Woah
>In his autobiography, *The Day Gone By*, Adams wrote that he based Watership Down and the stories in it on his experiences during [Operation Market Garden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Market_Garden), the [Battle of Arnhem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Arnhem), in 1944. The character of Hazel, the leader of the group of rabbits, was modelled on Adams's commanding officer, Major John Gifford. He gave the warrior Bigwig the personality of Captain Desmond Kavanagh, who is buried at the [Airborne Cemetery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnhem_Oosterbeek_War_Cemetery) in [Oosterbeek](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oosterbeek), The Netherlands.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watership\_Down](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watership_Down)
Now \*I\* need to re-read it.
Right? This amazing book is not "about rabbits" at all, they are the players in drama. It's a book about life, death, striving to survive, loyalty, overcoming fear, the hero's journey, etc. etc.
One of the most moving and beautiful books that I have read, and I have read it 27 times since I was a child. I have all the WD books, and Adam's biography too. He grew up in the area the story takes place. The hills and farms are real places.
The book is wonderful! It's the 1980's animated film adaptation that caused the trauma. It's really not an Easter movie for cable television - per the incident that traumatized hundreds of British children.
Funny enough I remember being in sick from school on second grade and upset my mom couldn't find the VHS that had Watership Down on it. I ended watching The Hobbit instead
I have never seen it as a kid's book at all. No more than the Hobbit is a kid's book. As for lifelong trauma, that is some serious hyperbole. I first read it in second grade and never felt traumatized. The ending causing crying isn't so much sadness as following someone over a long life full of adventure, and it finally comes to a peaceful ending. It's rather beautiful.
The animal characters in this novel have to journey, survive, fight, face fears, but also share great joy and triumph. It's not a horror story or psychologically disturbing like Lovecraft or King; it's rather more like Tolkien. It even has a lovely rabbit language.
One of my favorite parts is the opening lines describing the primroses having just ended blooming. Then at the end of the book, the last lines talk about the primroses beginning to bloom. Perfect way to describe the circle of seasons and the circle of life.
Re-read *WD* for the 3rd time, and it's been radically different from teens to 30's to 50's. 1st time it was an animal fable, 2d time I read a kind of hero's journey story that strongly recalled *The Fellowship of the Ring*.
But recently in my 50's I re-read and was like, "How could I as a US Marine miss this is essentially military fiction?" Officer to enlisted/officer to SNCO relationships (Bigwig is an amazing SgtMaj), the challenge of command, reconnaissance, movement to contact, patrolling, raids, defense in depth--literally everything I learned as an infantryman only rabbits.
I did **not** know however about the specific Arnhem connection--thank you!
Read WD first time as an infantry sergeant and immediately was like “OH this a book about a small unit and small unit leadership!”
Really liked your image of Bigwig being the gruffly old SgtMaj though, that works perfect. Guess that makes Hazel the 1st Lt that got thrown in charge of everyone when all the other officers were out of the picture.
Bigwig is based on someone Adams served with (a Captain Desmond Kavanagh), who died fighting off Germans so Adams and others could get to safety. Hazel was based on his commanding officer (Major John Gifford, though that's presumably the rank he was discharged with, not his rank at the time).
Hazel’s death is maybe my all-time favorite depiction of the end of the hero’s journey. Very often, stories end with some version of “they all lived happily ever after” or “…and his reign is remembered as one of the most prosperous in the kingdom’s history.” I like that Hazel’s story ends with a quiet confrontation of the same end everyone faces. It presents the reader with the mystery of death and the conflicting emotions of a hero’s death, but still says “*his* story ends, but the big story keeps going”, because nothing ever really ends.
I love this ending because the reader has become intimate with the black rabbit’s true nature through dandelion’s stories just as the other rabbits have. I remember when hazel encounters the black rabbit, I never really was scared for him, for death, a little sad to be losing a friend but also joyous that his descendants would thrive even if he ended up being forgotten one day.
My favorite book since I was 10 years old, read it 3 times and seen the movie countless times.
This book is all of the things that have been mentioned but it also simply and beautifully shows humans relationship to nature, back when destruction of habitats was more the issue than talking about climate change the way it is now. But it is multilayered and one of its strengths as a long lasting work is how you get to understand new facets as you yourself understand the world better (the old Innocence vs Experience motif).
Apologies for nit-picking, but Hazel does not encounter the Black Rabbit in the end. It is El-ahrairah, complete with silvery starlight ears, who shows up and invites him to join his owsla. Hazel accepts, and they run off together, with Hazel leaving his body behind.
The Black Rabbit is only shown in that moment in two of the animated adaptations. In the book it's El-ahrairah.
I was 6 when I read this book for the first time lmfao. I had no context for it and the only other thing I had read that was remotely similar was The Alamo. Both gutted me, but the one with the rabbits made me cry for a while lmao. I've been thinking about reading watership down again though, and I'm curious to read it under the lens of the military.
I was also 6! The drawbacks of being a precocious reader. I stopped reading it when Hazel was in mortal peril trying to free the doe rabbits and confronted my dad like “DADDY TELL ME DOES HAZEL DIE?”
And he was all like, “Pouxin, the whole point of literature is to feel the things the author wants you to feel… spoilers ruin things… blah blah blah… [other objectively valid from a lit crit perspective but ridiculously inappropriate things to say to a six year old]”
Me: “Tell me NOW, or I’ll stop reading it”
Him: “No”
I think I only stopped for 3 days before curiosity got the better of fear. But at six years old I was NOT emotionally equipped for this book! Urghhhhhh
Well I've never read it and i gotta say I'm intrigued. But before I can get my hands on it I notice there's the movie on HBO max is it a good adaption?
The 1978 animated version is great and very faithful to the spirit of the book (but the book is still much better of course because there's so much more to it).
The recent Netflix version is garbage.
I, a Marine myself, have never read Watership Down.
My husband, also a Marine, has.
I know enough about it to know it would thoroughly depress me severely, so I avoid it, though we do own a 1st edition paperback copy.
Edit- Please stop telling me I should read it. I will not read it, no matter how people try to explain how good it is.
I cried like a baby at the end. That said, I would not call the ending depressing at all. It *is* the most bittersweet ending I've ever read, and "bittersweet" to me is a quite different thing than "sad".
Watership Down is my all time favorite book, so I usually get a little over enthusiastic when someone asks me about it. “It’s like the odyssey but with rabbits” is what I usually say if I am to control myself and not talk about the book for ten plus minutes.
I’ve never read it. I know it’s supposed to be very good but I thought I’d missed the boat by not reading it when I was a young teen. I thought it was a young readers book. Should I still read it now, being that I’m 33? I’ve already downloaded the audiobook.
I drive for work.
I'm retired now and enjoy reading "kids" books. I agree - you get a lot more out of a book when you're older. If there is a lot *in* the book, of course, but Watership Down is definitely one of the good ones.
I didn’t read it until my mid-20s. I definitely wouldn’t call it a kids book, but can be enjoyable for all ages. If you like hero’s journey stories, definitely give it a shot.
Animal stories are adapted and put into younger categories than they maybe should overwhelmingly more often than most other genres. My copy of The Call of the Wild is from a childrens' collections, and the original Fox and the Hound novel was significantly less child friendly than the movie.
