Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Fine and Private Place | 1960 | Peter S. Beagle | Buy |
| 2 | The Last Unicorn | 1968 | Peter S. Beagle | Buy |
| 3 | The Folk of the Air | 1986 | Peter S. Beagle | Buy |
| 4 | The Unicorn Sonata | 1996 | Peter S. Beagle | Buy |
| 5 | Tamsin | 1999 | Peter S. Beagle | Buy |
| 6 | Sweet Lightning | 2008 | Peter S. Beagle | Buy |
| 7 | Summerlong | 2016 | Peter S. Beagle | Buy |
| 8 | In Calabria | 2017 | Peter S. Beagle | Buy |
| 9 | I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons | 2024 | Peter S. Beagle | N/A |
Peter S. Beagle’s standalone novels cover a wide range of settings and tones, united by his distinctive prose style and his eye for the mythic within the ordinary. A Fine and Private Place (1960) is set in a cemetery and features a ghost story told with warmth and dry humor. The Folk of the Air (1986) brings fantasy into a modern California setting where a Renaissance Faire becomes something far more real and dangerous.
Later novels like Tamsin (1999), set on a haunted Dorset farm, and In Calabria (2017), about a unicorn appearing to a reclusive Italian farmer, show Beagle returning to themes of isolation and wonder. His most recent standalone, I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons (2024), takes a lighter, more comic approach to fantasy. Across these books, Beagle has proven he can tell many kinds of stories, but all of them carry his signature mix of beauty and melancholy.