Goodreads | Watership Down: A Novel (Paperback) by Richard Adams

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John rated it:

(review of isbn 0380002930)

09/01/07

bookshelves: favorites

Read in January, 2002

recommends it for: People who like a good story or who have a vague interest in rabbits

Ok, so it's a book about a bunch of rabbits traveling through a small stretch of English countryside. As such, it doesn't seem like something that would appeal to anyone but a preteen. But the fact of the matter is this is a great story, full of rich characters, a deep (if occasionally erroneous) understanding of things lupine, and it can reach moments of depth and profundity that the movie of the same title does not even begin to hint at. I was actually introduced to this book in one of the bes...more Ok, so it's a book about a bunch of rabbits traveling through a small stretch of English countryside. As such, it doesn't seem like something that would appeal to anyone but a preteen. But the fact of the matter is this is a great story, full of rich characters, a deep (if occasionally erroneous) understanding of things lupine, and it can reach moments of depth and profundity that the movie of the same title does not even begin to hint at. I was actually introduced to this book in one of the best ways I can imagine: a friend recorded the entire book on tape, and for a couple months I played the tapes of her reading a chapter or two just before I fell asleep each night. My slow exposure to the book under ideal circumstances may have influenced my perceptions, but I can say on each subsequent rereading of the book I've come to appreciate it more. You can read the book just for the story: apparently, the author wrote the book from stories he would tell his children, and it still can easily serve that purpose. But the richness of his characters lead to many interesting analogies to human life. For instance, from Hazel you can learn profound things about leadership. Throughout the book you feel that Hazel is the natural-born leader of his group of rabbits, but Richard Adams was very careful to develop this impression through character features rather than power-relations. The contrast is clearly intentional since the other leaders of the book achieve leadership status through very different means. Many people think the book takes a strong stance against a particular kind of authoritarian rule, but it is important to recognize the book gives this impression not through structured diatribe or through argument, but rather it evolves out of character considerations, and out of the story itself. This means that the result is far more complex than a simple argument. For instance, although General Woundwort may be seen as the main enemy that Hazel has to deal with, and the authoritarian rabbit is portrayed rather negatively at times, Adams quite intentionally adds some details that make him admirable to the other rabbits, even to the very end. A diatribe would not be so complex. Fiver is another great character. He adds an element of magic to the story, and it allows Adams to link the rabbits he describes to a mythical world that enters into the story quite frequently. One can almost see Fiver as a manifestation of imagination in this world. Big-wig is another likable character, and the story of this rabbits experience in Efrafa is one of the highlights of the story. Besides the characters, the descriptions of England are also quite acute. You can actually track the course of the rabbits on maps, since Adams was careful to describe real places and things. That attention to detail is often missed in reviews of this book. Finally, the thing that brings all these features together and makes the book more than a mere story, or an account of human characters, or a diatribe against fascism, is the fact that Adams is quite conscious of the fact that he is telling the story from the perspective of rabbits. The challenges they face are rabbit-sized, the ideas about the external world are rabbitlike, the philosophical insights seem rabbitized, and Adams brings many of our anthropomorphized ideas of rabbits together with the reality of rabbits in a surprisingly coherent fashion. I suppose the book can be seen as a cultural study of an imaginatively rich but realistic rabbit world. I realize as I write this review that many other readers may not feel the same way about the book as I do. It does have some shortcomings. For instance, female characters only make a few appearances in the book, although I think Adams does show some sensitivity in their depictions. But, even with the limitations, I would recommend the book to anyone who likes a good story and who is willing to think deeply about a children's story....less

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Rico rated it:

(review of isbn 0380002930)

07/15/07

bookshelves: ricosbooks

Read in June, 2000

recommends it for: people, rabbits, not for sailors.