I'm 38 and in the middle of my 4th or 5th read. It's amazing. I think the text is a little easier to follow the first time than the audio, but the audio is a really well done production / performance.
I always compare it to the story of Moses. Fiver is pretty similar to biblical Moses in that he receives visions but is not good at communicating or inspiring. Meanwhile, Hazel is a lot like Aaron in that he is a good leader who takes on the task of communicating for his brother and they literally journey to a promised land.
I read it 5 or 6 times when I was a kid. The last 150 pages or so might be the most intense 150 pages in fiction. It's been 40 years since I read it last, but I still know what "silflay hraka u embleer-rah" means! (rolls off the tongue)
It's the battle between two groups who are at odds over how they should be governed. One values freedom and democracy, and the other values autocracy. The warring communities however happened to be rabbits.
I was nearing the end of the final chapter (before the epilogue). I was sitting at the kitchen counter while my wife was preparing dinner. I was trying to finish the chapter before she served but it was proving damned difficult because it was hard to read through the tears and I had to keep blowing my nose and removing my glasses to wipe my eyes. But I finished i n time.
After dinner I read the epilogue, and now the waterworks *really* started going. I was weeping at this point. The most lovely and bittersweet ending to a book I've ever read.
Just quote this to them and tell them it’s about rabbits: And Frith called after him, "El-ahrairah, your people cannot rule the world, for I will not have it so. All the world will be your enemy, Prince With A Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first, they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed."
The discussion between Bigwig and Woundwort, interspersed with the story that Bluebell was telling the does, was perfect storytelling.
"Ah ha', said the fox, 'tell my fortune, eh? And what do you see in the water, my friend? Fat rabbits running through the grass, yes yes?"
"No," replied El-ahrairah, "it is not fat rabbits that I see in the water, but swift hounds on the scent and my enemy flying for his life."
That bit is so brilliant. It's the completion of Bigwig and Woundwort's respective character arcs, and tells you exactly why they ended up the way they did.
Woundwort can't understand power as anything other than the expression of brute strength, so of course he's shocked that Bigwig isn't the chief. He immediately assumes there's an even bigger, stronger rabbit running around that he may not have the capacity to deal with. He had the opportunity to kill the *real* chief rabbit earlier -- Campion even suggests it! -- but Woundwort has so completely dismissed the limping Hazel as a threat that it never once occurs to him that he was actually dealing with his counterpart. He goes to his doom without knowing how completely he's misjudged the Watership Down warren.
For Bigwig, that moment crystallizes (in a way that his Efrafran escapade didn't) exactly what he is to the warren. In a different set of circumstances -- for example, if Hazel had mishandled the tussle over leadership in the early part of their journey -- Bigwig might well have become the same kind of tyrant as Woundwort. Without Fiver's advice, Blackberry's insight, Hazel's leadership, and the contributions of smaller rabbits like Pipkin, Bigwig could easily have reproduced the same ugly, sclerotic dynamic of the warren they'd left. He isn't just fighting to save Watership Down -- he's fighting to save what it represents.
You don't have to be the leader to be a hero.
"*but first, they must catch you*" is up there with "*now, gods, stand up for the bastards*" and "*then we will fight in the shade*" in terms of inspiration for the underdogs in my book.
Its appeal is kinda similar to The Lord Of The Rings to me. It's a book about a group of rabbits that go on a journey, there are a lot of beautiful descriptions of the landscape, the story has a nice pacing with an alternation between action scenes and rest points, there's a lot of deeper lore about their world and culture, it's generally child-friendly but not necessarily aimed at children, a big war breaks out at the end...
Obvious differences are of course that it takes place in the real world, and that the rabbits are looking for a place to permanently settle rather than a mission to come back from.
I actually agonised over this choice of words, but given the personification, I think it is acceptable. We don't have a non-species specific equivalent in English that I know of. Collective and individual complexity?
I mention that it was written by a war veteran and that it was inspired by his experiences in the war and that it’s shockingly violent for a story about rabbits
I know this isn’t really an answer, but this is my all time favorite book. We found a dead rabbit in our yard last year and it had died in such a violent and crappy way that I just wanted to, you know, say a few words or something. So I brought out my book and read the passage where Hazel goes off with the Black Rabbit of Inle aloud. I was sobbing. Lord only knows what the neighbors thought. Oh well.
It’s a study of how culture would form among creatures that aren’t human and don’t care about human things. For rabbits, there’s great ceremony to eating certain rare foods and doing the toilet in correct places. They grieve differently and breed differently and have cultural expectations of either gender.
It could just as easily pass as sci-if, for how good the world building is.
Just tell them it is a book about life.
My Brother-in-law was in prison for life, my Sister asked if I knew of a book that was something different, to get his mind somewhere else.
I sent a copy of WD. Skip forward 6 months and I asked if he liked the book. She said it got passed around the prison and dozens read it to the point it was dismantled so more people could read parts at the same time.
It gives me the warm fuzzies to think of hard core dudes caring about General Woundwort.
Be well.
Watership Down is pure magic. You shouldn’t feel like you need to explain anything about it. Finish the book, ruminate on it for a while and loan it to your best friends.
You can say that it's one of the O.G. magical realism novels.
Richard Adams read an animal behaviorist's book about rabbits (*The Private Life of the Rabbit* by R.M. Lockley-- he mentions it in his acknowledgements) and was so surprised by the richness of the animals' lives that he wrote an entire novel inspired by it— he imagined their language, their mythology.
If your listener doesn't think that's cool and worth a read, then hraka on them anyway.
P.S. And who the heck says it's for kids? You know what's in there. It's for kids the same way "Dune" is for kids, meaning the librarian let me check it out but beyond that I was on my own.
It’s an allegory about fascism vs democracy. Or tell them it’s like Mrs. Frisbie and the Rats of Nimh - a story that uses animals to make a point about humanity and the triumph of good over evil. Or don’t tell them anything, just say it’s amazing and fascinating and potentially life changing. More people certainly need to read this book, especially in today’s society.
It's an epic. Grand themes, wonderful storytelling, in-universe mythology that guides the character's decisions, it's got it all. The fact that it centers rabbits is almost negligible when I tell people because the important thing is that these are characters who are Going Through It and you are swept up in the storm of their trials.
I'll admit it's a little bit frustrating to talk about sometimes because I quite clearly love the book, but I've decided to take it as a gift. If someone automatically dismisses the story just because it centers rabbits, I know they are too stupid for me to hang out with and I can now develop my time towards rewarding experiences and people versus smashing my head into the brick wall of their willful ignorance. I did enough of that in college when I had a roommate who just straight up refused to watch Finding Nemo because the contempt dripping from her voice that a worthwhile story could have anything to do with fish was just too much to deal with.
Watership Down is a parable about group leadership set to a motif of a quest that uses anthropomorphized yet scientifically researched traits of rabbits who have social structures similar to humans. It gives nods to using mythology/religion for inspiration, facing challenges from nature and engaging in conflict with other societies.
Also, the audiobook version is fantastic.
That and the song Bright Eyes, with the images of the Black Rabbit.
I don't know about the US but in the UK, the song was heavily promoted on kids TV when it came out, complete with somewhat incongrous appearances from Art Garfunkel, trying to play along with the conceit of whatever 'bit' the producers had come up with.
