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I'm not saying the story is bad - because it's a very good one - but the author's creativity and writing style are what I loved about this book. At first I was hesitant to read a book with all animal characters but my girlfriend really recommended it to me, so I began. I'm a firm believer in writing style and authors mattering more than the story itself. This is a very fun book to read and it's far more exciting than I expected a book of it's nature to be. I highly recommend for all ages - especially adults since it seems like it may be perceived as a book for the youth.
most definitly a 5 star review. talking rabbits, that isnt a book for children. loved the book. brilliant mind to come up with this type of literary masterpiece. brilliant. i highly recommend it.
But Adams's characterization must be accounted a minus: there's plenty of rabbits along for the exodus, but it's hard to tell them apart.Worse, though, is the sustained pretension of Lapine, the language of Adams's bunnies. It succeeds in parts, but on the whole, it's hard to take it seriously unless you're a pre-teen girl. Why not just "translate" everything into English. But if you are, good luck with the language.Now, maybe I just waited too long to read this. It's like you need a PhD in Botany to understand what's going on. I was assured by those who had read it, however, that the book was much better (and deeper). thistle bloom.
I guess I'm glad I didn't read this as a teenager: I think I would have given up after a few chapters. Sure, I've seen the cartoon on which it was based years ago, but didn't think much of it. For a book with a bunch of talking animals, it contains an unreasonably high level of prose.There's another reason it was hard to get into: I've lived in cities all my life, so much so that I've never even seen a wooden fence, much less a cow. Why couldn't Adams have just written "after moonrise".
I suppose my threshold for silliness for books with talking animals (particularly bunnies) is "The Wind in the Willows." Anything more sophisticated than that is preposterous, I think.Nevertheless, this aims to go several degrees more sophisticated than that. kingcups. watercress. (The cynic in me suspects the author doesn't know either, and was simply writing with Newcomb's Wildflower Guide propped open next to the typewriter).There are points in the book's favor: the action is swift and things are helped along by short chapters. Sad, I know; but the point is, much of the bucolic terms were completely flat to me: marjoram. A helpful glossary at the back of the book tells us: it means "after moonrise." What did it add to include the original expression. I had wanted to ever since I was a kid but never got around to it until middle age. At one point (p.
(I think maybe once I saw a squirrel). meadowsweet. 15), we're told the rabbits are going to "meet again here, fu Inle." What does "fun Inle" mean. Why is that particular expression rendered in the original Lapine, but not others, such as "Is it true." "Who is this." and "Over the hill".I'll tell you why: because the interlarded Lapine, like so much else in the book, symbolizes the flowery affectation in which the whole thing is steeped.
I had to see what this was all about. I also didn't like the portrayal of does as just sex-objects, which would make me have less sympathy for the rabbits plight. I mean a five hundred page book about rabbits. Going into this book, all I knew was that it was a classic that was about talking bunnies. Even though it is usually marketed as a young adult book, I think anyone can enjoy it. There would be random comments about baseball or something to describe a situation, and it would draw me out of the story.
I found some of their chapter-long fables distracting, as well as a sudden switch to the human world.
After the initial charm wore off, I was bored.
The writing was easily read, and it wasn't to hard to follow.
Now, I've never been a big fan of rabbits, but I decided to give this a try anyway.
I have to say, for the most part, I forgot they were bunnies.
I found all the rabbits to be interchangeable, and some of their folklore confusing.
But, it got better as it went on, especially those final 200 hundred pages.
If I was a tad smarter, I could figure out all the parallels between bunny warrens and human government, but I'm too lazy for that.
Overall, it was a enjoyable fantasy and quite epic.
Their efforts are appreciated long after we stop to consider the absurdity that Adam has imbued with such gravity. Those are, I think, two of the most powerful ideas behind Watership Down. In order for the warren to be safe, an evacuation order must be made. Richard Adams kept throwing more into the mix.
