), this elegant collection is a must-have for any fan of classic fantasy."

I am so happy this lovely set is now available with volume one...

The Essential Peter S. Beagle, Volume 1: Lila the Werewolf and Other Stories from Tachyon Publications
(* favorites)

*Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros -

Maybe we should talk about the Rhino in the room. And maybe, when you come across true magic, you have to pretend it’s something more mundane. Or, you could spend your life debating philosophy with a mostly invisible rhinoceros (unicorn).

Come Lady Death -

Death has been invited to a party by the most callously rich lady you might ever meet. Lady Neville is a bit awful, a bit bored, a bit human and a lot rich; she needs her party to be a sensation.

Lila the Werewolf -

So many dogs were brutally killed. I also highlighted many lines of beautifully evocative prose. But then the dogs kept dying and it was too much for me. I think the story will stick with me though—so much to say about what it means to know someone

Gordon, The Self-Made Cat -

“Once upon a time to a family of house mice there was born a son named Gordon. He looked very much like his father and mother and all his brothers and sisters, who were gray and had bright, twitchy, black eyes, but what went on inside Gordon was very different from what went on inside the rest of his family.”

The Fable of the Moth -

“MORAL: Everybody knows better. That’s the problem, not the answer”

The Fable of the Tyrannosaurus Rex -

What is a Thursday, anyways?

The Fable of the Ostrich -

ok, the morals for these fables have all been 5 star fantastic, but this one had me rolling: “MORAL: Stupidity always wins, as long as it’s stupid enough.”

*The Fable of the Octopus -

the octopus of a philosopher, and he learns things can be different than he thought or expected, and he finds and creates meaning in his world.

*El Regalo -

Angie discovers magic and it’s *wild *. Easily more innovative than certain other big wizard stories you might name.


***Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and The Angel -

I didn’t mean to accidentally quite some scraps of faith while reading short fiction today, but here I am watching my worldview shift a little to one side as I read about an middle aged Jewish man repeatedly painting an Angel.

****We Never Talk About My Brother - holy shit. I think I just witnessed my entire worldview change a little bit more. Second time in one short story collection.

King Pelles the Sure - I think the best anti-war story I’ve ever encountered is actually (of all things) “Gunpowder Tim v. The Moon Kaiser” by the Mechanisms

The Last and Only; or, Mr. Moscowitz Becomes French - no context spoilers: think of that scene in Lilo and Stitch where Lilo is drawing that silly picture of Stitch’s “badness level” filled in with red crayon. Except it’s French.

Spook -

I haven't read Peter S. Beagle's work in years, and after reading this collection I'm not sure why. This is a wonderful assembly of tales. Usually I take my time to savor every detail with short story collections like this, but I was so captivated by this book that I kept turning pages and went through the whole thing rather quickly, which is surprising for a book of this magnitude. The writing style is flawless and the stories are told with fluid precision. The cover is really eye-catching as well. Beagle is a master of his craft and this is a fine example of that. Thank you Netgalley and Tachyon Publications for providing this book to review.

Great collection of Beagle stories! Standouts include:

Come Lady Death - historical fantasy perfect for anyone who likes a touch of the morbid in their ballrooms

We Never Talk About My Brother - an exploration of what it would really mean to be a superhero

King Pelles the Sure - a spare antiwar allegory that's both funny and touching (like all great Peter S. Beagle stories, really!)

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the anthology.

Peter S. Beagle's short stories are delightful, shocking, absurd, magical, and emotional. I own several of his previous short story collections, and it was nice to finally see his stories collected into two volumes. I re-discovered many old friends, but also many new ones, whom I was glad to meet. The titular Lila the Werewolf was a re-read, and darker than I remembered.

This is a collection that I savoured, rather than rushing through. The stories are very different from one another, but all are worth a read.

I’ve read and enjoyed a lot of the author’s fiction so was looking forward to The Essential Peter S. Beagle Volume 1. I will read Volume 2 next. I enjoyed every story in this diverse collection. I liked the fact the stories are all different so I never knew what to expect with the next one. The stories all touched on the strange and fantastic in some way, some more than others. I especially liked Come Lady Death, Lila the Werewolf, Gordon The Self-Made Cat and We Never Talk About My Brother.