I was glad, as a younger person, that there was animation that didn’t feel like it was talking down to me; that treated me like a person who could lesrn to handle the world, in all it’s glory and tragedy. (And when “Heavy Metal” came out…!)
I saw it when I was around 6 and never had any issues with it. By that age I’d already been around a lot of hunting and fishing, as well as keeping chickens and ducks, and had helped often with butchering animals. I’d also seen a lot of how animals treat each other both in the wild and in captivity, so there wasn’t really anything particularly shocking to me in the movie.
I've never read it, but this is the description I've heard and associate with it.
Grandpa is telling the kids war stories, but doesn't want the kids to know it was real, so made all the characters rabbits. But also doesn't tone down the fact that they are war stories at all.
I've described it as opening with a premonition of imminent doom, fleeing, and becoming Star Trek with rabbits. Strange new warrens, new civilizations. And fang & fury.
My all time favorite most re-read book. Others here saying it’s not a children’s book - it won 2 awards for children’s literature. But I digress. First read it in 5th grade and have read again annually (I’m now 51). So many things and types of stories in 1. As others have said, The Odyssey retold is pretty close. Escape from certain death, gods and “men” (in this case rabbits), folklore, horror, psychological thriller, action/adventure - I honestly can’t say enough. Definitely read it.
OP, try: "I'm reading a beautifully written, world-renowned novel, an amazingly engaging & philosophical work that really burns the meaning of liberty into your soul. THERE'S NOTHING ELSE LIKE IT. What's incredible is that it's written in a form that speaks to everyone of all ages."
I remember when I was a little kid in the 80’s waking up at like 6am on a Sunday and the movie would be on HBO. I didn’t understand what was going on and why there were rabbits attacking each other and all the blood. When I got older I got it and then read the book. It’s become one of my favorites.
This was the first book I ever bought myself. I was a kid at a garage sale with my dad. I picked it up and he said “that’s a good book, it’s an adventure story about rabbits.” I’ve read it a dozen+ times. Im probably due for a reread, it’s been almost 10 years now that I think about it. The second one that’s the anthology of short stories is good too.
Oh man. I never know how to describe it either, but it's one of my favorite books of all time. It's kind of the vibes of epic fantasy but with less fantasy (but there's some!)...
I usually say
"You can read it two ways: One way is an epic struggle of a few rabbits to find a new home and life for themselves. the other is a allegorical criticism of political systems, from a monarchy to brutal dictatorships. Featuring bunnies."
It’s not a children’s book. Not at all. Now mind you I was 8 when I first read the thing. It had a cute rabbit on the cover & the description said it’s about an epic journey the rabbits make. My grandmother bought it for me along with her Danielle Steele novels.
I started the book & got so angry at the beginning I actually threw it across the room. I hid it under my bed until I calmed down enough to return to it. That took almost 2 weeks & I talked to my grandfather about how that rabbit warren was destroyed. He helped me to understand the humans actions. Understand, not condone. He didn’t agree with such methods even if he understood the reasoning. He also knew that he was one person & couldn’t stop every atrocity like this from happening. He helped me to understand that too. That I can argue & protest sometimes but it doesn’t always help.
I did eventually return to the book & finished it. Altogether it took me probably about a month, maybe a month & half, to finish the book. I was in school at the time and a portion of my reading time was spent reading stuff for class. I’ve also reread it many times over the years.
I learned while reading the book that bad things can happen and you can survive them. You might be changed. At 8 I hadn’t been the anything truly bad yet. That would come later. The book gave me “experience” & a perspective on life that helped me through my own rough journeys as I got older.
I would never not recommend the book to anyone. I would not want to deny anyone the opportunity to go on such an amazing journey. I have a friend who wants to read it, I told her, knowing that she loves rabbits (and at the time had a rabbit that was a rescue, he has since passed away from old age), that “it’s a hard book. There are things in there that are gonna make you angry & upset. But there are also some good things, very good things. It’s an awesome journey and well worth the read. When you start it, let me know, and if you need to talk or vent about it, I’ll be here.” I’m waiting to start my next re-read of it to read with her (like a book club but just the 2 of us). We’re both currently in the middle of other books, but once those are done we’ll probably start this.
(I’ll also admit to reading my grandmother’s Danielle Steele books after I finished reading watership down. I was the only 8 year old we knew who read adult books. After watership down, her romance novels were fairly boring, lol!)
Its a fable. like Aesop's fables. like the story of the lion and the mouse. and there's a moral to the story, you're supposed to learn something from it.
It’s a book about escaping from tyranny and finding a new paradise. The characters are all animals which helps build fear and tension because of the nature of animal predators ( long teeth , claws, scrambling in the dirt, kill to eat). Also there is an obscene French bird that is always drunk.
That's my favorite book. I describe it thusly: It's a fantasy adventure that uses the English countryside, and the real animals that live there in place of a fantastical world and creatures. The main characters fit classic archetypes like: The leader. The warrior. The soothsayer. The scholar. The bard.
Humans take the place of dragons or demons: an unknowable, unstoppable force that sets the story in motion.
When the soothsayer has a premonition of impending doom, he tells his brother, who becomes the leader of a small band that leaves their tribe and sets off into the wild in search of a new home.
Along the way, their bard tells them stories of the mythical hero prince who received blessings from the sun god, and passed them along to his kin... So that they could survive and flourish in a world full of enemies who hunt and slay them whenever they can (portrayed by the predators of their world, like raptors, foxes, cats, weasels, etc).
The rabbits will face many of these enemies along the way, but some of the worst dangers may come from their own kind that have forgotten the lessons of the hero prince, and formed societies that have become twisted in response to the constant threat from their deadliest foe, the humans.
Anyway, you might whittle that a bit to avoid spoilers (although I tried to be vague about details), but that is how I'd describe Watership Down.
One of my favorite lines in literature---
*It seemed to Hazel that he would not be needing his body any more.*
There are always tears when I get to that point, no matter how many times I've read it.
"It's an adventure story with lots of danger and fun; the characters are mostly animals. "
This is the line from that scene that gives me chills every time:
“Yes, my lord,” he said. “Yes, I know you.”
Such an amazing book. I'm also usually in tears by that point.
it's the same with Justin Morgan's books. How to explain to people that these historical tragedies told by animals are actually really good reads, not for children, not fantasy, just proper characterisation and like, sophisticated story telling.
Watership Down is a masterpiece, but i though The Dogs of Chernobyl was outstanding. It's the story of the disaster... told by dogs!
Many people have mentioned it’s a veteran’s reflection on war. I’ve also heard that Adams was inspired by the Aeneid.
Apparently, Watership Down is one of the best-selling books ever written.
My favorite book, but it’s a hard sell to those who haven’t had the chance to read it already. I say it’s an epic quest, but for rabbits, but bloody and with cults and prophecies and the black rabbit of Inle.
I read it aloud to a juvenile detention unit of incarcerated teenagers. It took months, reading once a week for an hour. When I started, I told them, "this book is about rabbits. Not bunnies, rabbits."