oh man, this book totally tricked me! I got a bad haircut one day so I needed to lay low for a few weeks ("Supercuts", my ass! Liars!). I called two of my hardest, most straight-up thug homies (Zachary and Dustin) to bring me some of their books and this was one of them. I had just watched a show on A&E about WWII naval battles so I couldn't WAIT to read Watership Down! I love sea stories, "man overboard!" and "off the port bow!" and "aye aye cap'n!&qu...more

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John rated it:

(review of isbn 0380002930)

08/23/07

Read in July, 1986

recommends it for: Anyone

It was the summer of 1986 when, rumaging through the long unused bedrooms of my grandfather's house, I stumbled upon the book Watership Down. At twelve, I was at that wonderful age when any book was a source of fascination rather than embarrassment, and so I sat upon my uncle's old bed and, in the dusty sunlight streaming through the window, began to read a book which would stay with me years later.

Fiver, a small and nervous rabbit, is plaugued by visions of the coming destruction of Sandl...more

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Mick rated it:

(review of isbn 0380002930)

01/07/08

bookshelves: 50-book-challenge--08

Read in January, 2008

While I was trying to put together a preliminary list for the books I was going to try to read this year I came across the title Watership Down a hundred times. I’ll admit that when I first came across it I thought it was going to be a space adventure. Much like the movie Ice Pirates, I thought it was going to be about a over laden supply ship crashing in enemy territory with the only know water supply that existed in the galaxy, or at least something like that. As it turns out the book contai...more While I was trying to put together a preliminary list for the books I was going to try to read this year I came across the title Watership Down a hundred times. I’ll admit that when I first came across it I thought it was going to be a space adventure. Much like the movie Ice Pirates, I thought it was going to be about a over laden supply ship crashing in enemy territory with the only know water supply that existed in the galaxy, or at least something like that. As it turns out the book contains a children’s story – about bunnies.

Of course – they aren’t your normal rabbits. These guys can talk, and have feelings, and some can even see into the future. With abstract thought and freethinking comes the ability of others to oppress those things that make them human – or ahem – bunnies. That is the essence of the story.

Two brother rabbits are sitting around eating on some leaves, and a bigger meaner rabbit comes and takes the best leaves away. The bigger and brighter of the brothers is like “this sucks!” but the little pussy brother is like “We are all going to die, this place sucks ass, we must flee!” Keep in mind the little one is a 'seer'. So they basically the pack up the truck and they move to Beverly – hills that is. Those hills are called the Watership Down.

There are of course obstacles, dangers and adventures along the way, and then when they finally get there. “Oops you mean we forgot to bring any chicks? Damnit! Well we’re boned now dawg. Unless, yeah! Let’s go steal some bitches!”

The story itself is clever and decent enough, but muck like Jackson’s King Kong remake, it’s so focused on the evils of man that the whole story gets dragged down by it. Every time the group comes across a man he is described by the cigarette smoke he is inhaling, and they all carry guns, and have evil dogs that bite and chomp, yada yada yada. Tractors and cars and trucks are evil. Trains run animals over. Man's Dogs and guns always protect gardens. Don't forget that all the rabbits that show any "manish" qualities die right away. Miliatary Stategy, Art, Poetry, and Culinary Skills are all evil man things that eventually lead to the poor little bunnies doom. Oh how awful it is to live in the constant fear of man. Those darn rascally rabbits!
...less

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Loren rated it:

(review of isbn 0380002930)

04/21/08

Read in January, 1999

Adapted from ISawLightningFall.blogspot.com

Watership Down has a lot in common with the ancient epics. In it, a lone warrior leads a band of harried outcasts into the wilderness in search of a home. They’re aided by a seer who can touch the future with his dreams. They face perilous quests and hair-breadth escapes, ferocious foes and desperate siege assaults. But unlike the works of Homer and Virgil, Watership Down is also about rabbits. Which is appropriate, as almost all of ...more Adapted from ISawLightningFall.blogspot.com

Watership Down has a lot in common with the ancient epics. In it, a lone warrior leads a band of harried outcasts into the wilderness in search of a home. They’re aided by a seer who can touch the future with his dreams. They face perilous quests and hair-breadth escapes, ferocious foes and desperate siege assaults. But unlike the works of Homer and Virgil, Watership Down is also about rabbits. Which is appropriate, as almost all of its characters are rabbits.