The Good: Short story collection of quiet, comforting magical realism
The Bad: Lots of different things here; it’s best to give a little time between each piece of fiction
The Literary: Personal chapter introductions from the author

Peter S. Beagle, best known for the The Last Unicorn, is one of my favorite authors. With an ability to seamlessly move from reality to fantasy, his stories possess an authenticity of truth. They seem more real than most fiction, as straightforward plots unfold with deft and often intricate prose.

This collection of stories will surprise in its breadth—from children’s to adult stories, fairy tales to urban fantasy, with unicorns, werewolves, witches, angels, and ghosts. These stories are about as far away as you can get from theatric or genre though, and fall firmly onto the side of contemplative magical realism.

The stories in order:

Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros – ★★★★★ – A philosophy professor befriends a rhinocerous who claims he’s a unicorn. Clever and touching.
Come Lady Death – ★★★★★ – An aging socialite invites death to her party. Gothic, suspenseful, and satisfying.
Lila the Werewolf – ★★★☆☆ – A young man discovers his girlfriend is a werewolf, but doesn’t break if off because he hates confrontation. With unrealized potential and lots of dead dogs, this titular story was my least favorite.
Gordon, the Self-Made Cat – ★★★★★ – A mouse goes to cat school. An innocent and playful children’s story.
Four Fables (The Fable of the Moth, The Fable of the Tyrannosaurus Rex, The Fable of the Ostrich, The Fable of the Octopus) – ★★★★★ – Simple fairy tales with cheeky morals
El Regalo – ★★★★☆ – Angie’s stupid little brother finds out he is a witch. Captivating for its accurate depiction of frustrating little brothers who don’t follow the rules, with unrealized novel potential.
Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel – ★★★★★ – An angel appears in the studio of a New York Jewish painter, claiming to be his new muse.
We Never Talk About My Brother – ★★★★★ – The second story in this collection about a sibling with magical powers and another with unrealized potential, except here, the brother is a grown TV anchorman with the ability to alter reality with his words. A harsh critique of the news and a satisfying conclusion.
King Pelles the Sure – ★★★★☆ – An anti-war story about the monarch of a small, wealthy, and peaceful kingdom who only dreams of war. A little long and meandering.
The Last and Only; or, Mr. Moscowitz Becomes French – ★★★★★ – A middle-aged American librarian contracts a disease that slowly turns him French. A silly concept delivered with startling reality.
Spook – ★★★★☆ – A man’s house is haunted by a ghost, and with the help of an intermediary, they decide a duel is in order to decide who gets the house—and the girlfriend. The manner of the duel and its finish are a delightful ode to bad poetry.
The Stickball Witch – ★★★★★ – A group of young boys playing stickball in the street accidentally hit a ball into a witch’s yard. As youthfully magical as the best Bradbury.
A Dance for Emilia – ★★★★★ – A man’s best old friend dies suddenly, and grief becomes a magical force. Without giving too much away, this story is a weight of emotional release.

And don’t forget to take a few moments to appreciate the gorgeous illustrations from Stephanie Pui-Mun Law. Highly recommended for fans of Neil Gaiman, Ursula K. LeGuin, and Susanna Clarke!

I come to Peter S. Beagle not as a fan of The Last Unicorn, because I've never read it, but instead as someone who has seen other Authors cite Peter S. Beagle as being among the greats. The issue has always been time. When I was given the chance to read his two collections of Short Stories I decided that enough was enough. I had to find out what makes Beagle so unique.

To summarize my feelings I'd say that Beagle is a Writer's writer. The tone instantly sent me back to the types of books you would read in High School. Something so great that it would be read over and over for generations. I was worried at first that all the stories would lean towards being like fairy tales. As I said, I haven't read The Last Unicorn and I came Six years after the movie. If all you know about someone is that they wrote a very popular book about a unicorn you might have apprehensions too. I was surprised, to say the least. What was crazy was that the more modern of the stories of which I would count Lila the Werewolf and El Regalo were the ones I liked the least.

Still, that's not to say I didn't like them. They were all great stories. Every one of them was a masterclass on storytelling. I believe that with the right narrator, these stories would make the comfiest of audiobooks.

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book.*

I have to be honest first: I only know Beagle's "The Last Unicorn" and that's it. "The Essential Peter S. Beagle, Volume I" introduced me to his short stories + some context. While some short stories were a bit me, others were really cool. I especially loved “Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros” where a philosophy professor encounters an Indian Rhinoceros which nobody else can see. The story was very sweet and interesting, I loved it, especially when philosophers were dissed.