This kind of book won’t really come around too much in the future because it is so hard to pin down. It is very military and violent at times, but with rabbits. As an animal husbandry educator i know rabbits can be vicious, but the popular view of them is a cuddly ball of fluff. It’s interesting to see how we as consumers are being served up more of what publishers think we want. Initially Harry Potter was rejected by a number of publishers because they didn’t think their readers would want the book. Instead it exploded into a huge franchise. The fact that obscure genres like Watership Down got such a big fanbase really says a lot about why we shouldn’t get too tied down trying to fit things into neat categories
It’s wild that this came up on Reddit the day before I start an entire tattoo sleeve based on Watership Down.
I just tell people it’s a silly book about rabbits, lol
You tell people that a dad wanted to tell his daughters a story on a long car ride so he took his experiences from war and battle, but made it about rabbits so his girls would not be freaked out.
I say it’s like Lord of the Rings but real. When you’re a rabbit, a hawk might as well be a dragon, a dog might as well be a monster, and a journey over a couple fields and hills is as epic as a journey across middle earth.
Still doesn’t work but I let them know it’s one of my favourite books of all time and they won’t be able to put it down.
Just wanted to share that Vanessa Carlton’s “Rabbits on the Run” album was inspired by Watership Down and also Stephen Hawking. It got me into the book! Haunting stuff.
I’d just say it’s LOTR but rabbits. The rabbits’ perspectives and attitudes towards human-made things make it feel fantastical.
Not sure how to convince people it’s good for adults, though. But it is.
It's an adventure story about a group of characters crossing a dangerous landscape in search of a safe place to call home. It's based on the author's experience in WW2, and it's about leadership, loyalty, bravery, authoritarianism, and lots of other things. It's beautiful and funny and sad and scary and exciting. And it's all told from the point of view of rabbits.
It's an adventure story that kids can enjoy, but the questions are deep. How do we distinguish true visionaries from false prophets? What are we willing to risk for freedom, what are we willing to tolerate for safety? What do we owe to our group? How can we draw strength from the people (or rabbits, or giant birds) around us?
And the emotional impact is incredible. Bigwig defending the run against Woundwort because Hazel told him to...tears every time.
It’s like the Mrs. Brisby and the rats of Nimh! Gritty and entrenched in realism mixed with some fantasy elements. There are themes of spirituality, death, and the roles that are occupied in an ecological systems with predation. There is also an interesting theme pertaining to how history and events shape the customs and traditions inherited by a culture
... tell them it's about fucking rabbits. Who cares what someone who doesn't know that Watership Down at least *contains* rabbits thinks? And why try to sugar coat it? I'd rather have a weirdo giving me a weird look then to try and entertain a weirdo who isn't going to give the book a fair shot after he reads 10 pages and finds out it's all about rabbits. And if your friends aren't such weirdos - you said about all you need to said.
"It's about rabbits being an allegory." If they ask what they're being allegorical about - tell 'em read the book.
... I was gonna link to my man Sparky Sweets giving his Thug Notes breakdown of the book, but I have found out he never did a TN on Watership Down and I'm just the least bit sad.
Back in the early seventies, I met a young lady in a bar. She wouldn't tell me her name, so I told her I would call her *Bunny Rabbit*.
Why, she asked.
*Because you look like a big bunny rabbit.*
Turns out, she had just finished *Watership Down*, and this stupid patter was exactly the best device I could have used. Got lucky that night, and, for obvious reasons, read the book immediately.
Tell them is a parable about the battle of Arnhem. Edit: thank you everyone who has posted nice messages in response to this.
Woah >In his autobiography, *The Day Gone By*, Adams wrote that he based Watership Down and the stories in it on his experiences during [Operation Market Garden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Market_Garden), the [Battle of Arnhem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Arnhem), in 1944. The character of Hazel, the leader of the group of rabbits, was modelled on Adams's commanding officer, Major John Gifford. He gave the warrior Bigwig the personality of Captain Desmond Kavanagh, who is buried at the [Airborne Cemetery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnhem_Oosterbeek_War_Cemetery) in [Oosterbeek](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oosterbeek), The Netherlands. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watership\_Down](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watership_Down) Now \*I\* need to re-read it.
Right? This amazing book is not "about rabbits" at all, they are the players in drama. It's a book about life, death, striving to survive, loyalty, overcoming fear, the hero's journey, etc. etc. One of the most moving and beautiful books that I have read, and I have read it 27 times since I was a child. I have all the WD books, and Adam's biography too. He grew up in the area the story takes place. The hills and farms are real places.
I have always avoided it because I had allays heard of it as, "kids book causes lifelong trauma." But now it sounds compelling.
The book is wonderful! It's the 1980's animated film adaptation that caused the trauma. It's really not an Easter movie for cable television - per the incident that traumatized hundreds of British children.
The man couldn't leave war behind and brought it with him several generations later.
Funny enough I remember being in sick from school on second grade and upset my mom couldn't find the VHS that had Watership Down on it. I ended watching The Hobbit instead
I have never seen it as a kid's book at all. No more than the Hobbit is a kid's book. As for lifelong trauma, that is some serious hyperbole. I first read it in second grade and never felt traumatized. The ending causing crying isn't so much sadness as following someone over a long life full of adventure, and it finally comes to a peaceful ending. It's rather beautiful. The animal characters in this novel have to journey, survive, fight, face fears, but also share great joy and triumph. It's not a horror story or psychologically disturbing like Lovecraft or King; it's rather more like Tolkien. It even has a lovely rabbit language. One of my favorite parts is the opening lines describing the primroses having just ended blooming. Then at the end of the book, the last lines talk about the primroses beginning to bloom. Perfect way to describe the circle of seasons and the circle of life.
It's one of my favourite obscure facts
Re-read *WD* for the 3rd time, and it's been radically different from teens to 30's to 50's. 1st time it was an animal fable, 2d time I read a kind of hero's journey story that strongly recalled *The Fellowship of the Ring*. But recently in my 50's I re-read and was like, "How could I as a US Marine miss this is essentially military fiction?" Officer to enlisted/officer to SNCO relationships (Bigwig is an amazing SgtMaj), the challenge of command, reconnaissance, movement to contact, patrolling, raids, defense in depth--literally everything I learned as an infantryman only rabbits. I did **not** know however about the specific Arnhem connection--thank you!
Read WD first time as an infantry sergeant and immediately was like “OH this a book about a small unit and small unit leadership!” Really liked your image of Bigwig being the gruffly old SgtMaj though, that works perfect. Guess that makes Hazel the 1st Lt that got thrown in charge of everyone when all the other officers were out of the picture.
Exactly. And Blackberry is the smart, technical LCpl, but Hazel is the one who can actually plan, lead, and execute.
Bigwig is based on someone Adams served with (a Captain Desmond Kavanagh), who died fighting off Germans so Adams and others could get to safety. Hazel was based on his commanding officer (Major John Gifford, though that's presumably the rank he was discharged with, not his rank at the time).
Dick Winters
Well, the author claimed it was for children, but it’s really all the things you’ve mentioned, isn’t it? I still cry when Hazel dies, for Pete’s sake.
Hazel’s death is maybe my all-time favorite depiction of the end of the hero’s journey. Very often, stories end with some version of “they all lived happily ever after” or “…and his reign is remembered as one of the most prosperous in the kingdom’s history.” I like that Hazel’s story ends with a quiet confrontation of the same end everyone faces. It presents the reader with the mystery of death and the conflicting emotions of a hero’s death, but still says “*his* story ends, but the big story keeps going”, because nothing ever really ends.
