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I rarely see this book get the love here I think it deserves. I was thinking about that circlejerk thread currently blowing up the charts, and here's a staple of high school classes that seems to have been largely forgotten on reddit.
It's got everything: adventure, camaraderie, folklore and mythology, a fully built world and enough literary references (obvious and not) to keep a reader busy for ages. (Its plot arc is based on the Aeneid, for example.) Plus, you know, rabbits.
I remember reading it for the first time. I think I was maybe 12 or 13? I was expecting something like Redwall, where the animals are really just humans with fur and paws and so on. But then it was about rabbits. Like, rabbits who felt like rabbits. Of course rabbits would have a special word for feeding above ground. Of course they have a folk hero who goes into all the gardens and never gets caught. Adolescent mind: blown.
And then I read Lord of the Rings the next year and realized that a lot of what I was enjoying was just really good worldbuilding and went off into the realms of sci-fi/fantasy. But doing that kind of worldbuilding with something as familiar and everyday as rabbits was just kind of brilliant to me. Still is.
...also the ending makes me cry every time I read it, and I'm 25 now. The way it calls back to the Black Rabbit of Inle folktale, and it's so sad and wonderful at the same time. Every single time ;_;
I teared up just remembering it just now.
Read it first at 20 and again at 25. Cried both times on the last page.
"You are a stranger here, El-ahrairah,” said the Black Rabbit. “You are alive.”
That stuff still gives me the spooks. Geez.
If you like books about animals that really feel like animals, I cannot recommend The Bees by Laline Paull enough. It is everything The Secret Life of Bees should have been but wasn't. The Bees follows the life of a worker bee. The descriptions are beautiful and the protagonist is lovely. No prior knowledge of bees is necessary.
Enable protocol "seek POLLEN"/Must harvest POLLEN for HIVE/feed LARVAE/feed QUEEN/feed DRONES/feed WORKERS/superseding priority: feed QUEEN/standby to receive POLLEN-search-behavior-inducing chemicals/search outside hive in precise searching-pattern (west-southwest forward 400 meters turn 15 degrees west [daylight hours only to find flowering plants] (repeat pattern as necessary)/ locate and fix position of POLLEN/ rub sacs on legs against stamen against pistil against all parts of flowering plant to obtain POLLEN/must find POLLEN/finding POLLEN primary purpose of BEE(WORKER) #7438-F87904/ awaiting query/awaiting query.
Buzzes appreciation.
Just had a quick squizz on Goodreads and this looks great! Thanks for mentioning it, I just ordered it :)
Or read the comic Clan Apis by Jay Hosler.
THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME KNOW THIS EXISTS!
Oooh, thanks for the rec, will be checking that out :)
Yes! When I picked it up, I thought it would be a parable about humanity. Something like Animal Farm. But nope, it's a good story about sentient rabbits. Not fuzzy people, but actual rabbits. It's what makes it such a good book.
Of course humans have folktales of a personal god who loves them and lets them live forever...
Man I wish this has been assigned reading in high school. Read it for myself when I was about ten--found in a box when I was helping my aunt move, and my uncle loaned it to me. I'd read all the other animal-staples of childhood: Jack London, Black Beauty/Black Stallion, Where the Red Fern Grows, Old Yeller, and anything else I could find at the library.
Watership Down blew my young mind. I think I read it in like three days. It's magical and tragic and heroic, and it pulls zero punches. I re-read it in my teens, and still loved it. I spent some time in my teens reading some other, 'newer' animal-focused fiction, and it was all pure crap in comparison.
Re-read it as an adult last year, after a decade of becoming cynically jaded and analytical of everything, wondering how much nostalgia might be influencing my opinion, and still loved it. It's a perfect example of a quest story. The characters are great, the pacing is great, and it sticks with you for a long time.
My first time reading it was as an adult and I absolutely loved it. I thought it was a perfect mix of symbolism, literary allusions, and a good yarn.
It's my 2nd favorite book of all-time.
It's in my top 3, with The Little Prince and Michael Ende's The Neverending Story. (Yeah, I like fantasy-tinged children's books.)