If you like short stories, I recommend you pick this up but maybe not in one go, but story by story.

3.5 stars

I've been a long time fan of Beagle's work and this was no exception. Beagle's name is synonymous with the greats of fantasy and does not need an elaborate introduction. I thought I would be prepared for these short stories and just would be able to sit back and enjoy them, but I was severely unprepared for the emotional journey they took me on. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of his works and look forward to adding them to our library system.

I received an advance copy of this book (and its companion) from the publisher via NetGalley.

Peter Beagle really needs no introduction. He's one of the greats of the fantasy genre, and this book is a clear demonstration of way. I expected this collection to be good, mind you, but I didn't expect it to be such an emotional journey. Every single story is fantastic (not something I can say about many collections or anthologies) but some of them--wow. "Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel" is up there among my favorite stories of all time with its gentle yet harsh story of an artist, an angel, and sheer goodness. Also profound were "Come Lady Death," "The Stickball Witch," and the astonishing finale, "A Dance for Emilia." I think it's fair to say that, based on Beagle's introductory notes, his stories that tended to touch me the most were the ones that were semiautobiographical for him--drawn from his own life, with a magical twist.

Superb. Just superb.

The Frédéric Chopin of literature

The name Peter Beagle is familiar to every reader of fantasy, yet somehow I had never read any of his work (not, not even /The Last Unicorn/). These regrettable gaps in ones essential education do occur. Thus I was pleased to see the release of /The Essential Peter S. Beagle, Volume 1/ and /Volume 2/. The ARC begins with a Press release in which fantasy authors such as Ursula LeGuin, Madeleine L'Engel, and Seanan McGuire are joined by unnamed critics at the New York Times Book Review and Saturday Review in praising Beagle in almost superhuman yet still personal terms. The book proper begins with an Introduction "Peter Beagle: Bottling Talent" in which Jane Yolen praises Beagle in similar terms but at greater length.

This all felt somehow familiar to me. Then I realized what it was! It's like hearing musicians talk about Frédéric Chopin! Chopin was, of course, one of the greatest of classical composers. In my experience, however, when a person who is not a musician wants to play classical music, works by Chopin come up less frequently than other composers of typical stature. In my experience, praise for Chopin comes mostly from people who themselves play piano. It is, I think, MUCH more fun to play Chopin than to listen to him. I think Beagle is similar in this sense: that he is most appreciated by his writer colleagues, who appreciate his craft.

Chopin is not one of my favorite composers. And, for similar reasons Beagle will never be one of my favorite authors. Both of them are a little too refined for me. Oddly, Beagle himself, in the final story in this book, expresses quite accurately what I miss in Chopin and Beagle

<blockquote>What I did somehow understand, bright and blind as I was, was that he was dancing for his life.</blockquote>

What I want most, from a dancer or a composer or a writer, is to understand that, at the moment of performance, what they're doing is the most important thing in the world -- the thing that is going to save the world, if done with everything the artist has. I don't feel that in Beagle. Now, I'm sure some readers will argue that's MY problem -- that Beagle is writing over my head, and that I'm too dense to feel the passion.

That may be true, but that is the opposite of how it feels to me. As I read Beagle, I see how cleverly he does this, and how skillfully that. I clearly feel his deft touch on the strings. I see the skill with which he flicks them and pulls on my heart and mind. But you see, that is not what it feels like to be under the influence of a master puppeteer. If you perceive the puppeteer, then he/she is not a master. The master puppeteer is the one who completely vanishes, and who makes the puppet vanish.

I'm protesting too much, in trying to be clear. I like this book, and I like Peter Beagle. If my appreciation is more a matter of intellect than pathos, well, intellectual appreciation is something. And it'll be more for other readers.

I thank NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for an advance reader copy of /The Essential Peter S. Beagle, Volume 1/. This review expresses my honest opinions. Book to be released 16-May-2023.

The Essential Peter S. Beagle Volume 1 is a sparkling short story collection spanning an illustrious career, and a long time coming. Beagle’s works are being steadily reissued following a lengthy court battle with his former manager, and we readers are benefitting richly. This spring, Tachyon will publish two volumes of short stories, some collected in previous collections, in rich hardcovers illustrated by Stephanie Law.