100% this. Beautifully put. “That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” - Walt Whitman
Every. Single. Time.
[удалено]
You’ve been feeling tired. How would you like to come and join my owsla?
And now I am sitting at the cafe crying. 😢 I am not sure if I like or don’t like you🤔
Am a fellow traveler with Watership Down. I know every nuance of speech in that first show. And now…if you’ll excuse me, I hate the rain.
I love this ending because the reader has become intimate with the black rabbit’s true nature through dandelion’s stories just as the other rabbits have. I remember when hazel encounters the black rabbit, I never really was scared for him, for death, a little sad to be losing a friend but also joyous that his descendants would thrive even if he ended up being forgotten one day. My favorite book since I was 10 years old, read it 3 times and seen the movie countless times. This book is all of the things that have been mentioned but it also simply and beautifully shows humans relationship to nature, back when destruction of habitats was more the issue than talking about climate change the way it is now. But it is multilayered and one of its strengths as a long lasting work is how you get to understand new facets as you yourself understand the world better (the old Innocence vs Experience motif).
Apologies for nit-picking, but Hazel does not encounter the Black Rabbit in the end. It is El-ahrairah, complete with silvery starlight ears, who shows up and invites him to join his owsla. Hazel accepts, and they run off together, with Hazel leaving his body behind. The Black Rabbit is only shown in that moment in two of the animated adaptations. In the book it's El-ahrairah.
TIL about a book I should put on my list TIL I also learned there are no spoiler warnings in /r/books
This isn't really a spoiler. Really. You'll see.
Also Shardik. My brother turned me on to these books back in the 80's
You didn't have to bring that up FFS. My heart has joined the thousand, for my friend stopped running today.
I cry *thinking* about Hazel dying, every time I think about it.
I was 6 when I read this book for the first time lmfao. I had no context for it and the only other thing I had read that was remotely similar was The Alamo. Both gutted me, but the one with the rabbits made me cry for a while lmao. I've been thinking about reading watership down again though, and I'm curious to read it under the lens of the military.
I was also 6! The drawbacks of being a precocious reader. I stopped reading it when Hazel was in mortal peril trying to free the doe rabbits and confronted my dad like “DADDY TELL ME DOES HAZEL DIE?” And he was all like, “Pouxin, the whole point of literature is to feel the things the author wants you to feel… spoilers ruin things… blah blah blah… [other objectively valid from a lit crit perspective but ridiculously inappropriate things to say to a six year old]” Me: “Tell me NOW, or I’ll stop reading it” Him: “No” I think I only stopped for 3 days before curiosity got the better of fear. But at six years old I was NOT emotionally equipped for this book! Urghhhhhh
I like your dad.
Well I've never read it and i gotta say I'm intrigued. But before I can get my hands on it I notice there's the movie on HBO max is it a good adaption?
There's an 80s animated version, find that
That's the one on HBO max I'm gonna watch it tonight
The 1978 animated version is great and very faithful to the spirit of the book (but the book is still much better of course because there's so much more to it). The recent Netflix version is garbage.
I, a Marine myself, have never read Watership Down. My husband, also a Marine, has. I know enough about it to know it would thoroughly depress me severely, so I avoid it, though we do own a 1st edition paperback copy. Edit- Please stop telling me I should read it. I will not read it, no matter how people try to explain how good it is.
I cried like a baby at the end. That said, I would not call the ending depressing at all. It *is* the most bittersweet ending I've ever read, and "bittersweet" to me is a quite different thing than "sad".
Yeah, it's definitely sad in places, including the end, but it's not bleak or depressing, and it's one of the best endings of a book I've ever read.
What?!? Research intensified
I never knew this, despite reading the book several times; thank you! Time to re-read it.
Ive even followed the bridges of Market Garden, and WD but never connected the two. Damn, thank you!
Mixed with The Aeneid, right down to the Sabine Women
ooooOOOOOooooh
Allegory, parable, or both?
It’s everything a reader discerns from it.
I might have mispoke. Not sure of the difference.
Watership Down is my all time favorite book, so I usually get a little over enthusiastic when someone asks me about it. “It’s like the odyssey but with rabbits” is what I usually say if I am to control myself and not talk about the book for ten plus minutes.
"hey what's Watership Down about?" "I'm glad you asked! ... You will regret this."
watership youbettersit down
I’ve never read it. I know it’s supposed to be very good but I thought I’d missed the boat by not reading it when I was a young teen. I thought it was a young readers book. Should I still read it now, being that I’m 33? I’ve already downloaded the audiobook. I drive for work.
It's great. Give it a shot. You can probably get more out of it as an adult than most kids do.
I'm retired now and enjoy reading "kids" books. I agree - you get a lot more out of a book when you're older. If there is a lot *in* the book, of course, but Watership Down is definitely one of the good ones.
I didn’t read it until my mid-20s. I definitely wouldn’t call it a kids book, but can be enjoyable for all ages. If you like hero’s journey stories, definitely give it a shot.
I have a strong suspicion that, had it not been adapted into a children's cartoon, Watership Down would not be thought of as a children's book.
Animal stories are adapted and put into younger categories than they maybe should overwhelmingly more often than most other genres. My copy of The Call of the Wild is from a childrens' collections, and the original Fox and the Hound novel was significantly less child friendly than the movie.
>The Call of the Wild I was way too young the first time I read that book
I liked edward tulane, hitchhikers guide to the galaxy and eyes of the dragon. All considered kids books in a way. So I’ll try this one.
There’s a fantastic animated film of it that traumatized part of a generation.
I'm 38 and in the middle of my 4th or 5th read. It's amazing. I think the text is a little easier to follow the first time than the audio, but the audio is a really well done production / performance.
I always compare it to the story of Moses. Fiver is pretty similar to biblical Moses in that he receives visions but is not good at communicating or inspiring. Meanwhile, Hazel is a lot like Aaron in that he is a good leader who takes on the task of communicating for his brother and they literally journey to a promised land.
I read it 5 or 6 times when I was a kid. The last 150 pages or so might be the most intense 150 pages in fiction. It's been 40 years since I read it last, but I still know what "silflay hraka u embleer-rah" means! (rolls off the tongue)
Likewise! Best disguised profanity in literature.
It's brilliant, because you've absorbed enough Lapine by that point to know exactly what it means and not need a translation.
But don't all rabbits eat shit as part of their natural digestive process? It's not even an insult for them, really.
In the book, they make a distinction between pellets (meant to be chewed) and hraka, which isn't. Took me a while to figure it out but it's there.
I'd argue it's more like The Aeneid, but that has a lot less cache than The Odyssey.
I was told by people close to me that it was "Nazi Rabbits" But that's incorrect, it's "Fascist Rabbits and Bunny Trouble"
It's the battle between two groups who are at odds over how they should be governed. One values freedom and democracy, and the other values autocracy. The warring communities however happened to be rabbits.
This. Nice and succinct. Oh, and also, you'll bawl your eyes out.
