diff --git a/requests_html.py b/requests_html.py
index 49d8cbb..147d4e3 100644
--- a/requests_html.py
+++ b/requests_html.py
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ class BaseParser:
         if self._html:
             return self._html
         else:
-            return etree.tostring(self.element).decode(self.encoding).strip()
+            return etree.tostring(self.element, 'unicode').decode(self.encoding).strip()
 
     @html.setter
     def set_html(self, html):