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Watership Down (Watership Down, #1)

Richard Adams

Start date: April 15, 2015

Finish date: May 14, 2015

Discussion: Group Reads

Why we're reading this: It's on the NPR Top 100 Sci-Fi Fantasy Books list…more
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What Members Thought

Mar 08, 2016 Jason rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own

An epic adventure through the eyes of clever, proper English rabbits.

This tale is heart-warming and tensely suspenseful. The lives of rabbits are full of dangers and the author, Richard Adams, explores each of these plus a few more than would be properly expected as he follows a group of rabbits on a quest to find their own place in their world and then to protect it.

Adams manages a Herculean task quite deftly: writing a story around anthropomorphized animals without ever taking away their ani An epic adventure through the eyes of clever, proper English rabbits.

This tale is heart-warming and tensely suspenseful. The lives of rabbits are full of dangers and the author, Richard Adams, explores each of these plus a few more than would be properly expected as he follows a group of rabbits on a quest to find their own place in their world and then to protect it.

Adams manages a Herculean task quite deftly: writing a story around anthropomorphized animals without ever taking away their animality, nor for that matter, ever failing to inspire us readers to the best parts of our humanity. There is a unrelenting respect shown to animals and their nature while allowing us human interlopers to get into their beady-eyed little heads; it's a fine line that Adams successfully walks. There are obviously many divergences from natural behavior, but never to the point that you picture a waist-coated cartoon, great pains are taken to assure that a wild rabbit is always the image portrayed and perceived.

Our wild rabbits take us on a beautiful quest (and this right after I commented on another book that I am not a fan of 'quest-novels'), rich in excitement from the very beginning when a group of rabbits flee the only home they have known to establish their own warren elsewhere. Along the way, each place these rabbits come to brings them face-to-face with new challenges and different ways of living that continuously begs the question, "How much freedom will a populace be willing to give up in the name of security and/or comfort?" - an appropriate question to ponder in our own lives. Our crew eventually settle on a place to call home, but then have to risk their lives again in order to ensure the a peaceful future for the warren.

The motley cast of characters are fairly fleshed out for a novel that is meant for a younger audience. There is also a decent amount of menace and light-gore here which I found unexpected, but appropriate. I loved the intermittent oral myths about the rabbit demi-god, El-ahrairah, that were reminiscent of Brier Rabbit, as is even mentioned near the beginning of the book. And let's not forget the Lapine language that sprinkles the text with rabbit words for things that are often explicitly defined, but at other times left satisfyingly vague. All these things come together to form a book that should be taken more seriously than one might at first think. I do wish I had read it at an earlier age, but I am very happy to have finally given it the time it so rightfully deserves. ...more

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Apr 15, 2014 Valerie rated it liked it

Shelves: z-2014sffchallenge, sf-f-bookclub, swordandlaser, readinglistbookclub

This was a charming little rabbit adventure. Once again, I suspect that had I read this in my youth, it would have been a fast favorite.

Having read it as an adult, it was a fun story but I lack the innocence necessary to truly appreciate the charm.

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Jan 20, 2015 Courtney rated it it was amazing

Shelves: made-into-movies-or-tv, for-my-future-children, audio-books, read-classics, 2015-classics-challenge

Definitely an interesting read. It is a book about rabbit with rabbit problems but it is completely relatable. Several times I was on the edge of my seat. It is an allegory based on Adam's experiences and friends from WW2. Unlike "Animal Farm", you can read the story without being bogged down by the metaphors. More of a read for middle school students or older. I really appreciated that the rabbits had their own language, mythology, and societal rules.

One warning, this book is driven by male ch ...more

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