Normally, I was more of a non-fiction reader, but someone (on reddit) had recommended Richard Adams' The Plague Dogs, and after reading (and loving) it, I knew I had to read Watership Down next.
OMG, Plague Dogs. I have it on my shelf. No other book has ever made me cry so much. I respect it and it helped change a lot of my views and was one of the reasons I became a vegetarian 15 years ago. I don't think I can ever read it again.
I had the same reaction. I made the mistake of reading it at work (on breaks). One of the few times I was glad I worked in a cubicle.
I heard the end theme from the movie on youtube the other night, and it started me balling all over again.
What's first?
The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams.
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You absolutely nailed it for me. It just covers everything important in life. That quote you picked is perfect -- and there are so many others like it, quotes that you can just point to and say, "Yeah, that's how it is."
Another one, after El-ahrairah realizes the young rabbits have forgotten what he did to protect them: "A rabbit who doesn't know when a gift has made them safe is poorer than a slug, though he may think otherwise."
I've read this book at 3 seminal times in my life.
The first time I finished it I was 11 and just starting to get in to reading for pleasure. I instantly fell in love with the world. The whole thing felt like an introduction to a secret world in plain sight but just beyond my reach.
The second time I read it was in high school at the age of 17. I was in a class that merged Social Studies and English in to one two-hour block. The teacher used literature to teach historical understanding. Watership Down, along with Animal Farm, was our post WW2 novel. Looking at it from the lense of post war Europe wad fascinating. Suddenly Cowslip's warren and Woundwart were allegories of Communism and Fascism respectively. Hazel was the quintessential Englishman and so forth.
The last time I read it was in university in a children's lit course - dissecting it as an example of teaching complex societal issues to kids. This was akin to opening your favourite watch to see how the gears turned. It was one of the few books in that class that really emphasized the effectiveness of good children's lit to me. I finally understood why it stuck with me for so long and why it was so effective in capturing my imagination as a kid.
After dussecting it a million times I absolutely love this book.
I read Watership Down for the first time a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it. One thing I particularly enjoyed was that the characters weren't fully anthropomorphized (as opposed to the extent that the animal characters in the Redwall books are). They often act just so... rabbit-y! Particularly when it comes to intelligence, and how Hazel can't quite wrap his head around Blackberry's ideas.
I think the only reservation that I have about the book is a lingering feeling of latent sexism. The main characters are all male, and the way they talk about does plus the way they become a plot point leaves me a bit unsettled. I've tried to reconcile myself by thinking of the book as a story deliberately being told through a naive/childish viewpoint, but I still can't quite come to terms with it :|
That's what I was going to say. At the time I hadn't ever considered an author doing that so the creativity of it kind of blew me away.
And the same thing about your criticism. It's just something we'll always have to contextualize when talking about it/sharing it with others.
yeah, but I'm still struggling with whether I should recommend it to my sister :<
You should! I'm a lady and it's in my top 5 books - while all of the protagonists are male, it's still very valuable and enjoyable.
The point you made about the characters not being fully anthropomorphized is what makes that lingering feeling of sexism necessary though. The does really are just kind of breeders to them, they're rabbits.
yeah, but apparently real rabbits don't actually behave that way. So then you start to wonder where that idea did come from...
Interesting enough, Maia is a fantasy novel by Adams set in an ancient empire where the great events of the time are completely seen from a female perspective. Both the main character, her friend, and the main villain are women.
Richards Adams, the author, did one of my favorite ever AMAs.
Cool link. THANKS!
YES. I love it!
I'm a huge fan. I've read it many, many times, and I think it's a very nice and gentle introduction into thinking from an alien point of view.
The ending was so beautiful (with Hazel leaving the burrough), I thought about it for days after reading it. Needless to say, it made this 6'4, 46 year old man, very emotional.
My wife had me read Watership Down, and I loved it. Then a friend showed me the 70's (?) animated movie and I'm kinda disturbed by the whole thing now. The gas attack scene was the worst for me. Anyone else seen the movie, thoughts?
Yes, I watched it on TV as a child after my parents mistakenly put it on thinking it was a children's program. They even made popcorn. The set was switched off soon enough. I don't think we made it to the gas attack scene?
I thought it was a children's program. My mum sat and watched it with me. Had nightmares about the gas attack for years.