I’ve read most of the stories in Volume 1 before, but it’s always a pleasure to revisit them. No matter the subject, whether it’s stickball in the Bronx or wartime in an imaginary kingdom, Beagle’s unique voice can be heard throughout. Not only is Beagle a strong prose stylist with a gift for character and plot, but he also possesses an undeniable storyteller’s voice that makes you want to keep reading no matter the subject.

Each story is a gem. Particular stand-outs for me are “A Dance for Emilia,” “King Pelles the Sure,” “Come Lady Death,” and “Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros.”

Highly recommended not only to readers of speculative fiction but anyone who enjoys a tale well-told.

Thank you to Tachyon and NetGalley for providing an electronic reading copy. I’ve also pre-ordered the hardcover for my personal library.

I’ve long been a fan of Peter S. Beagle. I’ve read all of his fiction and most of his short story collections, but this was in the pre-Goodreads days. I had been meaning to go back and re-read, when along comes the first of a two-volume collection of some of his short stories. The Universe (and Tachyon Publications) oblige! But I make no secret of my terrible memory; in fact, one of the reasons I joined Goodreads was to track the books I’ve read so that I could avoid that disconcerting experience of discovering I’ve read something before–a third into the book. But Beagle’s stories–ah, there’s nothing déjà vu about them–I remember them. Professor Gottesman, Lady Death, Lila the Werewolf, and The Stickball Witch have all stuck in my memory despite reading decades ago, if not for the plot, than for the sentiment behind so many of them.

Beagle excels when his stories hit the intersection in the Venn diagram of memory, emotion, and feeling. Too far, they become a little more maudlin, another, more visceral. Professor is one of my favorites here, but will likely be more entertaining to those who recognize classical philosophers. The combination of a possibly deluded rhinoceros and the eccentric professor will never not amuse me, and I will always prefer its sweet ending.

“He would pour himself a glass of wine and sit down in the living room to debate philosophy with a huge mortar-colored beast that always smelled vaguely incontinent, no matter how many baths it had taken that afternoon.”

The Stickball Witch slides slightly into the other direction, a little less sweet and a little more… umami, I think. Not quite bitter, but rich and with a bite. I liked it, even more as an older reader. Despite being rooted in memory, it does a nice job of capturing an eleven year-old voice, cycling in and out.

“You couldn’t walk away from a double-dare, even from a dumbshit like Stewie. I mean, you could, but the rest of your life wouldn’t ever be worth living after that. I knew that then. Not believed. Knew.”

Speaking of endings, We Never Talk About My Brother is probably one of the best entries here. Like The Last Unicorn, it is a bitter gut-punch to feels. Framed as an interview, it’s a very different voice than the other stories.

“‘Declare to goodness,’ he said, and it wasn’t the smooth TV voice at all, but more like the way his mouth was born, as we say around here.”

El Regalo is a different but gentler version of a similar tale, and is a little easier to read. Beagle writes about his intention to turn it into a book. As a more modern young-adult urban fantasy, about a teenager and her younger brother who discovers he’s a witch, I’m sure it has a spot in the commercial market, but like The Last Unicorn, there’s a sense of age and consequence here that might miss the younger readers.

“Marvyn was utterly businesslike about lies: in a crisis he always told the truth, until he thought of something better. He said, ‘I’m warning you right now, you won’t believe me.'”

King Pelles follows that morality tale too far and lands a little outside delicious for me, but it’ll work for some as a twist on the fairy-tale setting. The Four Fables are a miss for me, mostly because fables have always missed me. I only read them as a youth because I had exhausted the fairy-tale section of the library. I like Beagle’s vividness, of course, but the inherent morality/consequence is too simple for his writing.

“‘Nobody is ever remembered for living out a dull, placid, uneventful life,’ he would say to his Grand vizier, whom he daily compelled to play at toy soldiers with him on the parlor floor.”

Spook and Lila are shorts nominally featuring Joe Farrell, of The Folk of the Air, and while it was sort of nice to see him again in Spook, the battle of wits verged a bit too far into the bitter for my taste. Lila, on the other side, feels too much of a wallowing in sexuality and is triggering for animal deaths–no doubt why it retained a negative feeling for all these years. Although Farrell’s problems in dating sound strangely familiar, so there may be an element there.