That's the beauty of Richard Adams' writing: he turns a small river crossing into a test of skill and intelligence, the first challenge that forces the rabbits to act in very un-rabbit-like ways to save themselves. Along the way they run into rivers, foxes, gulls, mice, cats, a dog, traps, unknown devices made by man, and strange new rabbits.When I tried explaining what this book was about to my brother, it came out something like this, "It's about a bunch of bunnies and they're trying to find a spot to make a good warren and then they realize, `hey, we need some does' so they try and find some does and then there's these other vengeful bunnies with lots of extra girl rabbits but they don't want anyone taking them and then."That's not too coherent, but in a nutshell Watership Down can be broken into a few parts: fleeing the warren, settling into Watership Down, needing does to fill the Honeycomb, and the journey that takes them to hell and back just to get some, as Kehaar would put it "mudders." It can't just be about that though (well, it can be, but it isn't), and so the adventures of Fiver and Hazel are enormous and test the very strengths and weaknesses of lapine endurance, friendship, and ingenuity. They confront their sense of propriety and overcome expectations in this, only the first obstacle to reach Watership Down.Hazel and Fiver's group are pioneers and radical in their ideas and methods (does aren't the only rabbits that can dig out a warren). With a little bit of ingenuity and some convincing, they fashion a raft out of a piece of driftwood and float the pair across. To make it even better (or worse, but really he's adorable), there's also Kehaar, a gull with an Austrian accent Hazel and Fiver's warren befriends, and an unnamed mouse companion.The large cast of characters aside, Hazel and Fiver have a lot to contend with themselves as they cross the wide unknown, but they have a few advantages on their side: bravery and open mindedness. Initially, the group sets out with 10 additional rabbits (even the Chief Rabbit's nephew comes along) and grows, by the end of the book, to 32, plus kittens (baby rabbits).
However, hope is not lost: one by one rabbits start to appear in support of Fiver and are willing to follow the two in their journey to escape the unknown danger and start their own warren. One such vision is of a terrible danger coming to the warren and in his fear and conviction convinces Hazel the Chief Rabbit must be notified. He not only convinces us their gestures are those of rabbits, but that from the very depths of their being they are calling forth some collective rabbitness that turns out to be the very core of sentient creatures everywhere. Fiver's a bit of a prophetic and has odd, sometimes unintelligible visions. I make it sound more simple than it actually was (in one sense, it's quite simple).
I thought keeping track of twelve rabbits with distinct personalities and dialogue was hard to do. In thinking of their feat we must consider a time when we, too, have felt the pause of success Adams refers to. There's a lot of confusion, wariness, and a bit of despair as the rabbits feel the limitations of their own traditional methods of travel. Hazel lives with his smaller brother, Fiver, in the Sandleford Warren with lots of other bucks and does organized around the Chief Rabbit and his Owsla (a group of guard rabbits). They go against tradition but never once compromise their integrity or resort to fighting when talking will do just as well, if not better. Everyone is kind and patient, but most of all: welcoming.I really adored the spirit of each rabbit--Adams writes from the intimate knowledge that inordinate amounts of research and devotion brings and uses terminology and descriptions that are innately natural to lapine movement. With beautiful passages such at this: "When several creatures--men or animals--have worked together to overcome something offering resistance and have at last succeeded, there follows often a pause--as though they felt the propriety of paying respect to the adversary who has put up so good a fight." p.
215 Watership Down, Scribner Trade editionAdams invites a contemplation that goes beyond rabbits pulling down a hutch door. As the moment comes to us, finally we understand and so believe in their courage. Unfortunately, neither Hazel nor Fiver is believed. As the door falls, we may see a little rabbit in ourselves--that part of us that, like those of the Honeycomb, is all "warm hearts and brave spirits" (p. As the group first sets out, they encounter their first obstacle: a small river. Everyone is tired and afraid; no one wants to cross, even though they can swim perfectly well; no one wants to leave little Pipkin and Fiver--the youngest and most exhausted of the bunch--behind. The actions of rabbits are on a rabbit-scale; Blackberry and Bigwig (my favorite, aside from Kehaar) have tackled a new, strong adversary and won.
279).If you haven't already read it, I highly recommend Watership Down.
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