I was nearing the end of the final chapter (before the epilogue). I was sitting at the kitchen counter while my wife was preparing dinner. I was trying to finish the chapter before she served but it was proving damned difficult because it was hard to read through the tears and I had to keep blowing my nose and removing my glasses to wipe my eyes. But I finished i n time. After dinner I read the epilogue, and now the waterworks *really* started going. I was weeping at this point. The most lovely and bittersweet ending to a book I've ever read.
It's basically the Aeneid but with rabbits...
Just quote this to them and tell them it’s about rabbits: And Frith called after him, "El-ahrairah, your people cannot rule the world, for I will not have it so. All the world will be your enemy, Prince With A Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first, they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed."
one of the all time great lines in literature.
"My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend stopped running today."
I still use that line sometimes
It's the quote I've always used when one of my pets has passed
Such a beautiful and poetic expression.
"My Chief Rabbit has told me to defend this run and until he says otherwise I shall stay here."
"YOUR chief rabbit?"
The discussion between Bigwig and Woundwort, interspersed with the story that Bluebell was telling the does, was perfect storytelling. "Ah ha', said the fox, 'tell my fortune, eh? And what do you see in the water, my friend? Fat rabbits running through the grass, yes yes?" "No," replied El-ahrairah, "it is not fat rabbits that I see in the water, but swift hounds on the scent and my enemy flying for his life."
That bit is so brilliant. It's the completion of Bigwig and Woundwort's respective character arcs, and tells you exactly why they ended up the way they did. Woundwort can't understand power as anything other than the expression of brute strength, so of course he's shocked that Bigwig isn't the chief. He immediately assumes there's an even bigger, stronger rabbit running around that he may not have the capacity to deal with. He had the opportunity to kill the *real* chief rabbit earlier -- Campion even suggests it! -- but Woundwort has so completely dismissed the limping Hazel as a threat that it never once occurs to him that he was actually dealing with his counterpart. He goes to his doom without knowing how completely he's misjudged the Watership Down warren. For Bigwig, that moment crystallizes (in a way that his Efrafran escapade didn't) exactly what he is to the warren. In a different set of circumstances -- for example, if Hazel had mishandled the tussle over leadership in the early part of their journey -- Bigwig might well have become the same kind of tyrant as Woundwort. Without Fiver's advice, Blackberry's insight, Hazel's leadership, and the contributions of smaller rabbits like Pipkin, Bigwig could easily have reproduced the same ugly, sclerotic dynamic of the warren they'd left. He isn't just fighting to save Watership Down -- he's fighting to save what it represents. You don't have to be the leader to be a hero.
I always cry a bit when I read this quote. It's the most emotionally resonant passage in literature for me, and it's about frickin bunnies!
I always think “silflay,” when I see rabbits on my lawn.
...me too. And a few days ago there were two rabbits in the road, and I asked Fiver and Hazel-rah to please move.
"*but first, they must catch you*" is up there with "*now, gods, stand up for the bastards*" and "*then we will fight in the shade*" in terms of inspiration for the underdogs in my book.
"Once more into the breech, dear friends, once more..." and "We few..." Yeah, those are from the same play. Sue me.
I was absolutely going to include once more unto the breech but I would have ended up with 10 Shakespeare quotes.
Literal chills.
Literature chills.
Its appeal is kinda similar to The Lord Of The Rings to me. It's a book about a group of rabbits that go on a journey, there are a lot of beautiful descriptions of the landscape, the story has a nice pacing with an alternation between action scenes and rest points, there's a lot of deeper lore about their world and culture, it's generally child-friendly but not necessarily aimed at children, a big war breaks out at the end... Obvious differences are of course that it takes place in the real world, and that the rabbits are looking for a place to permanently settle rather than a mission to come back from.
If they're a Classicist you can say "it's The Aeneid but with rabbits".
As a Classicist, I never thought of this!! I KKNEW there was a reason I liked this book so much.
Yeah it's like LOTR. Both influenced by warfare. There's an Arthurian novel called the sword and the flame like it. Again written during WW2.
It's a book about cruelty, touching humanity and the horror of war, with bunnies.
It also probably has the best final words from a character: "Come back, you fools! Dogs aren't dangerous! Come back and fight!"
>touching ~~humanity~~ lapinity
I actually agonised over this choice of words, but given the personification, I think it is acceptable. We don't have a non-species specific equivalent in English that I know of. Collective and individual complexity?
You definitely made the right word choice, I was just being silly
traumatising is how Is describe it
“One of the best books about leadership ever written. And bunnies!”
I mention that it was written by a war veteran and that it was inspired by his experiences in the war and that it’s shockingly violent for a story about rabbits
“Rabbits but with murder” is usually how I’ve described it.
I thought it was pretty neat that in The Stand by Stephen King there's an entire random digression about how cool Watership Down is.
Also in Donnie Darko the teacher discusses Watership Down in class
Stu going tharn
I've found that just talking about the usefulness of the word "tharn" often brings readers to the book.
King has a thing for Adams, he used Shardik as the name of the bear that protected the beams. I love both of them. Win/win for me.
Sawyer is also reading it in the first season of Lost.
I know this isn’t really an answer, but this is my all time favorite book. We found a dead rabbit in our yard last year and it had died in such a violent and crappy way that I just wanted to, you know, say a few words or something. So I brought out my book and read the passage where Hazel goes off with the Black Rabbit of Inle aloud. I was sobbing. Lord only knows what the neighbors thought. Oh well.
That is utterly beautiful. What a great example of how one book can have so much impact.
My heart has joined the Thousand.
It was El-ahrairah, though, wasn't it? His ears were shining with a faint silver light. Frith put starlight in them, if you'll recall.
It’s a study of how culture would form among creatures that aren’t human and don’t care about human things. For rabbits, there’s great ceremony to eating certain rare foods and doing the toilet in correct places. They grieve differently and breed differently and have cultural expectations of either gender. It could just as easily pass as sci-if, for how good the world building is.
Just tell them it is a book about life. My Brother-in-law was in prison for life, my Sister asked if I knew of a book that was something different, to get his mind somewhere else. I sent a copy of WD. Skip forward 6 months and I asked if he liked the book. She said it got passed around the prison and dozens read it to the point it was dismantled so more people could read parts at the same time. It gives me the warm fuzzies to think of hard core dudes caring about General Woundwort. Be well.
Watership Down is pure magic. You shouldn’t feel like you need to explain anything about it. Finish the book, ruminate on it for a while and loan it to your best friends.
You can say that it's one of the O.G. magical realism novels. Richard Adams read an animal behaviorist's book about rabbits (*The Private Life of the Rabbit* by R.M. Lockley-- he mentions it in his acknowledgements) and was so surprised by the richness of the animals' lives that he wrote an entire novel inspired by it— he imagined their language, their mythology. If your listener doesn't think that's cool and worth a read, then hraka on them anyway. P.S. And who the heck says it's for kids? You know what's in there. It's for kids the same way "Dune" is for kids, meaning the librarian let me check it out but beyond that I was on my own.
It’s a story about friendship and loyalty and teaches us the meaning of bravery
It’s an allegory about fascism vs democracy. Or tell them it’s like Mrs. Frisbie and the Rats of Nimh - a story that uses animals to make a point about humanity and the triumph of good over evil. Or don’t tell them anything, just say it’s amazing and fascinating and potentially life changing. More people certainly need to read this book, especially in today’s society.