“The trouble is that I know her. That was the real mistake. You shouldn’t get to know people if you know you’re not going to stay with them, one way or another. It’s all right if you come and go in ignorance, but you shouldn’t know them.”

Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel have something of the feel of Brother, Regalo and Professor, only slightly different tone. I liked it, but it didn’t hit me quite as deeply as the others. Lady Death edges into that bitter taste again, (and strong echoes of Masque of the Red Death), as does The Last and Only; or, Mr. Moscowitz Becomes French. A Dance for Emilia feels forgettable nostalgia. It’s beautifully written, but just doesn’t have any tension. The voice was 100% Farrell. Beagle notes that out of all the stories, it is the most personal.

“He was the first person I had ever met in my life who talked like me. What I mean by that is that both of us much preferred theatrical dialogue to ordinary Brooklyn conversation, theatrical structure and action to life as it had been laid out for us.”

As a final note, that introduction by Jane Yolen–yikes. While I usually admire her writing, she includes mention of a school shooting in it. How this slipped past editing–such a strange and non-sequitur way for her to work on her own catharsis, apparently–I do not understand. It’s a discordant note in an anthology about people who are one one-step removed from the world, or about a world that is open to the possibilities of the mystical.

Stephanie Law’s drawings are the perfect companion to his works. I’ve long been a follower of her art on Instagram and recognized the style as soon as I saw it here. I wish I could see it in color, however, and not my black-and-white screen. Definitely not optimal. (Watch her do gold-leafing on Insta sometime. It’s wonderful).

Is it essential? I don’t know. Does it have an overview of everything Beagle is capable of? Absolutely. Does it contain some gems? Definitely.

Table of contents for the completionists in the house:

Peter Beagle: Bottling Talent by Jane Yolen
Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros
Come Lady Death
Lila the Werewolf
Gordon, the Self-Made Cat
Four Fables:
The Fable of the Moth
The Fable of the Tyrannosaurus Rex
The Fable of the Ostrich
The Fable of the Octopus
El Regalo
Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel
We Never Talk About My Brother
King Pelles the Sure
The Last and Only; or, Mr. Moscowitz Becomes French
Spook
The Stickball Witch
A Dance for Emilia

Instagram Post Scheduled for April 15th
Blog Post Scheduled for April 25th
Also mentioned during a Recent Wrap - Up on Youtube, last link below


Peter S Beagle is a very common and well known name in Fantasy and I’m going to be honest - I’ve barely read him. I have read, once The Last Unicorn, but nothing else and after reading this collection I’m ashamed. This first volume of this collection covers a wide spread of themes and interesting styles of stories, and I definitely recommend it for fans of Fantasy or short stories.

Mr. Beagle’s range in this collection was probably the most impressive part for me. The stories ranged from short fantastical stories, to mundane magic in the everyday, to urban fantasy with a darker edge. Throughout the collection all of these had a cozy and very classic feel to them. Fans of cozy fantasy would be right at home here.

The themes were all treated with respect within each story as well. Grief, loss, loneliness, aging, family, and respect for just life itself were covered. I cannot believe how well these all worked. Overall there was only one story that didn’t captivate me and had me emoting, and reading excerpts to my patient partner.

This was an amazing collection, and I cannot recommend it enough for existing fans of Mr. Beagle or fans of fantasy shorts or cozy fantasy.

4 out of 5 Dive Bombing Ghosts

Summary
A collection of fantasy stories by Peter S. Beagle.
Review

In my review of Peter Beagle’s Summerlong, I mentioned that perhaps I should go back to his short stories and try them again. In this and the successor volume, I’ve had the chance to do just that, including specifically re-reading two stories I’d seen previously, “Lila the Werewolf” and “Come, Lady Death”.

I said previously that I was unimpressed by Beagle’s short stories, and that remains true of the two mentioned above – the ones I had read before. I was pleasantly surprised by several others. I know little about Beagle’s career, but I was surprised by how many of these stories are relatively recent – something I usually find suspect in an ‘essential’ collection – indicative of padding or an attempt to get some attention to later work by stacking the deck with some classics. In this case, however, the later stories were the ones that caught my attention.

