| "At the top of the bank, close to the wild cherry where the blackbird sang, was a little group of holes almost hidden by brambles." — Richard Adams, Watership Down |
Watership Down began as a story told by a father to his two daughters on a long car ride through the English countryside. Riveted by the adventures of a band of desperate, heroic rabbits trying to survive, the daughters convinced their father to finish it. Richard Adams did two years later. Three publishers turned it down, but the fourth, Rex Collings, took a chance on the mythological, anthropomorphic tale, despite the genre having fallen out of fashion by the early seventies. Within three years though, it had sold over a million copies worldwide. Nearly fifty years later, it remains a bestseller.
I first cracked open this book in Mrs. White's 8th Grade English class at Stetson Middle School in West Chester, PA. I loved Bigwig's bluntness, Dandelion's nighttime stories, and Hazel's leadership then. And now, sixteen years later and 3000 miles westward, I still bemoaned Fiver's seizure-visions, excitedly devoured the hero-myths of El-ahrairah, the cleverest rabbit of them all, and nail-bit my way through General Woundwart's orderly, yet dystoican vision of the world.
Far from merely childish or escapist fantasy, Watership Down with its cast of creatures explores the universal needs, desires, and fears of humans, and spotlights them with a fresh, heightened sense of wonder. The friendship of Bigwig and Hazel, the terrifying danger of a black cat in the night or a group of men with a bulldozer, the gathering and telling of old stories to face the storm outside, the longing for a distant dream and the discipline to reach it, the mysteries of death and the afterlife—all these events and themes stitch together this beloved odyssey of rabbits and help map our own. [JG]
I first cracked open this book in Mrs. White's 8th Grade English class at Stetson Middle School in West Chester, PA. I loved Bigwig's bluntness, Dandelion's nighttime stories, and Hazel's leadership then. And now, sixteen years later and 3000 miles westward, I still bemoaned Fiver's seizure-visions, excitedly devoured the hero-myths of El-ahrairah, the cleverest rabbit of them all, and nail-bit my way through General Woundwart's orderly, yet dystoican vision of the world.
Far from merely childish or escapist fantasy, Watership Down with its cast of creatures explores the universal needs, desires, and fears of humans, and spotlights them with a fresh, heightened sense of wonder. The friendship of Bigwig and Hazel, the terrifying danger of a black cat in the night or a group of men with a bulldozer, the gathering and telling of old stories to face the storm outside, the longing for a distant dream and the discipline to reach it, the mysteries of death and the afterlife—all these events and themes stitch together this beloved odyssey of rabbits and help map our own. [JG]
QUOTES I LIKED
{*} "The scent of apple blossom was plain enough. Then he picked up the fainter smells of buttercups and horses. Mingled with those came another. Although it made him uneasy, he could not tell for some moments what it was. A dangerous smell, an unpleasant smell—a totally unnatural smell—quite close outside: a smoke smell—something was burning. Then he remembered how Bigwig, after his reconnaissance on the previous day, had spoken of the little white sticks in the grass. That was it. A man had been walking over the ground outside."
{*} "By early afternoon, there was a stillness of hear, and a head of cows from the higher fields slowly grazed their was down into the shade."
{*} "Love the animals. God has given them rudiments of thought and joy untroubled. Don't trouble it, don't narrow them, don't deprive them of their happiness, don't work against God's intent." — Dostoyevsky, The Brother's Karamazov
{*} "A great hrududu (car) came into the field from the lane. It wasn't the one the men came in. It was very noisy and it was yellow—as yellow as charlock: and in front there was a great silver, shining thing that it held in its huge front paws. I don't know how to describe it to you. It look like Inle (death), but it was broad and not so bright. And this things—how can I tell you— it tore the fields to bits. It destroyed the field."
{*} "The Black Rabbit spoke with the voice of water that falls into pools in echoing places in the dark."
{*} "By early afternoon, there was a stillness of hear, and a head of cows from the higher fields slowly grazed their was down into the shade."
{*} "Love the animals. God has given them rudiments of thought and joy untroubled. Don't trouble it, don't narrow them, don't deprive them of their happiness, don't work against God's intent." — Dostoyevsky, The Brother's Karamazov
{*} "A great hrududu (car) came into the field from the lane. It wasn't the one the men came in. It was very noisy and it was yellow—as yellow as charlock: and in front there was a great silver, shining thing that it held in its huge front paws. I don't know how to describe it to you. It look like Inle (death), but it was broad and not so bright. And this things—how can I tell you— it tore the fields to bits. It destroyed the field."
{*} "The Black Rabbit spoke with the voice of water that falls into pools in echoing places in the dark."
WHO WAS RICHARD ADAMS?
| Richard Adams (1920-2016) was an English author of Watership Down, Shardik, The Plague Dogs, and others. I'm particularly interested in picking up a copy of Tales From Watership Down, a set of 19 myths expanding the universe he first created in 1972. He is the winner of the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Award for Children's Literature. |
| "A soaking bumblebee crawled over a thistle bloom, vibrated its wings for a few seconds and then flew away down the field. Hazel followed, leaving a dark track behind him over the silvered grass." — Richard Adams, Watership Down |
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