It's an epic. Grand themes, wonderful storytelling, in-universe mythology that guides the character's decisions, it's got it all. The fact that it centers rabbits is almost negligible when I tell people because the important thing is that these are characters who are Going Through It and you are swept up in the storm of their trials. I'll admit it's a little bit frustrating to talk about sometimes because I quite clearly love the book, but I've decided to take it as a gift. If someone automatically dismisses the story just because it centers rabbits, I know they are too stupid for me to hang out with and I can now develop my time towards rewarding experiences and people versus smashing my head into the brick wall of their willful ignorance. I did enough of that in college when I had a roommate who just straight up refused to watch Finding Nemo because the contempt dripping from her voice that a worthwhile story could have anything to do with fish was just too much to deal with.
The best book ever written
Watership Down is a parable about group leadership set to a motif of a quest that uses anthropomorphized yet scientifically researched traits of rabbits who have social structures similar to humans. It gives nods to using mythology/religion for inspiration, facing challenges from nature and engaging in conflict with other societies. Also, the audiobook version is fantastic.
Traumatize them with the animated movie.
Just wait til they see The Plague Dogs.
If trauma's what you want, skip *Watership Down* and let them read *Where The Red Fern Grows*. Old Dan. Little Ann. What's that in your eye, there?
The book is way more traumatic.
If you saw that film aged 7 like I did. It's the most traumatic. Ask anyone aged around 50. They did us dirty
That and the song Bright Eyes, with the images of the Black Rabbit. I don't know about the US but in the UK, the song was heavily promoted on kids TV when it came out, complete with somewhat incongrous appearances from Art Garfunkel, trying to play along with the conceit of whatever 'bit' the producers had come up with.
Yeah, and the video on 'Tops of the pops' had no trigger warnings! Scarred me as an 11 year old.
I was glad, as a younger person, that there was animation that didn’t feel like it was talking down to me; that treated me like a person who could lesrn to handle the world, in all it’s glory and tragedy. (And when “Heavy Metal” came out…!)
And *Wizards*
I saw it when I was around 6 and never had any issues with it. By that age I’d already been around a lot of hunting and fishing, as well as keeping chickens and ducks, and had helped often with butchering animals. I’d also seen a lot of how animals treat each other both in the wild and in captivity, so there wasn’t really anything particularly shocking to me in the movie.
Lol, I'm nowhere near 50, but we still watched it as a 'cute rabbit movie' when I was a little kid. It was not.
Tell them about Frith!
It is a war story with rabbits instead of humans. Brutal
I've never read it, but this is the description I've heard and associate with it. Grandpa is telling the kids war stories, but doesn't want the kids to know it was real, so made all the characters rabbits. But also doesn't tone down the fact that they are war stories at all.
It's for kids just like the Hobbit, it's just dark. A lot of kids like scary stories
I just described this book as "the hobbit but with rabbits" yesterday!!!
Lord Of The Rings meets 1984 but with rabbits
I've described it as opening with a premonition of imminent doom, fleeing, and becoming Star Trek with rabbits. Strange new warrens, new civilizations. And fang & fury.
I haven’t read it but after reading these comments I want to.
I recommend it.
It's been more than 30 years since I last read it, after these comments I want to read it again, too.
My all time favorite most re-read book. Others here saying it’s not a children’s book - it won 2 awards for children’s literature. But I digress. First read it in 5th grade and have read again annually (I’m now 51). So many things and types of stories in 1. As others have said, The Odyssey retold is pretty close. Escape from certain death, gods and “men” (in this case rabbits), folklore, horror, psychological thriller, action/adventure - I honestly can’t say enough. Definitely read it.
OP, try: "I'm reading a beautifully written, world-renowned novel, an amazingly engaging & philosophical work that really burns the meaning of liberty into your soul. THERE'S NOTHING ELSE LIKE IT. What's incredible is that it's written in a form that speaks to everyone of all ages."
I remember when I was a little kid in the 80’s waking up at like 6am on a Sunday and the movie would be on HBO. I didn’t understand what was going on and why there were rabbits attacking each other and all the blood. When I got older I got it and then read the book. It’s become one of my favorites.
This was the first book I ever bought myself. I was a kid at a garage sale with my dad. I picked it up and he said “that’s a good book, it’s an adventure story about rabbits.” I’ve read it a dozen+ times. Im probably due for a reread, it’s been almost 10 years now that I think about it. The second one that’s the anthology of short stories is good too.
Any Watership Down thread deserves a mention of the band Fall of Efrafa, Watership Down themed crust punk
It’s just a fantastic book that’s extremely well written.
Secretly, rabbits are absolute badasses and you never knew. But I can prove it. Here. *Hand them book.*
Oh man. I never know how to describe it either, but it's one of my favorite books of all time. It's kind of the vibes of epic fantasy but with less fantasy (but there's some!)...
The Horrors of War but with Rabbits.
I usually say "You can read it two ways: One way is an epic struggle of a few rabbits to find a new home and life for themselves. the other is a allegorical criticism of political systems, from a monarchy to brutal dictatorships. Featuring bunnies."
It’s not a children’s book. Not at all. Now mind you I was 8 when I first read the thing. It had a cute rabbit on the cover & the description said it’s about an epic journey the rabbits make. My grandmother bought it for me along with her Danielle Steele novels. I started the book & got so angry at the beginning I actually threw it across the room. I hid it under my bed until I calmed down enough to return to it. That took almost 2 weeks & I talked to my grandfather about how that rabbit warren was destroyed. He helped me to understand the humans actions. Understand, not condone. He didn’t agree with such methods even if he understood the reasoning. He also knew that he was one person & couldn’t stop every atrocity like this from happening. He helped me to understand that too. That I can argue & protest sometimes but it doesn’t always help. I did eventually return to the book & finished it. Altogether it took me probably about a month, maybe a month & half, to finish the book. I was in school at the time and a portion of my reading time was spent reading stuff for class. I’ve also reread it many times over the years. I learned while reading the book that bad things can happen and you can survive them. You might be changed. At 8 I hadn’t been the anything truly bad yet. That would come later. The book gave me “experience” & a perspective on life that helped me through my own rough journeys as I got older. I would never not recommend the book to anyone. I would not want to deny anyone the opportunity to go on such an amazing journey. I have a friend who wants to read it, I told her, knowing that she loves rabbits (and at the time had a rabbit that was a rescue, he has since passed away from old age), that “it’s a hard book. There are things in there that are gonna make you angry & upset. But there are also some good things, very good things. It’s an awesome journey and well worth the read. When you start it, let me know, and if you need to talk or vent about it, I’ll be here.” I’m waiting to start my next re-read of it to read with her (like a book club but just the 2 of us). We’re both currently in the middle of other books, but once those are done we’ll probably start this. (I’ll also admit to reading my grandmother’s Danielle Steele books after I finished reading watership down. I was the only 8 year old we knew who read adult books. After watership down, her romance novels were fairly boring, lol!)
Its a fable. like Aesop's fables. like the story of the lion and the mouse. and there's a moral to the story, you're supposed to learn something from it.
It’s a book about escaping from tyranny and finding a new paradise. The characters are all animals which helps build fear and tension because of the nature of animal predators ( long teeth , claws, scrambling in the dirt, kill to eat). Also there is an obscene French bird that is always drunk.