The stories are generally low key – somewhat contemplative, somewhat conversational – and I think I could safely say that Beagle is a master of the conversational story. Many of these also lean toward reminiscences, and effectively.

My favorite stories:

notable “El Regalo” – A young girl’s brother is a witch and gets into trouble. Beagle says he’s interested to expand this story, and I hope he does. While it works nicely at this length, the characters are engaging, the tone perfect.
notable “Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and The Angel” – A grouchy painter is blessed/cursed by an angel turning up to be his muse. A really nicely done story from a young boy’s point of view.
notable “We Never Talk About My Brother” – The narrator’s brother is a big success, but maybe not deservedly. The first story in the collection that struck me that wasn’t from a young person’s point of view. A touch long, but effective.

As noted, several of the stories are from a child’s point of view, and they’re among the most effective. The more adult stories tend to run a bit on the long side (and especially the closing story, “A Dance for Emilia”), but many of them also work well. Despite my initial reservations, a good introduction to the short work of a talented writer.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

An anthology of choice short work by the great fantasist best known for The Last Unicorn, and stymied in recent years by far too much legal bullshit. I was struggling to sum up what makes him so special without resorting to entirely worn out words like 'classic', before I hit on at least part of it: there are still all manner of people writing great short fiction, but often it's fiddly to describe – either you have to spoil something too far in, or talk in terms of a riff on X, told in the style of Y, in response to Z. Whereas with Beagle, the simple single sentence does it, same as with a fairytale: an academic is befriended by a rhinoceros, which insists it's a unicorn. A great lady invites Death to her ball. A New Yorker learns something he wishes he hadn't about his girlfriend, but fears confrontation more than werewolves. And I was a little surprised at that last example being the title story here, because it feels dated in its specifics in ways the others mostly don't, but under those it's still a scenario that's perfect in its tilted plausibility. Not that he's just a master of the pitch, or the plot; he can weave a spell with his words too, such that even the animal fables, probably the most cynical stories here (at their heart, I mean – many of the others have cynical characters, but that's another matter) have moments of sheer beauty, like the octopus wondering whether the fleetingly glimpsed albatross, "So splendid and so alone", might be God, or the class at cat school which teaches them about "the enchanting things all cats can see that no one else ever does – the great, gliding ancestors, and faraway castles, and mysterious forests full of monsters to chase." I think my favourite tale might be the one in which the no-nonsense New York Jewish artist finds himself with an angel for a model, but apart from anything else that's one of the few I've read before; ask me next month and you'd likely get a different answer. Sure, some of the stories are slighter than others, but there's not a one which doesn't feel like it's achieved exactly what it intended, even if in one case that's mainly an excuse to expose readers to some of the worst poetry ever perpetrated by non-Vogons. It all wraps up beautifully with A Dance For Emilia, which possibly torpedoes my theory about Beagle's stories being easily pitched, in that I'd need to give too much away to say more than that it's a story about losing a friend too soon, but doesn't it always feel too soon? Still, it's the piece here which has been least widely available, and even if you're an assiduous follower of Beagle's, the collection would be well worth it just for this.

(Netgalley ARC)

I read The Last Unicorn a long time ago, and only vaguely remember thinking that it was a little out there for me. I have recently read some of his recent novel length works, and loved them, so I was very happy to give the first volume of the Essential stories a try - and there is no doubt I will be getting a copy of Vol 2, and trying to find a copy of The Last Unicorn.
The stories (at least in Vol 1) are fairy tale style or fables, very much in the Once Upon a Time way. Some are modern day setting and some are fantasy worlds but all are told in matter of fact way. From the mouse who wants to learn to be a cat (to prove a point) to the story of a newsreader who has too much sway over unpleasent events (and doesn't this story have some nasty little chills), these stores absolutely show the charm that Beagle has over the short story form. Bring on Vol 2.

Jane Yolen's utterly craven and insensitive Foreword is a disservice to Beagle's works. Her use of the Uvalde, TX, massacre is despicable here. It was bad enough that she started off with some self-deprecation--ha ha, I'm jealous--but to put murdered children and adults to work as a way of making a point about one of Beagle's stories is horrifying.

That said, Beagle's own introductions to his stories--full of memories and ideas told in a gentle tone--are charming, and I was happy to read many old favorites and a few new-to-me stories here. Five stars to Beagle, but zero to Yolen.