I wrote this function to work with non-numeric unicode objects, if anyone needs it.
(defun html-entities-to-unicode (string) (let* ((plist '(Aacute "Á" aacute "á" Acirc "Â" acirc "â" acute "´" AElig "Æ" aelig "æ" Agrave "À" agrave "à" alefsym "ℵ" Alpha "Α" alpha "α" amp "&" and "∧" ang "∠" apos "'" aring "å" Aring "Å" asymp "≈" atilde "ã" Atilde "Ã" auml "ä" Auml "Ä" bdquo "„" Beta "Β" beta "β" brvbar "¦" bull "•" cap "∩" ccedil "ç" Ccedil "Ç" cedil "¸" cent "¢" Chi "Χ" chi "χ" circ "ˆ" clubs "♣" cong "≅" copy "©" crarr "↵" cup "∪" curren "¤" Dagger "‡" dagger "†" darr "↓" dArr "⇓" deg "°" Delta "Δ" delta "δ" diams "♦" divide "÷" eacute "é" Eacute "É" ecirc "ê" Ecirc "Ê" egrave "è" Egrave "È" empty "∅" emsp " " ensp " " Epsilon "Ε" epsilon "ε" equiv "≡" Eta "Η" eta "η" eth "ð" ETH "Ð" euml "ë" Euml "Ë" euro "€" exist "∃" fnof "ƒ" forall "∀" frac12 "½" frac14 "¼" frac34 "¾" frasl "⁄" Gamma "Γ" gamma "γ" ge "≥" gt ">" harr "↔" hArr "⇔" hearts "♥" hellip "…" iacute "í" Iacute "Í" icirc "î" Icirc "Î" iexcl "¡" igrave "ì" Igrave "Ì" image "ℑ" infin "∞" int "∫" Iota "Ι" iota "ι" iquest "¿" isin "∈" iuml "ï" Iuml "Ï" Kappa "Κ" kappa "κ" Lambda "Λ" lambda "λ" lang "〈" laquo "«" larr "←" lArr "⇐" lceil "⌈" ldquo """ le "≤" lfloor "⌊" lowast "∗" loz "◊" lrm "" lsaquo "‹" lsquo "'" lt "<" macr "¯" mdash "—" micro "µ" middot "·" minus "−" Mu "Μ" mu "μ" nabla "∇" nbsp "" ndash "–" ne "≠" ni "∋" not "¬" notin "∉" nsub "⊄" ntilde "ñ" Ntilde "Ñ" Nu "Ν" nu "ν" oacute "ó" Oacute "Ó" ocirc "ô" Ocirc "Ô" OElig "Œ" oelig "œ" ograve "ò" Ograve "Ò" oline "‾" omega "ω" Omega "Ω" Omicron "Ο" omicron "ο" oplus "⊕" or "∨" ordf "ª" ordm "º" oslash "ø" Oslash "Ø" otilde "õ" Otilde "Õ" otimes "⊗" ouml "ö" Ouml "Ö" para "¶" part "∂" permil "‰" perp "⊥" Phi "Φ" phi "φ" Pi "Π" pi "π" piv "ϖ" plusmn "±" pound "£" Prime "″" prime "′" prod "∏" prop "∝" Psi "Ψ" psi "ψ" quot "\"" radic "√" rang "〉" raquo "»" rarr "→" rArr "⇒" rceil "⌉" rdquo """ real "ℜ" reg "®" rfloor "⌋" Rho "Ρ" rho "ρ" rlm "" rsaquo "›" rsquo "'" sbquo "‚" scaron "š" Scaron "Š" sdot "⋅" sect "§" shy "" Sigma "Σ" sigma "σ" sigmaf "ς" sim "∼" spades "♠" sub "⊂" sube "⊆" sum "∑" sup "⊃" sup1 "¹" sup2 "²" sup3 "³" supe "⊇" szlig "ß" Tau "Τ" tau "τ" there4 "∴" Theta "Θ" theta "θ" thetasym "ϑ" thinsp " " thorn "þ" THORN "Þ" tilde "˜" times "×" trade "™" uacute "ú" Uacute "Ú" uarr "↑" uArr "⇑" ucirc "û" Ucirc "Û" ugrave "ù" Ugrave "Ù" uml "¨" upsih "ϒ" Upsilon "Υ" upsilon "υ" uuml "ü" Uuml "Ü" weierp "℘" Xi "Ξ" xi "ξ" yacute "ý" Yacute "Ý" yen "¥" yuml "ÿ" Yuml "Ÿ" Zeta "Ζ" zeta "ζ" zwj "" zwnj "")) (get-function (lambda (s) (or (plist-get plist (intern (substring s 1 -1))) s)))) (replace-regexp-in-string "&[^; ]*;" get-function string)))