The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche and Other Odd Acquaintances
by Peter S. Beagle
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2004 Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire winner Peter S. Beagle'sThe Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche and Other Odd Acquaintances celebrates the beginning of Beagle's extraordinary career as a fantasist. Widely available for the first time and with a new preface by the author, this delightful book contains seven short stories and three essays by one of the most popular authors in the history of the fantasy field. The Last Unicorn, Beagle's most beloved novel, was an underground best-seller in the late show more 1960s and 1970s and is still in print and enchanting new readers today. It reached an audience far beyond the market for fantasy books, tying in with an emerging counter-culture and selling hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of copies. The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche contains two of Beagle's popular unicorn stories, "Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros" and "Julie'sUnicorn," as well as "Lila the Werewolf" (anthologized in theOxford Book of Fantasy) and a tribute to J. R. R. Tolkien, "The Naga." show lessTags
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I’ve written before about Peter S. Beagle’s short stories, and I reiterate what I said then: Beagle is one of the most able writers of the fantasy short story working today. This small but elegant collection cannot help but delight. “Julie’s Unicorn” is probably my favorite, in which a painted unicorn escapes its frame, but “Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros” is a lovely portrait of a lonely man. Even the early stories and essays included here are worth reading. It cannot be said that this collection has the power of, say, We Never Talk About My Brother, but completists will certainly want it in their libraries, and the stories are of a quality that will make any fantasy reader happy.
Six nouvelles qui ont en commun (sauf une) de mettre en scène des animaux fabuleux (Licorne), excentrique (le rhinocéros) ou simplement différent (le chat d'Emilia).
Le rhinocéros s'entretient avec un philosophe vieillissant dans une nouvelle très attendrissante. Dans "Entrez Lady Death" une vieille dame londonienne et richissime invite la mort à un bal. Les références sont nombreuses et E. A: Poe n'est pas loin. "Lila le loup garou" est une histoire mélancolique d'amour impossible en raison de la si pesante - mais sympathique - pesanteur du narrateur. "La licorne de Julie" met en scène un personnage directement sorti du Moyen Age et deux personnages quelque peu déjantés. "Le naga" se présente comme un conte oriental et show more raconte l'histoire d'amour d'un roi indien et d'une reine serpent. Ça finit bien mais tragiquement. Enfin "une danse pour Emilia", certainement la nouvelle la plus pathétique du recueil, tourne autour d'un deuil impossible. C'est une histoire d'amour et d'amitié qui aborde, avec une belle quiétude, la question de la mort. show less
Le rhinocéros s'entretient avec un philosophe vieillissant dans une nouvelle très attendrissante. Dans "Entrez Lady Death" une vieille dame londonienne et richissime invite la mort à un bal. Les références sont nombreuses et E. A: Poe n'est pas loin. "Lila le loup garou" est une histoire mélancolique d'amour impossible en raison de la si pesante - mais sympathique - pesanteur du narrateur. "La licorne de Julie" met en scène un personnage directement sorti du Moyen Age et deux personnages quelque peu déjantés. "Le naga" se présente comme un conte oriental et show more raconte l'histoire d'amour d'un roi indien et d'une reine serpent. Ça finit bien mais tragiquement. Enfin "une danse pour Emilia", certainement la nouvelle la plus pathétique du recueil, tourne autour d'un deuil impossible. C'est une histoire d'amour et d'amitié qui aborde, avec une belle quiétude, la question de la mort. show less
Jul 18, 2009French
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128+ Works 22,057 Members
Peter S. Beagle was born in Manhattan in April of 1939. During his senior year of high school, Beagle entered a poem and a short story in the 1955 Scholastic Writing Awards Contest, not knowing that the Grand Prize was a college education. He won that prize and went on to spend four years at the University of Pittsburgh after graduating from high show more school in 1955. In his sophomore year at the University of Pittsburgh, Beagle entered another contest, winning first place again in Seventeen Magazine's Short Story Contest. At the age of 19, he published "A Fine and Private Place." Beagle graduated college with a degree in Creative Writing and a Spanish minor and then spent a year overseas. When he returned, his new-found agent had enrolled him in a writing workshop at Stanford. After his first few published stories, Beagle supported himself and his family as a freelancer for many years. In the 70's he began to write screenplays, as well as take up the hobby of singing folk songs at a local club. Beagle has published music as well as books, both his passions, and both lucrative. Beagle gives lectures and readings at universities, and also hosts writing workshops at schools such as the University of Washington and Clarion West. His works have been translated into 15 languages. Beagle has also written a script for Star Trek: The Next Generation and the screenplay for the animated feature version of The Lord of the Rings. In 1987, Beagle's "The Last Unicorn" was proclaimed the Number 5 All Time Fantasy Novel. That same year, "The Innkeeper's Song" won the Mythopoetic Fantasy Award. In 1997, "The Unicorn Sonata" won the Locus Poll Award for Best Novella, and in 1998, "Giant Bones" won the same award as well as being nominated for the 1998 World Fantasy Award. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Belongs to Publisher Series
Gallimard, Folio SF (117)
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Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1997
- Publisher's editor
- Weisman, Jacob
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- 274
- Popularity
- 117,207
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (4.02)
- Languages
- English, French, German
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 4