Most four-footed protagonists in literature have been little more than humans with fur. (Think Stuart Little or Redwall.) But Adams takes a very different tack, which is evident from the get-go. The tale begins with two young rabbits named Hazel and Fiver living in a peaceful warren ruled by an old veteran named the Threarah. Scrawny, meditative Fiver has premonitions of doom falling on them all, a doom that will stain the fields with rabbit blood. But when the Threarah ignores Fiver’s counsel, Hazel decides to rouse anyone he can and flee. The two are joined by Bigwig (a massive bruiser once part of the Threarah’s personal guard), Dandelion (a storyteller par excellence), Blackberry (the smart-as-a-whip innovator) and Pipkin (a loyal but timid runt). When the Threarah’s minions discover their plans, the motley crew must plunge into the wilds under threat of death.

Adams’ break with Disney-esque anthropomorphizing becomes even more apparent in the culture he created for his rabbits. Much like Tolkien did in The Lord of the Rings, Adams created a language with its own detailed grammar and vocabulary. An example: Fiver’s true name, Hrairoo, comes from hrair, the term for any number over four, which is how high rabbits can count. They call these greater sums "thousand," and Fiver's name literally means "little thousand." He was so christened because he was small and one of the last born in his litter. Other words that crop up -- including elil (“predators”), silflay (“to graze”) and narn (“something good to eat”) -- possess equally detailed explanations. Frith, the word for the sun, is particularly interesting since it contains religious connotations. The rabbits, you see, are sun worshippers. They adore Lord Frith and the first rabbit he created, El-ahrairah, whose mischievous exploits get recounted several times in detail and who would put Odysseus to shame with his inventiveness.

Part of the joy of reading Watership Down lies in not only in its mythological color, but in letting yourself be carried along by every twist and turn of the plot, which is half adventure and half thriller (with a smattering of British botany, warren geography and seagull dialect thrown in to keep things interesting). If you find it hard to believe that it could be a coherent read with so many disparate elements (much less an entertaining one), join the crowd. It took months of nagging from a friend to get me to crack its cover. But it most certainly works, which is a testimony to Adams’ skill, as is the fact that when you reach the final page, you’ve begun to feel that Hazel and his friends are every bit as courageous as Achilles or Aeneas -- no matter the length of their ears....less

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Melissa rated it:

(review of isbn 0380002930)

05/17/08

bookshelves: currently-reading

Going to read it for Skinner. And I have to do a book project on it. Everyone says it's boring.

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Alexis rated it:

06/11/08

Read in May, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

this is a great book for nine-year-old boys. i read it last month, so i fail both criteria being neither a boy, nor nine. i ran into a fellow adult reading Watership Down when i was running down to catch the L train and i couldn't believe that both of us were so late in picking up this seemingly required elementary-school reading that i just stood in front of him with my copy until he looked up. we both agreed that the book was riviting, but not very good. here are my gripes with it: as milit...more this is a great book for nine-year-old boys. i read it last month, so i fail both criteria being neither a boy, nor nine. i ran into a fellow adult reading Watership Down when i was running down to catch the L train and i couldn't believe that both of us were so late in picking up this seemingly required elementary-school reading that i just stood in front of him with my copy until he looked up. we both agreed that the book was riviting, but not very good. here are my gripes with it: as military allegories go, it's not very sophisticated. a plucky band of rabbits, who leave to excape certain death - okay - but who also kind of want to be their own bosses, have great adventures striking out to make a new life for themselves. but (spoiler alert!) not one of the original group dies in the process, which just seems like unrealistic plot manipulation. they're rabbits, they are constantly afraid of death, but if this is about war (which it completely is; everything is told in terms of chain-of-command and loyalty and following orders and strategy and Hazel is without doubt the fearless, benevolent, and clever general leading this band of ALL MALE rabbits to some promised land) then it seems incomplete to constantly be worried about losing a member of your platoon, but never dealing with the emotions or events that come up when it actually happens. a couple times there is the perception that a rabbit has "stopped running" and some other rabbit says (paraphrase) "too bad, but everyone's gonna get it sometime and right now we have to save our hides." but the reader always knows that the presumably fallen rabbit is actually still alive. i get it that it's a kid's book, but i'm of the school that doesn't think kid's literature should wear kid's gloves. but, whatever.
then: i noticed back on page 22 when everyone was leaving the original warren that there were no female rabbits, so what exactly were these guys thinking? but somehow it took Hazel another hundred-fifty pages or so to figure that one out. this is the main reason i would have hated this book as a nine-year-old. it's all dudes. there are no female rabbits until the very end and even they they're pretty much all pathetic. it just doesn't give my nine-year-old self a whole lot to relate to.
that said: it's completely riveting. even when the plot is moving so slowly and it's so obvious where it's going next that it kindof made me want to crawl out of my own skin, i couldn't bring myself to just skip a chapter and resume after everyone's finally figured out that Fiver's never wrong. i had to read every word, just in case. and i consider that a good sign.
also, the World-of-Rabbit that Adams creates is pretty satisfying. he's invented language, cultural customs, and best of all, a religious/mythic history featuring the Prince of All Rabbits, who's clearly a jesus figure but is also the uber-trickster, since that is a rabbit's greatest strength after running fairly fast. the sections of rabbit storytelling were definitely my favorite and i have to give props to Richard for stuffing so much lore into one volume. that's a fun trick.
anyway, it's a great beach or train book if you haven't read it and it will make you look at rabbits differently. it will not change your life....less

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Joshua rated it:

(review of isbn 0380002930)

02/04/08

bookshelves: classics, favorites

Read in January, 1993

recommends it for: Anyone looking to rekindle their love for books

There are many holes in my life when it comes to memory, holes that one can fill with a Buick. I don't remember my first kiss. I don't even remember all the places I've visited and lived in. Yet, I do remember the film that sparked my love for movies (Indiana Jones), and the one book that made me a life-long reader. Watership Down is that book. Even 15 years later, I remember how I felt when the "unimportant" Hazel lead a group of rabbits to a better and new life. I remember t...more

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Ernest rated it:

01/06/08

Read in August, 2006

Probably the greatest fantasy/adventure book I have ever read just happens to be for young adults and is about talking rabbits in search of a new home. I initially thought I'd be overcome with unintentional laughter and an inability to suspend my disbelief. I thought wrong. By the book's end, when this ragtag collection of refugees from the obliterated Sandleford warren reaches the end of their journey, I was figuratively elevating Mr Adams to the gold medal platform of fantasy writers, just ...more

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John rated it:

(review of isbn 0060935456)

01/12/08

Read in January, 2008

recommended to John by: Erica
recommends it for: Fantasy readers, young readers

The adorable and highly creative anthropomorphic novel of a group of rabbits that seek out a new home. Playing on staples of heroic fantasy (mystical visions, warrior castes, frail but brave protagonists) and granting the rabbits human intelligence but a very rich culture, Adams creates a world more believable than much Fantasy about humans. It's very easy to get lost in their optimistic, sweet realm of simple concerns, where human affairs are almost as unknowable as those of gods, and everyone ...more

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Holly rated it:

(review of isbn 0380002930)

02/10/08

bookshelves: literature

Read in October, 2007

This is undoubtedly a heroic tale on par with the odyssey. How wonderful it is to so thoroughly enjoy a story for its journey and additionally be swept away occasionally by the unique picture of the world it shows you. As daily life consumes you, you tend to forget to imagine the world as it is seen by the small, but when you revisit it in books such as this, you remember that you spent some time there in the past.