I just read this book for the first time a few months ago and I loved it. I'm so excited now that I see this post because I have been wondering if there are other books like Watership Down that someone could recommend?
I've never read anything like it and am very interested in finding more. Any suggestions?
Tailchaser's Song.
Richard Adams has another novel Plague Dogs that's both similar and different, but very good.
Richard Adams personal favorite is Shardik
Great book. Favorite character of all time? Yes, it's Bigwig.
Love Bigwig. "Silflay hraka, u embleer rah."
Until very recently, my family had a pet rabbit. I will proudly admit I would speak to him in Lapine.
Ugh, I looove Bigwig. He's in my top three favorite characters of all time, with Yossarian and Jo March.
Good choice with Yossarian! But what about Orr?
I love Orr, but if I had to choose...
Fair enough. I'm an Orr man myself, but Yossarian is a good choice.
My elementary school had us watch the movie in 5th Grade. I vaguely remember having to get permission. "Animated bunnies dying!?! Noooooo !!!"
Consider yourself lucky it was in 5th grade. My mom rented it for me when I was about 5 or 6. Scarred for life. Excellent book though.
Gees, child abuse.
I had a similar traumatic indoctrination around 6 years old with the movie Wizards ... that movie terrorized my mind. Damn our parents!
I FUCKING LOVED THAT MOVIE.
When I was 3.
Watched it again at 15 when my parents acquired another copy, and was astounded - I asked my mom why in the hell she'd let me watch a movie with that much symbolism in it.
She shrugged and said, "you loved it."
Now no one knows about it, which makes me sad.
Immense amounts of symbolism.
Our parents took us (my brother and I) to see it at an artsy theater in Virginia called The Naro in like 1983. Yeah I'm old.
Bakshi is a creative dude.
Love it love it love it. It is the freaking Arthurian Cycle for bunnies.
I read it a few years ago. I still refer to my car as a hudrudru.
hrududu
Me too!
My favorite part:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QM9Bynjh2Lk
Perhaps you'd enjoy some Waterhawk Down.
I thought parts of the myth of allarehrah were a bit too long. Other than that...great book.
I loved the whole "Rabbit mythology" stories. It really fleshed out the rabbit worldview for me.
Whenever someone asks me what my favorite book is (they know I love to read and never go out w/out a book tucked under my arm), I always, since the day I finished it answer "Watership Down". Now people expect me to answer some Stephen King or Terry Pratchett or Jane Austen novel, so this is a surprise. And since Watership Down, while a classic, isn't widely known, they say: what's that one about. I just smile and say "Rabbits."
I love the way you feel like you're peeking into a secret world/society that's existing all around you. He gives such personalities to the characters (not just the rabbits, but Kehaar and the other animals that wander through). The story is so universal, the rabbits' struggle becomes real to you. Change it to a platoon of soldiers struggling home, or a family being kicked out, looking for a new place to call theirs. You feel when they're tired, or cold, or hopeless, you also feel their triumphs. But the story is still about rabbits.
My fiancee read my copy awhile back. When I saw tears in her eyes I knew she was a keeper! Lol.
Watership down was one of the first "big boy" novels that my older sister read to me. Thinking back it would not totally appropriate subject matter for a 6 year old to be hearing about.
Watership Down is a fantastic book that everyone should read.
My dad told me about this book. It took me fourteen years and desperation for a read to finally pick it up. That was three years ago and I've read it four times now. Absolutely love it.
Seriously? It's one of the things on reddit that gets almost universal love, standing on the top tier plateau with like Bill Watterson, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Jennifer Lawrence, and others. You haven't been paying attention.
There are hrair reasons to like that book.
My 12th grade English teacher vetoed the book because it was "too hard" for the class.
That film (animation) scarred me for life.
I actually read this about a year ago and ended up in love with it. I'm 27 at this point and usually read more mature literature, but this was just so enjoyable that I will probably read it again in a year or two.
A great book for teens and adults.
My all-time favorite. Some of the reasons:
The stakes. Some rabbits move across the road to get away from developers -- except it's an epic journey with heroes and villains and death defying escapes, and even the gods are pleased. There are a lot of authors that can make plots to blow up the world boring. There are very few that can make a story about rabbits moving across the road into an adrenalin-drenched page-turner.