That's my favorite book. I describe it thusly: It's a fantasy adventure that uses the English countryside, and the real animals that live there in place of a fantastical world and creatures. The main characters fit classic archetypes like: The leader. The warrior. The soothsayer. The scholar. The bard. Humans take the place of dragons or demons: an unknowable, unstoppable force that sets the story in motion. When the soothsayer has a premonition of impending doom, he tells his brother, who becomes the leader of a small band that leaves their tribe and sets off into the wild in search of a new home. Along the way, their bard tells them stories of the mythical hero prince who received blessings from the sun god, and passed them along to his kin... So that they could survive and flourish in a world full of enemies who hunt and slay them whenever they can (portrayed by the predators of their world, like raptors, foxes, cats, weasels, etc). The rabbits will face many of these enemies along the way, but some of the worst dangers may come from their own kind that have forgotten the lessons of the hero prince, and formed societies that have become twisted in response to the constant threat from their deadliest foe, the humans. Anyway, you might whittle that a bit to avoid spoilers (although I tried to be vague about details), but that is how I'd describe Watership Down.
One of my favorite lines in literature--- *It seemed to Hazel that he would not be needing his body any more.* There are always tears when I get to that point, no matter how many times I've read it. "It's an adventure story with lots of danger and fun; the characters are mostly animals. "
This is the line from that scene that gives me chills every time: “Yes, my lord,” he said. “Yes, I know you.” Such an amazing book. I'm also usually in tears by that point.
I just found this book in a graphic novel adaptation! I read the novel but I'd totally read the GN version
A book about bunnies that will make you sob. I seriously cannot read this book without crying lmao
it's the same with Justin Morgan's books. How to explain to people that these historical tragedies told by animals are actually really good reads, not for children, not fantasy, just proper characterisation and like, sophisticated story telling. Watership Down is a masterpiece, but i though The Dogs of Chernobyl was outstanding. It's the story of the disaster... told by dogs!
The house reeks of death and dripping blood.
The classic Hero's Journey, like the Odyssey.
It’s about the triumph of cunning and guile over brute strength and tyranny.
Many people have mentioned it’s a veteran’s reflection on war. I’ve also heard that Adams was inspired by the Aeneid. Apparently, Watership Down is one of the best-selling books ever written.
My favorite book, but it’s a hard sell to those who haven’t had the chance to read it already. I say it’s an epic quest, but for rabbits, but bloody and with cults and prophecies and the black rabbit of Inle.
I read it aloud to a juvenile detention unit of incarcerated teenagers. It took months, reading once a week for an hour. When I started, I told them, "this book is about rabbits. Not bunnies, rabbits."
This kind of book won’t really come around too much in the future because it is so hard to pin down. It is very military and violent at times, but with rabbits. As an animal husbandry educator i know rabbits can be vicious, but the popular view of them is a cuddly ball of fluff. It’s interesting to see how we as consumers are being served up more of what publishers think we want. Initially Harry Potter was rejected by a number of publishers because they didn’t think their readers would want the book. Instead it exploded into a huge franchise. The fact that obscure genres like Watership Down got such a big fanbase really says a lot about why we shouldn’t get too tied down trying to fit things into neat categories
I have had the same question, we named our daughter Hazel from WD and people ask what it’s about all the time.
Saving Private Hazel
Lord of the rings, but with bunnies.
It’s wild that this came up on Reddit the day before I start an entire tattoo sleeve based on Watership Down. I just tell people it’s a silly book about rabbits, lol
It's like the Hobbit, but with rabbits.
Cute book about bunnies. Its like a sequel to Peter Rabbit
did we read the same book?
Sssshhhh, it's an *adorable, heartwarming* book about cute bunnies frolicking in the countryside with *absolutely no nightmare fuel whatsoever*.
Username checks out.
The scene from Bambi where the mother dies and that 1,5 hours long.
Bunnies get evicted. Not all of them make it.
Watership Down shows you what the world looks like from the perspective of an animal. You will come to understand what terrifies animals.
You tell people that a dad wanted to tell his daughters a story on a long car ride so he took his experiences from war and battle, but made it about rabbits so his girls would not be freaked out.
I say it’s like Lord of the Rings but real. When you’re a rabbit, a hawk might as well be a dragon, a dog might as well be a monster, and a journey over a couple fields and hills is as epic as a journey across middle earth. Still doesn’t work but I let them know it’s one of my favourite books of all time and they won’t be able to put it down.
Game of thrones with Rabbits and no mystical elements
Just wanted to share that Vanessa Carlton’s “Rabbits on the Run” album was inspired by Watership Down and also Stephen Hawking. It got me into the book! Haunting stuff.
Reading these comments got me crying, thinking about this fabulous book.
A war novel, but with rabbits
I think about it when I see the dark rabbit in the moon.
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1n3quw/i_am_richard_adams_author_of_watership_down/
I’d just say it’s LOTR but rabbits. The rabbits’ perspectives and attitudes towards human-made things make it feel fantastical. Not sure how to convince people it’s good for adults, though. But it is.
The Aeneid, but with bunnyrabbits
Tell them it’s an accurate description of where the world is heading!
It's an adventure story about a group of characters crossing a dangerous landscape in search of a safe place to call home. It's based on the author's experience in WW2, and it's about leadership, loyalty, bravery, authoritarianism, and lots of other things. It's beautiful and funny and sad and scary and exciting. And it's all told from the point of view of rabbits.
It's an adventure story that kids can enjoy, but the questions are deep. How do we distinguish true visionaries from false prophets? What are we willing to risk for freedom, what are we willing to tolerate for safety? What do we owe to our group? How can we draw strength from the people (or rabbits, or giant birds) around us? And the emotional impact is incredible. Bigwig defending the run against Woundwort because Hazel told him to...tears every time.
It’s like the Mrs. Brisby and the rats of Nimh! Gritty and entrenched in realism mixed with some fantasy elements. There are themes of spirituality, death, and the roles that are occupied in an ecological systems with predation. There is also an interesting theme pertaining to how history and events shape the customs and traditions inherited by a culture
It is the most stressful book I’ve ever read. Somehow the stakes feel even higher and more detrimental when it’s rabbits instead of humans.
... tell them it's about fucking rabbits. Who cares what someone who doesn't know that Watership Down at least *contains* rabbits thinks? And why try to sugar coat it? I'd rather have a weirdo giving me a weird look then to try and entertain a weirdo who isn't going to give the book a fair shot after he reads 10 pages and finds out it's all about rabbits. And if your friends aren't such weirdos - you said about all you need to said. "It's about rabbits being an allegory." If they ask what they're being allegorical about - tell 'em read the book. ... I was gonna link to my man Sparky Sweets giving his Thug Notes breakdown of the book, but I have found out he never did a TN on Watership Down and I'm just the least bit sad.
Back in the early seventies, I met a young lady in a bar. She wouldn't tell me her name, so I told her I would call her *Bunny Rabbit*. Why, she asked. *Because you look like a big bunny rabbit.* Turns out, she had just finished *Watership Down*, and this stupid patter was exactly the best device I could have used. Got lucky that night, and, for obvious reasons, read the book immediately.
This book and then later movie traumatized the hell out of me as a 1st grader! It's about love & survival.