Watership Down

Anyone who can read English should read this book! It is one of (if not) my favorite books ever.

Brief history--Richard Adams is (still alive and writing) a British author. He began Watership Down as a story for his two daughters. They liked it so much they persuaded him to publish it. Two years of writing and thirteen rejections later, he got it published. Watership Down won bunches of awards, became a "modern classic", and, to this date, has sold over 50 million copies worldwide.

If you want to be persuaded to read it, check out this book review I wrote for my literature class this year. The italics are the summary and spoilers.

Watership Down
When a story’s main characters are animal, most people will automatically dismiss such a story, and they are even more likely to object to a novel about rabbits, those weak and annoying creatures. But if people dismiss Richard Adam’s Watership Down on the notion that animals make bad protagonists, they will be sorry. Watership Down is a complex novel whose animal heroes only augment this story of survival.

Watership Down is a series of connected adventures that form a single journey to find “home”. Along the way, each rabbit finds his place in the world-- as leader, prophet, muscle, problem-solver, or another calling. The story is rich in detail but not over wordy. Adams goes to great pains to accurately describe the rabbit’s world from meadow to marsh to mellow sunset. Using rural Berkshire, England, which is where he grew up, as the back drop, Adams creates an entirely new world and thrusts his readers into it. The rabbits are truly animal, with no clothing, prepared food, or walking upright. They are rabbit in very way, but Adams gives his readers insight to their fears and trials and even their language and mythology. The places they visit are real; Nuthanger Farm and Watership Down actually exist in our world. But by using a human’s known world Adams makes his story that much more believable and engaging. And though the novel is long, it is never once boring. For the true joy of reading a story is in the journey, not the ending.

((In part one of Watership Down, the searching rabbits find their place in life. It begins one day in May at Sandleford Warren, which is a nice enough warren. A rabbit named Fiver gets a feeling of impending doom on the warren. He tells his best friend, Hazel, but few beside Hazel will listen to him. Regardless of resistance from the warren, they convince several other male rabbits and leave.

The hlessil, the lapine word for “homeless rabbits“, are immediately faced with trials, and from these trials emerge their callings. When the rabbits cannot cross a stream, Blackberry solves the dangerous problem by floating them across on a piece of wood. Bigwig, now a former member of Sandleford’s military class, keeps the group safe from elil, which is lapine for “enemies”. When the rabbits are frightened and unable to sleep, Dandelion tells them a story of El-ahrairah, who is the “Prince with a Thousand Enemies”. El-ahrairah is the father of all rabbits, renown for his clever tricks and dealings with the Rainbow Prince and sun god, Frith. Hazel has doubts about his own leadership skills, but, when the rabbits are trapped in a misty heather field and exposed to elil, he quells his fear and leads them to safety.

Days after leaving Sandleford, the rabbits find a different warren, but something is strange about it. Fiver predicts a terrible ending if they stay there and refuses to go inside the warren. This fear is soon confirmed when Bigwig gets caught in a snare and barely survives. The rabbits leave, taking another named Strawberry with them, and no one ever again questions Fiver’s intuition.

Part two is the finding of Watership Down. It is the perfect place for a warren and well worth all the rabbits’ trouble to find it. But not long after finding it, the rabbits are confronted with their past. Two rabbits from Sandleford, Bluebell and Holly, come to Watership Down, sick with delusion. Once they recover, they tell everyone that the humans destroyed Sandleford and that they are the only survivors. To add to their depression, Hazel points out that they have no does. No does means no kittens and no future for their new warren.

But where are they to find any does? The answer comes in the form of an injured black-headed sea gull named Kehaar. At Hazel’s urging, they save the wounded bird and befriend him. Kehaar later helps his friends by flying out and reporting that a near-by farm has some hutched rabbits and that further away is a over-crowded warren with plenty of does. Holly immediately sets off to the warren with three other rabbits.

Left behind, Hazel feels jealous of Holly and anxious for another adventure. He and the others raid Nuthanger Farm, but it ends badly. They only free three rabbits, and, while saving Dandelion and another rabbit from the angry farmer, Hazel is shot in the leg and left behind. Part two nearly ends in misery. Holly’s group returns, ill and empty-handed. But even as Holly unfolds his gruesome story, Fiver gives them hope. Following a dream, he finds Hazel and brings him back to Watership Down.

