Rating: 
Summary: Work of art
Review: Very rarely does a book grip your emotions so tightly as to make you drop the book in horror, only to come back, read further on, and jump out of your seat to cheer.
The most important thing to do when reading this book or recomending this book is to keep an open mind. I started reading it knowing nothing but the title, and once I found it was about rabbits, I just about put it down. Now, however, I am extremely glad that I hadn't. This book has taught me a great deal about leadership and diversity, but most importantly, it was one of the best stories I have ever read. The themes and main ideas present in this book are enough to keep an english major entertained, but are simple enough that a child would easily enjoy this story. In fact, if you have children, I HIGHLY recomend introducing this story to them. Trust me, they will be glad you did.
Rating:
Summary: Watership Down
Review: Watership Down, by Richard Adams, is a tale that shows courage, determination, teamwork, human nature, ethics and adventure. It can't be said to be about one thing. One subject in this book is rabbits living in a village must flee their habitats, because of destruction by land developers. The rabbits try to search for a safe place, but every corner they turn, danger meets them. Character development is extraordinary, many of the characters are just like humans, because they are talking animals. Adam's uses old folk writing styles, with a "lapine" glossary for the language of rabbitese.
Rating:
Summary: MY FAVORITE BOOK OF ALL TIME
Review: Without being long winded, Watership Down is hands down my favorite book of all time.
Rating:
Summary: Why Can'y All Books Be Like This?
Review: ....
It's about a group of rabbits who set out to find new land when one of the rabbit's brother feels that their area is doomed to be killed gruesomely. I wish I could describe it better, but there's so much to it, so much depth and beauty and happy and sad. Who ever you are, if you are reading this review you should read this book. It's truly amazing.
Rating: 
Summary: Watership Down
Review: Reviewers before me, both professional and amateur, here on Amazon and elsewhere have written with greater eloquence than mine the original and majestic brilliance of this book. I will just mention that the allegory of rabbits in exile is very relevant today. A wonderful read for all ages!Adams equals and perhaps exceeds George Orwell's "Animal Farm", Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book", Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in the Willows", and E.B. White's "Charlotte's Web" in the animal genre of fiction. He even locates the story in a real enough place, the downs of Berkshire.
Rating:
Summary: Not a little kid's bunny book.
Review: I don't know what started the rumor about rabbits being cute, fuzzy, sweet, little animals. They're certainly not. Read this book, whch quite closely follows the behaviors of real wild rabbits and you'll find that they're the exact opposite. Watership Down is good from the very beginning, and the whole book is thrilling. It's one that you just can't bring yourself to put down. If you read it once you'll want to read it again. I also reccomend you buy Tales from Watership Down which, although it does focus more on the tales of El-ahrairah, is also good. Please buy this book. You won't regret it!
Rating:
Summary: The Wandrous, Wonderful Watership Down
Review: Great Story! I totally think about animals (rabbits) differently after reading this. WaterShip Down tells a mind-blowing journey of exile rabbits. It wasn't long before I realized that the rabbits were supposed to symbolize the Pilgrims in coming to and colonizing America. The author, Richard Adams, does an excellent job of showing this connection. At many times in reading this book, I forgot that I was reading about rabbits! The author lets you know about each rabbit specifically, and makes you feel like you know everything about their culture. There was an intricate balance of adventure, danger, and heroism, but it is never too melancholy. The only thing I could think of adding, would be a little bit of humor. This would be a great book for anyone wanting a challenging read, but keeps everyone on their toes.
Rating:
Summary: A Surprising read
Review: I was assigned this book for my freshman English class, and being a lazy student, I was reluctant to read this at first. All throughout my schooling I had hardly ever fully read a book, but this one surprised me. I found myself actually enjoying it. It was a quick read for me, which was highly unusual. This is a wonderful story about trying to make a happy life, and that's what we all need. I highly recommend this book to anyone who feels like becoming engrossed and enthralled with a fascinating story.
Rating:
Summary: The Triumph of Freedom
Review: Watership Down is simply one of the greatest novels ever written. Although often considered a children's book, it really takes an adult to appreciate Adams wonderful tale in all its manifestations. The book has many themes weaved through it: ecology, man's place in nature, the nature of primitive societies (the parallels between rabbit society and that of pre-agricultural man are many), amongst others. However perhaps the most important theme in the book, and one I would like to explore a little in this review, is the importance of individual freedom.