The characters. Bigwig, Fiver, Woundwort, Hyzenthlay -- so bold, so distinctive, so individual. And it's all done without descriptions of bold cheekbones or sly eyebrows or fashion choices or huge defining traits (i.e. the nerd character who never says/does anything that isn't specifically related to being a nerd, or the coward whose only lines have to do with expressing cowardice).
The anthropomorphic sidestep. The rabbits are truly alien, with their trickster god and their strange customs. They feel like an alien species in a way that transcends the human-actor-with-rubber-forehead-prosthetic conventions. At the same time, they are humanized enough to feel like a pack of old familiar friends.
And finally -- I like rabbits. Had a pet house rabbit who lived nearly ten years, and he taught me a lot about the intricacies of an incredibly social yet silent species. Rabbits don't get a lot of respect, but they're at least as bright as cats and dogs, with strong opinions and feelings, and a refreshingly nonpredatorial worldview.
Lets.
I'm not sure what your point is. Yes, people on reddit have talked about this book before. This is true of most books. The most recent thread about it specifically was 18 days ago. If OP wanted to participate in a discussion about said book he's not going to get a lot of responses posting there, thus creating a new thread is the best thing for him to do.
That'd be great if OP came to it with a fresh idea in his head, or with something interesting to say. My point: the discussions have been had and "lets discuss this" posts invariably end up 1. clogging the sub and 2. having same or dead similar replies per each. In other words they are 100% useless. All that's been said has been said in posts like these.
Repeating the same thing to each other isn't discussion.
I mean, look: one of the highest comments in this thread is how someone really really likes it. The other is about how it made them cry.
If you want r/books to be known for this surface-level, useless "discussion," keep doing your part doing nothing about it. I'll keep showing people how to use the search bar.
A good friend of mine HIGHLY recommended this book to me. The way he talked about the book, it was like he was talking about a love interest or something. So I was really excited to start reading it.
I couldn't finish it... I made it about 100 pages and just grew bored. I wish I enjoyed it, since it seems like a lot of people love it, but nothing about it really hooked me into wanting to read on.
I couldn't finish it. I got a few chapters in, and just got bored with it. I found myself just not giving a fuck what happened to the rabbits, because they were just rabbits.
Reading these comments makes me think I should give it another try.
Do give it another try. Alternatively, you should try watching the 70's animated movie of it. Unlike a lot of movies based on books, it's
pretty true to the book and isactually very good.EDIT: I stand corrected, it isn't that true to the book. It's still really good. Both are good. Try both.
For me, the fact that it's about rabbits just makes it even better. (To be fair, I do love rabbits -- I've raised them and I feel a special connection with them, froofy as it may sound.)
It's the last animal you'd expect to be the subject of a heroic epic. But the more you know about them, it actually is appropriate. Rabbits spend their lives afraid -- they never know when death is going to come for them, and they have to be alert and aware at all times, always on the run. In a dangerous world, they have nothing but each other, so they have to band together. To me, that's a beautiful story.
That's pretty much what Stephen King had his characters say about the book as well. He was a fan of it.
There are some real narrative similarities between Watership Down and The Stand, too. Nothing blatant, just enough to think, "Oh, maybe he was inspired by that part..."
Questionable. There were a lot of changes. Four of the initial characters were completely eliminated, which would be fine except they foisted their little 'rebellion' early on (for lack of a better word) onto wholly unsuitable characters, especially Pipkin. The menace of the cat was completely ruined by the awful voice actor, wrecking what was probably one of the best and most suspenseful lines in the entire book ("Can you run? I think not.") What was the point of Violet being there at all? Very random. All the Efrafans other than Woundwort were turned into faceless generic Nazi soldiers. Blackavar was never developed. Hazel's attempt on the farm was turned from pyrrhic victory to complete waste.
I understood the reasoning for some of the changes, especially things like doubling up Holly's trip to save time, but others were less than faithful.
Richard Adams disagrees, but the movie was still a credible piece of work, and it is great that they didn't give in to the temptation to make this a children's movie or tone down on the death and violence of the original.