Efrafa is the name of the far off warren. It is a dark place, and Holly shudders with remembrance. Efrafa is ruled by General Woundwort, a huge rabbit not afraid to kill his own kind. It is a rabbit’s facism, complete with poverty and military rule. Hazel knows that they must return there and persuade some of the does to come with them. Leaving Holly as Chief Rabbit at Watership Down, Hazel leads the other rabbits back to Efrafa.

There is no battle to take Efrafa. Instead, Bigwig is sent inside and infiltrates the Owsla, the ruling military circle. He learns the feeding schedule and befriends several does and a rabbit condemned for treason named Blackavar. After several long nights and one serious delay, Bigwig and his new friends make their escape. Bigwig attacks the sentries, and then he and the others run. But it isn’t long before General Woundwort finds out. Picking his best Owsla members, he comes after the escapees.

Aided by a thunderstorm, the rabbits run across an open field to reach Hazel and the others. The General though, is too good of a tracker and is soon upon them. Just as the two groups are about to fight, Kehaar appears and dives onto General Woundwort. This buys Bigwig enough time to get the rabbits to Hazel and company, who are waiting up at the mouth of the river. Once they reach the river, Blackberry’s plan to use the boat they have found is put into motion. Everyone gets into the boat, Hazel chews apart the rope, and they all sail away, leaving General Woundwort dumbfounded.

Part four finds the rabbits and their does coming home. You might think that the story would end there, with everyone happy and safe, but Adams is not done yet. General Woundwort is out for revenge. He comes to Watership Down with more than twenty Owsla, ready to take the warren and taste Bigwig’s blood. Hazel is warned of their coming by a mouse whom he saved from a kestrel. He orders the warren’s runs to be closed up, and then they all wait as Woundwort tries to dig them out.

There is only one way to save Watership Down, and Hazel knows it. There is a dog at Nuthanger Farm; he saw it while on the raid. Taking Blackberry and Dandelion, he slips pass the Efrafains and goes to the farm. But Hazel will have nothing but bad experiences with this farm. As the dog gets loose and chases the other rabbits back to Watership Down, he falls off the doghouse and is caught by a cat. Meanwhile, Bigwig is fighting General Woundwort. He is the last line of defense for the other members of Watership Down, and he stands his ground against the vicious general. Just as Bigwig pushes back the attack, the dog arrives from the farm, scattering the Efrafains and killing General Woundwort.

But what happens to Hazel? He is rescued from the cat by a girl named Lucy. She shows the frightened rabbit to a doctor, who is conspicuously named “Doctor Adams”. Adams says she cannot keep a wild thing caged, and they release Hazel near Watership Down.

The story ends with the warren full of happy rabbits and healthy kittens, who are always ready to hear a story from the scarred but energetic Bigwig. In a peacekeeping mission, a warren between Watership Down and Efrafa is established with rabbits from both sides. And finally, one March day in the epilogue, an elderly Hazel is visited by El-ahrairah, who asks if Hazel if he would like to join his Owsla. Hazel agrees, “and together, they slipped away, running easily down through the wood, where the first primroses were beginning to bloom”.))

Watership Down is a complex and enthralling novel. Many events inside the story may be taken as allegory, but Adams himself said “I should be very sorry if people tried to read deeper meanings into (the story)”. Adams’s storytelling is as rich and wonderful as the world he creates. Each chapter begins with an epigraph, some taken from the Bible, Shakespeare, or Greek writings. Adams occasionally breaks the fourth wall and directly addresses his readers, creating a personal relationship with each and every reader. He both quotes from and refers to R.M. Lockley’s The Private Life of a Rabbit in his story, letting the reader know his influences. Everything he does draws the reader deeper into the story, but nothing is more wonderful than his rabbit heroes. They are the heart of the story, and the reason why Watership Down is so amazing.

Well, hopefully you'll read and enjoy this story as much as I did!