How fondly do I think now of Hlao-Roo and Hrairoo, Hazel-rah and pigvig.... t...more

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Lisa rated it:

(review of isbn 0380002930)

04/22/08

Read in April, 2008

recommended to Lisa by: i read it for mr. skinner's class
recommends it for: people and rabbits

This book is actually really good and better than you'd think it could be, especially since the whole book is from rabbits' points of view. But it was kinda weird at times, and also sometimes boring, but it was still pretty good. i would recomend this book to patient people because its ok at first, but still kinda boring but then *I*(underlined/bolded)think it gets really good..

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Jessgrannis rated it:

(review of isbn 0380002930)

08/03/08

you wouldn't think a book about evil bunnies would be good... but you would be wrong.

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Tara rated it:

(review of isbn 0140306013)

11/24/08

bookshelves: booklist-for-2008

Read in October, 2008

I downloaded this as a free E-Book, and had such a different view of it reading it NOW, as opposed to when they tried to make me read it in high school. At the time, the story of talking rabbits was just too annoying for a "suave, sophisticated" high school senior to pay attention to, and I put this book down and didn't think about it again. Now that I'm an adult, the parallels between the rabbit's world and our own are much clearer, and the patience I might have gained with age makes ...more

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Sue rated it:

(review of isbn 0380002930)

08/17/08

bookshelves: classics, own

Read in August, 2008

I've been trying to think about why I thought so highly of this book - what part of the book made it a definite keeper for me... and I can't really put my finger on it. I know that I like it partly because it has animals as main characters on an adventure, like the _Redwall_ series that I enjoy so much. But, the adventure that Hazel, Fiver, Bigwig and the rest go on is not in the fantasy world (even though the animals talk.. they speak in their own language, and they only do things that rabbit...more I've been trying to think about why I thought so highly of this book - what part of the book made it a definite keeper for me... and I can't really put my finger on it. I know that I like it partly because it has animals as main characters on an adventure, like the _Redwall_ series that I enjoy so much. But, the adventure that Hazel, Fiver, Bigwig and the rest go on is not in the fantasy world (even though the animals talk.. they speak in their own language, and they only do things that rabbits would do - not at all the same vein as redwall) - and it is an epic journey of survival, rather than a quest. I really liked the characterization of the rabbits. It was a subtle mix of anthropomorphic traits and rabbitlike behavior. The plot - you'd think that it would be boring to read about rabbits moving from one warren to another, and having to run from some predators and deal with other rabbits.... but even the chapters about them moving through the landscape are interesting, and the section where they are caught and then escape -- I couldn't leave the book until I finished. People I've talked to while I was reading it remarked about how it was such a wonderful metaphor for life's journey or a picture of a society, but reading the author's introduction telling how he turned these stories for his daughters into a book stopped me from looking for inner meanings. I'm glad - I think the book is a classic simply as a work about some rabbits on a journey across the English countryside.
My best friend in high school signed up to read this book for a book report- and left it unread until the weekend before the report was due (on Monday). She came over to my house to get my help on writing a quick book report (without reading too much of thebook). Well, when she started trying to skim it... she started reading, and even when I admonished her, as she would never finish in time to do the report in time - she kept reading. She actually took the penalty for a late book report in order to finish the book properly. Now I understand why....less

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Aerin rated it:

(review of isbn 0380002930)

06/18/08

bookshelves: childrens, fantasy, lit-ra-chur

Read in June, 2008

A friend gave me this book several years ago, and it had been sitting on my bookshelf, unread, ever since. How good can a book about talking bunny rabbits be, I wondered.

Turns out, really quite good. Although there's no denying that this is a book about talking bunny rabbits, it's closer to Lord of the Rings than Peter Cottontail. It's a fantasy adventure novel w...more

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Tracy rated it:

(review of isbn 0380002930)

05/18/08

bookshelves: currently-reading

I just picked this book up, but I had thought about reading it for a few years.