The Sandleford warren is destroyed because it will not, can not by its very make-up, heed the warning of Fiver. It is only freedom that allows the individual talents of Dandelion, Bigwig, Blackberry, Fiver and especially Hazel to blossom; to leave the Sandleford warren, understand the dangers of Cowslip's warren and defeat General Woundwort and the Efrafans.
Many have compared the Efrafa with Nazism because of its military character. I feel the parallels with communism are stronger: Woundwort as Stalin, Vervain and his secret police as Beria and the NKVD, and the Owsla as the Party. The lack of freedom, the show trials, the great Leader, are of course common to both fascism and communism. However the strict regimentation, the fact that no one is allowed to leave, and above all the justification that oppression is necessary for the good of the group; these are all hallmarks of socialist states from the Soviet Union in the 30's to today's North Korea.
Please understand that these are underlying themes only, the book is in its essence an adventure tale, and one of the most enjoyable ever written.
Rating:
Summary: Watership Down (or For Lack of a Better Review Title)
Review: When I stumble across a book or movie that I enjoy, I'll often come here and check out what other people have to say about it. Reading the one-star reviews often opens me up to the faults of the book or the movie, which I usually tend to block out while I'm reading or watching it. I must say that for Watership Down, that is not the case. Of course, Watership Down is not perfect (no book is), but I must admit I find some of the reasons given by one-star reviewers for their dislike (and, in some cases, even outright hatred) of this book dubious, to say the least. One reviewer harped that the book was unrealistic because it had talking rabbits. Um, that's probably why it's FICTION. Another reviewer complained that those who liked this book were insulting the opinions of those who didn't. I intend to insult no one with this review (and, if by some chance I do, I apologize), and I'm sure that the offenses several of the people who gave this book high ratings were inadvertent (though I'm positive the majority were intended, and I am sorry for that), but a lot of the one-star reviewers weren't exactly polite. I, for one, take offense at being called a weirdo, a person with no life, someone with a simple mind, a person who likes rabbits way "to" much, and an "intence" animal-lover, among other insults. For the information of all those concerned, I do happen to like animals very much, but why anyone would say this book is only for animal-lovers is beyond me. Rabbits tearing each other to shreds doesn't exactly sound like PETA's cup of tea. One reviewer said he gave up on the book because he read to page seven and nothing had happened yet. Uh, I don't know about you, but when I'm on page SEVEN in a book almost FIVE HUNDRED pages long, I don't exactly expect to be on the edge of my seat. A very common complaint about Watership Down was that it was boring and there were too many descriptions. As I recall, one reviewer claimed that descriptions of the grass the rabbits were eating lasted ten pages. Quite obviously, this is an exaggeration. Personally, I never noticed a description longer than half a page. If you want to read a book saturated with seemingly endless descriptions of the landscape, read The Lord of the Rings. While I love the story, I have never been able to finish the book. One reviewer claimed that Watership Down was "long and all about talking rabbits using words only an english professor would know." On the contrary, I didn't find too many so-called "big words" in there, and my vocabulary is modest at best. Just a difference of opinion, I guess. Another thing I noticed about the one-star reviews is that the majority of them appear to be by children who were forced to read the book and found it "boring." I find this unfortunate, because if these kids had been allowed to wait until their reading comprehension skills were developed well enough to tackle Watership Down, many of them might have enjoyed it. Finally, the one complaint that really irked me was that the reviewer couldn't "believe the author wasted so much time writing this book!" It calls to mind a reviewer of The Lord of the Rings who claimed Tolkien had way too much time on his hands and insinuated that he was a loser for laboring so long to create the imaginary people, places, and languages of Middle-earth. Please, people, tell us as many faults as you can find with the book, but don't insult the author. I, for one, am quite glad that Mr. Adams "wasted so much time" writing this book. I guess that makes me an "intence animal lover who has no life" and "likes rabbits way to much." Of course, all of the above has been my very humble opinion. Again, I did not intend to insult anyone with this review (which turned out to be not so much a review as a rebuttal). I respect the opinions of all those who did not like Watership Down, even those opinions which were expressed in an insulting manner. Please forgive anything I may have said that may have suggested I held some negative view of your opinion. I don't want to be responsible for damaging your ego, or causing any harm to your mental state. We are all friends here, and I hope that this unfortunate difference of opinion has not caused you any distress. Please do not let the reviews on amazon.com persuade you one way or the other; read Watership Down for yourself and form your own opinions, as you should do for any book you think you might enjoy. As for me, I'm off to read the sequel.
|
