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Watership Down (Watership Down, #1)

Richard Adams

Start date: February 1, 2022

Finish date: February 28, 2022

Discussion: Science Fiction and Fantasy

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Science Fiction and Fantasy

* 2026 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reading Schedule
By Book Nerd , Purple Book Horse · 3 posts · 38 views

last updated Nov 20, 2025 07:25AM

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last updated Jan 05, 2025 07:59PM

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Mar 29, 2022 Manybooks rated it it was ok

Shelves: too-anthropomorphic, book-reviews, childrens-literature, boring

So yes, I did not get nearly as high a final mark in grade nine English as I was generally used to receiving (around seventy percent instead of my usual high eighties).

And this less than stellar final grade was indeed mostly because one of the many novels we were made to read for grade nine English (in 1981) was Richard Adams' 1972 Watership Down, and I made the I guess rather unforgivable faux pas of loudly proclaiming in class (when asked to give my personal assessment of Watership Down) that So yes, I did not get nearly as high a final mark in grade nine English as I was generally used to receiving (around seventy percent instead of my usual high eighties).

And this less than stellar final grade was indeed mostly because one of the many novels we were made to read for grade nine English (in 1981) was Richard Adams' 1972 Watership Down, and I made the I guess rather unforgivable faux pas of loudly proclaiming in class (when asked to give my personal assessment of Watership Down) that I was finding Watership Down a tedious, uninteresting and at times even rather weird and creepy reading slog and that I also and simply did not at all enjoy anthropomorphic animal tales (except for Anna Sewell's Black Beauty). Because unfortunately, I did not sufficiently realise and take into account that Watership Down was my English teacher's favourite novel and that he really did seem to have very massive issues with ANYONE who did not consider Richard Adams' presented text ingenious, not to mention that according to my English teacher, those of us not enamoured of anthropomorphic "classics" such as Watership Down (and also The Wind in the Willows) just had no reading taste, had no understanding of literature and were of course also much much too juvenile to make any intelligent comments regarding Watershed Down and Richard Adams' presented tale of anthropomorphic rabbits anyhow, something that definitely made me see the proverbial red (after basically being rather openly and loudly talked down to and humiliated in front of the entire class).

Thus and of course, I very much and deliberately handed in a quite negatively penned book report about Watership Down, which although I think pretty clearly pointed out what I did not enjoy about Richard Adams' story (the anthropomorphism, the general pacing, the fact that I found the rabbits indistinguishable and rather creepy in and of themselves) garnered me an embarrassing fifty percent mark, a rather nasty tongue lashing from my parents and certainly also my own personal vow that if I were ever to teach a literature class or course, not only would I accept that my students DO NOT AT ALL have to like the same novels I enjoy, but also, that if my students were able to distinctly point out and back up what they did not like in a given piece of writing, I would both readily and without any reservations whatsoever totally accept this (and yes, even if I myself might not be in agreement).

And well, upon finally trying to reread Watership Down after more than forty years, while Richard Adams' writing style definitely is often spectacular and that there are many instances of descriptive brilliance to be encountered, sorry, but with regard to thematics and contents, with regard to Watership Down being a story of talking and acting, behaving very much like human beings rabbits, sorry, but I still absolutely do not at all find Watership Down to my reading tastes, I still think that Watership Down is draggingly painfully tedious, and I still consider ALL of the rabbit characters as textually creepy and majorly weird (and indeed, my two star rating is actually pretty generous on my part and basically just a rather grudging acknowledgement that Richard Adams was in fact a very talented and decent writer stylistics and narration wise). ...more

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Jun 16, 2019 Laurene rated it really liked it

Being the third time I have read this novel, loved it then and love it now!

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Sep 03, 2011 Lydia rated it really liked it

This book ended up being great. It captured my attention, and I didn't want the story to end. I feel deprived that I somehow missed this is high school literature, and I'm happy to have had it recommended recently by a couple of people. It was well worth the read, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to read an engrossing story of heroism, triumph, and adventure. Here's to Hazel, Fiver, and most of all BigWig. ...more

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