Watership Down (Scribner Classics)
by Richard Adams

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Book Reviews of Watership Down (Scribner Classics)

Book Review: Jaques' Redwall can't compare to Adam's realism
Summary: 5 Stars

That is a lot more to this novel than that extremely brief summary. You get to meet a grand sea gull named Kehaar. It is one of my most favoured books, and I know of none outside the fantasy market that touches its realm of invention.

The best thing about this novel is how thoroughly researched this is. This is not regular anthropomorphic fiction, where talking animals are just caricatures of humans, or they're animals without that true sense of their nature. The rabbits in WATERSHIP DOWN behave like real rabbits. I'd go so far as to call this THE LORD OF THE RINGS of this type of fiction, with talking animals. Adams has taken the real behaviour of rabbits and set them in a wonderful story. The depth of his achievement never fails to amaze me. He totally makes a believable real world of the rabbits, and from the rabbit's perspective. Besides being a great novel, this makes this work stand out even moreso. All the places, including the place Watership Down, are real locations in England.

Although Brian Jacques' REDWALL series is often hailed in comparision to this, in terms of actual scope of reality, REDWALL and all its incarnations is inferiour to his. Not that I don't like REDWALL. Brian Jacques has a very real gift of telling a rollicking good yarn, and his series deserves everything it gets. Its just that WATERSHIP DOWN is better in the sense that instead of taking animals and imposing them with personalities, with them losing their nature and taking on a definably human one, Adams did not go to that extreme. He balanced them with ultimately human traits necessary for the story, but still in keeping with their animal nature, with them behaving and acting like real rabbits. This is why I love this particular novel so much. It achieves a balance of animal and human qualities, of which so few stories in this particular genre attempt to achieve. Of course, not all these stories are trying to achieve that balance, or need too, because they are aiming for an entirely different point and are using anthropomorphic fiction as its vehicle, and that's alright. (Case in point: George Orwell's ANIMAL FARM, which is as every bit as good as this, although it is sofor entirely different reasons.) It gives anthropomorphic fiction a new height and goal to shoot too:

1. To take an animal, for purpose of a story, and with human traits and failings let us get to know the character and its surroundings.

2. To take the character created, and to keep it in keeping with its real species. If it's a bear or an otter, have the bear and otter behave like real bears and otters. It makes the fiction so very much richer.

The interaction between the rabbits and human society is an excellent treatise in its own right on man's dominance over nature. It gives a very interesting view on how animals interact and deal with us. They are two separate societies, and each must deal with the other. Of course, the humans have the overall hand. That is why, indeed, the rabbits led by Hazel and Fiver must forsake their home warren in the first place. On the Notice Board (name of the first chapter "The Notice Board") there is a notice which reveals the humans will make a shopping mall or something like that in that location. Although this may seem strange, the only other books that I have read that gives a very interesting animal perspective on human society is in quite a different setting, with largely comic overtones. The HANK THE COWDOG books, a children's series greeted with enthusiastic response from both children and adults, gives a perfectly delightful view of human society from an animal's perspective. They are written by John R. Erickson (I'm proud to say I hail from his home state of Oklahoma, though now I am far removed from there).

In conclusion, one of the books I love and respect the most. His depth of invention is amazing, his achievement, although in a much different setting, parallels the achievements of Robert Jordan and J. R. R. Tolkien. This is one of those books I wished I had written (as H. G. Wells said of Sinclair Lewis' BABBITT, and, perhaps more importantly, Stephen King said of William Golding's LORD OF THE FLIES, another debut novel). I bought a hardback copy of SHARDIK, a novel of similar magnitude (or so they say.) I haven't read it yet. They say it topples this book, and if that is the case, Mr. Adams is even moreso a truly remarkable writer of novels.

Summary of Watership Down (Scribner Classics)

The story follows a warren of Berkshire rabbits fleeing the destruction of their home by a land developer. As they search for a safe haven, skirting danger at every turn, we become acquainted with the band and its compelling culture and mythos. Adams has crafted a touching, involving world in the dirt and scrub of the English countryside, complete with its own folk history and language (the book comes with a "lapine" glossary, a guide to rabbitese). As much about freedom, ethics, and human nature as it is about a bunch of bunnies looking for a warm hidey-hole and some mates, Watership Down will continue to make the transition from classroom desk to bedside table for many generations to come. --Paul Hughes

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