Watership Down: A Novel by Richard Adams
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Book Reviews of Watership Down: A Novel
Book Review: In a world of a thousand enemies, I'd live underground too.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a story about totally ordinary rabbits. For all we know, all rabbits may act like these when confronted with difficult situations, only we have not noticed. Maybe they travel in slightly bigger groups and are slightly more fearless than we're used to seeing, but there's nothing that differentiates these rabbits from those that live in your backyard. This story takes place in a totally ordinary setting in the author's part of rural England. The imaginative part of this novel is how the various rabbit characters interact during their exodus from their native warren until they find a new home.
The prophecy of Fiver, the resourcefulness of Hazel, the strength of Bigwig, these are the characteristics that keep the Sandleford rabbits moving even as they encounter enemies in the form of dogs, foxes, men, and the dreaded automobile. The name of the legendary patriarch of all rabbits "El-ahrairah" says it all - in Lapine, it means "he of a thousand enemies." During their journey, the rabbits tell stories of his cunning to keep themselves and the reader entertained.
This book is for everyone. Its insights on trust, friendship, and community are priceless. It is filled with adventure, suspense, ingenuity, and humor. Rabbit behavior is true to nature, according to R. M. Lockley's The Private Life of the Rabbit. The reading level is not complicated, and there is a glossary for those of us who don't speak Lapine. Highly recommended.
Book Review: Highly Recommend This Book
Summary: 5 Stars
This book has outlasted many favourite-books-of-the-moment in my life. I continually come back to it, rereading it with great pleasure each time. It's the kind of book where you suddenly feel the need to read passages aloud.
On the surface, a simple tale of talking rabbits. Yet I would never classify it as children's literature. An adventure with heroes and villians, peril and friendship, but it's even more than that. There is a subtext that can be interpreted to represent issues about government and society.
Yet at the same time, the rabbits seem very realistic. Not just humans in rabbit form. Most have trouble with complicated concepts, ie. when they need to cross a river and two of the rabbits are too tired to swim, only one rabbit understands the concept of hitching a ride on a piece of wood to float across. They also encounter a rabbit warren that is more intellectually advanced, having created art and poetry. The main characters have trouble grasping these concepts.
The characters are well-developed, as is the rabbit culture they come from. They are very much like primitive people, with an oral tradition of mythology but little concept of anything outside their own life. They see everything; other animals, plants, structures, etc as how it relates to themselves.
It's a book that can be read on many levels. Adventure or allegory, everyone can take something from this story. I highly recommend it.
Book Review: who knew rabbits had it in them?
Summary: 5 Stars
it didn't hurt that the edition i bought was the one by Puffin Books--the one with the cute brown rabbit sitting by the corner of the cover. i just couldn't resist smiling like a loon at the picture at times in between reading chapters, there were times i expected it to wriggle its nose at me. and more often than not, i wanted to have a live one on my lap to cuddle whilst i was reading.
i was tickled with the way Adams vividly portrayed the mannerisms of the rabbits especially in the company of their friends--when they touch with each other's noses, when they nuzzle and bump with one another usually for comfort and assurance, when they stop to nibble in a huddle, and even the way they heal another's wounds by licking it's fur. it's an endearing and refreshing look at the way these little critters presumably live their lives. there are no childish conversations with humans, no dressing up as humans, and certainly no aspirations to be human. they just are. and that's what made their adventures exciting and believable, you'd hardly notice that it's a pretty thick book.
this novel explores so many aspects: deep friendship, unswerving selflessness, fierce bravery, and so on; not to mention the underlying currents of the often destructive human intervention in wildlife. i'm gratified to have met Hazel and his wily group. definitely one of the best i've read in a long while, in any genre.
Book Review: Timeless book for the ages
Summary: 5 Stars
Richard Adams' Watership Down is a literary cornerstone that will last for ages for its whimsical and undying depth. What a phenomenal read. It contains epic storytelling, substance, and gratifying character development. The reader will be astounded with the way the characters and scenery are interwoven to create such a vivid and masterful scene of intrigue and substance. Numerous themes such as nature, heroism, strength, honor, failure, unity, harmony, etc can be extracted from the novel. In essence, the number of themes one can draw out from reading from this book are endless, thus showing what a remarkable piece of literature Adams has constructed.
Rabbits represent much more than the conventional, cute and cuddly critter that we are all use to. They are mere humans in this complex story of survival and upward mobility in this fulfilling and charismatic journey to utopia. Despite being a fairly long read, it actually is suspenseful and offers a phenomenal glimpse into the rabbits' culture in terms of mythology, which is quite moving. If you own a pet rabbit like myself (mini-lop that is 5 years old) then you will most likely enjoy this book. However, if you do not own a rabbit, I am sure you will enjoy it for its lively narrative and storytelling that is sure to leave a lasting impression in you heart.
Book Review: One of the must read books, especially if you've seen Donnie Darko
Summary: 5 Stars
Watership Down, a book that defies all normality in your normal about animals. The epic story of Fiver, a brave, second-sighted rabbit who predicts of a terrible danger that is about to fall upon the warren. As many of the rabbits doubt him, a few rabbits that do believe him follow him on an epic journey towards a place that is away from all danger, a promised land of sorts. Through out the perilous journey, the rabbits discover how to hold on together and find the place of their ambitions. Watership Down is a must read book, filled with adventure, romance (sort of), mythology, and lots more. It's Lord of the Rings with bunnies. Richard Adams is genius to manage to create a whole society of rabbits with their own language, religion, form of government, and human-like emotions. This makes "Homeward Bound" seem like a cake walk compared to what these rabbits have gone through. You must read Watership Down, it's like nothing you have ever read before. This book also has memorable characters, such as Kehaar, the white seagull who is the comedy relief of this book with his strange accent and tendencies to go off in a funny fit of rage or Bigwig, one of the rabbits who seems cold, but actually has a heart of gold. Watership Down, the book that is even too good for the kiddies to read.