My father read it and loved it, and a guy I dated when I was in teacher education school said it was the greatest book ever written. His plan was to teach it. Thing is, he was so boring! So, I didn't particularly want to read it. I also had a bias against it: It would simply capitalize on how sweet bunnies are, and screw that. It would be sentimental!

I found a great explanation of the "problem" of sentim...more

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Astrid rated it:

(review of isbn 0380002930)

03/31/08

bookshelves: britlit, kidsandteens

Read in April, 2008

OK, a book about talking rabbits? How could that be interesting? you ask. It is. Compelling, even. Read this book, if you haven't already. You could call it an allegory, you could call it a picaresque adventure, but whatever way you look at it, it's entertaining and maybe even thought-provoking.

The first thing that struck me about this book was how much Richard Adams knows about the lives of wild rabbits. What he doesn't know, he fills in very convincingly with rabbit language, culture...more

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Ryan rated it:

(review of isbn 0027000303)

04/12/08

Read in April, 2008

recommends it for: Grant

This was a really good story, and a very enjoyable read. It took me a little while to get used to the fact that I was reading about bunnies, but once I got past that, the book just flew by. The bunnies become characters that you care about, and although I certainly don't think that bunnies in real life are capable of long term planing or anything of that sort, the ones in the story become very defined in their roles.

The rest of this post is for the Lost Book Club people:

I found a few v...more

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Nicky added it (review of isbn 0380002930)

12/02/07

Read in November, 2007

Nicky Lenard
Mrs. Ebarvia
World Literature
12/2/07
Book Review

The book that I read is called Watership Down, by Richard Adams. This is the first, and most successful, book that Richard Adams has written. He has also written Nature Through The Seasons, The Phoenix Tree, Daniel, and much more. The book Watership Down is about two rabbits named Hazel and Fiver who leave their home burrow because Fiver believes something bad is going to happen. They get together some of their friends a...more Nicky Lenard
Mrs. Ebarvia
World Literature
12/2/07
Book Review

The book that I read is called Watership Down, by Richard Adams. This is the first, and most successful, book that Richard Adams has written. He has also written Nature Through The Seasons, The Phoenix Tree, Daniel, and much more. The book Watership Down is about two rabbits named Hazel and Fiver who leave their home burrow because Fiver believes something bad is going to happen. They get together some of their friends and leave on an adventure to find new unclaimed territory to call their own. They face many obstacles, such as the snare rabbits (Efrafa), and overcome all of them as a team. In the end they find a suitable piece of land on a hill, and find doe’s (female rabbits) so the rabbits can have offspring and create a thriving community.
Even though the novel was interesting and exciting, it did have some weaknesses. One includes the setting. The setting constantly changes and I found myself re-reading chapters so that I could understand where the characters are or going to go. The author could have been clearer or taken more time to explain a situation to help solve this problem. The second weakness of this novel is the characters. There are many characters in this book but few of them are fully developed. Others are mentioned once every five chapters which makes it hard to remember their names. To help fix this problem the author could take some characters out making it easier to remember each character. Not only could he do that but include other characters more through out the novel to help developed more rounded and used characters.
There were many aspects of this book that I think are interesting. One of them includes the similarities between the rabbit’s communities and human communities. In one rabbit burrow (equivalent to a modern day city) the rabbits collected food and stored it. This is similar to modern day supermarkets and food producers. This burrow also had a central hall or a meeting area where rabbits could talk, which is similar to community areas and meeting places where people hang out and have fun. The rabbits in this book have many human like aspects to them. They care for each other and help complete every day tasks, such as building their homes together, more so than humans help each other.
Although this book has some weak points, the excitement, thrill and adventure contradict it. It teaches lessons such as always have faith in your friends and never give up on your dreams. These key points are essential through out the book and are essential in life. Anyone who reads this book will read about Hazel and Fiver and their friends who always kept faith in them and faith in their dreams.
...less

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Watership Down: A Novel

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Watership Down: A Novel

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