Watership Down

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Summary: Watership down is a harrowing tale of rabbits.
Review: Watership Down is a excellent story of courage, endurance, and frienship personified onto one of natures cutest creatures, the rabbit. I first read this book when I was ten years old, and still the adventures of Hazel, fiver, bigwig, and the rest remain in my memory. In 25 years I have not found a book that shows the extent a creature will go to to survive. This book concerns itself with the tale of how a band of fugitive rabbits leave a doomed warren in search of a new, safe place to live. not only does adams recreate the world through the rabbit's point of view (an example being that a hrududu is a car because of it's sound,) he also creates a set of rabbit fairy tales, which are most interesting. The vivid descriptions and the story itself cause me to place watership down as the finest book I have ever read.

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Summary: JUST KIDDING!
Review: This book is tight! I mean, everybody should read this. Even Goose Bump freaks. For those who can't get used to the idea of talking rabbits, get a life! I also recommend the sequel, Tales From Watership Down. For that dude that couldn't get past page 3, maybe he should take to reading toilet paper (used). All I can say is, "YO QUIERO WATERSHIP DOWN!"

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Summary: Just a minute
Review: I understand some people thinks this book is bad.These people are people that dosen't know how to understand a good god damn book.You people think little bunnies that talk are silly.Perhaps you are the silly one.This book is a great book with thoughts brought into.Maybe for the dude that only read till pg.3 should give it a try till page.55.

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Summary: It's more than a bunny book.
Review: I'm reading this in a GT reading class, and all we're studying is bunny language. It's hard to ignore the incredible similarity here with communism. I'm not a history nut, so I'm not sure if it symbolizes a war, but it seems like it. Anyway, it's a good book, and it's funny when there are strong political issues, followed by some problem with a tail. Well, you should read it.

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Summary: Brilliant Allegory
Review: This book is one that will truly change your perspective on the human race. It is written so that we can see how we really look and behave, but safely through the eyes of our furry friends. This book takes over where Orwell left off in Animal Farm. A brilliant alegory that weaves a tale much more complex than Orwell delivered. Not limted to totlaitarianism, Watership Down runs the gamut from the high of the greates triumph to the lows of mortal defeat. Adams is a classic storyteller with a flare that is rarely seen in today's writers.

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Summary: Millenial Tension.
Review: I must have read this book about a dozen times, at some of the most down periods of my life .... but I get back up again, lost in the sheer exuberance of the cycles of life which Watership Down rises on. Having grown up on the Downs themselves, and seen the recent Avebury road protests nearby, I need the escape from a consumer reality into this social fantasy, which makes sense as a way of living. There may be fighting and vicious warlords, but this is animal Nature, and only Nature, not the willful butchery of human centuries. As the Millenium casts it's shadow over us, let's return to the greatest novel of the century - great in it's simplicity and beliefs ; and after all that's who we really are.

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Summary: Hare-Raising!
Review: So, yes, its about a warren of talking bunnies on the move. Chances are if you can't get past the basic idea that the main characters are rabbits and that yes, dialogue indicates that they communicate with one another, then maybe fantasy and all its charms are lost on you.

In short, if you can't get past the idea of "talking bunnies" then not only have you missed the point, but you've also picked the wrong book. This isn't a book for those without imagination, and this isn't a book for children or those with a weak stomach.

What you SHOULD expect is a thinly disguised political commentary. You would be suprised how much rabbits and human beings have in common when looked at from the right perspective. And that's exactly what Richard Adams trys to do...put it in the proper perspective.

The book is about freedom, about forming a little home, or country, of your own, and of living by your own ethical standards. Its also about standing up to tyranny and evil. Heck, I forgot to mention, its a pretty corking piece of adventure with a lot of suspense and some pretty good action. Take the rabbits out and put humans in, and you've got a pretty good Cold War thriller or Revolutionary War story. Leave the bunnies in and you've got a tremendous work of fantasy that also delivers a tremendous commentary on human nature.

And its amazing how much we can learn about human nature from a bunch of rabbits.

What's up, Doc? Read the book!

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Summary: Watership Down has no equal.
Review: Every time I read it, I get reconfirmation that it's the best book ever. Not only does it make for a great adventure book, but it's also right on the mark, rabbit-wise. For the last year I've been raising two rabbits as pets. It seems their mannerisms and actions were pulled right from the pages of this novel.

Watership Down should be a necessary read before getting a rabbit as a pet. The book makes one realize how important freedom is to a rabbit. Of course, my rabbits aren't entirely free (they're not allowed to leave to go to a movie or anything) but they aren't caged, and get free run of the house, as well as occasional romps outside. From the way they play, and from their leaps of joy, I have a pretty good feeling they're happy living where they are.

If you're looking for an incredible book for someone of any age, this is it. And if you know someone who has rabbits as pets, get them this book, please. The knowledge one can get from this book is priceless.


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Summary: Probably the greatest story I have ever read
Review: This is a story for all ages. It has every element that makes a story truly great: action, love, villains and, yes, heroes. It is a beautiful book, elegantly written, and its brief chapters make it very easy to read even if the reader has little time to do so. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

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Summary: Read the UK edition
Review: This is an utterly fabulous book, but the American edition (pictured) has a very slight omission (for some inexplicable, and indeed unforgivable reason), which alters the impact of a certain element of the story. (Omission, for those intereseted, is in the First Book, at end of the "Hard Going" chapter, when the rabbits run down joyously to the field.) So, two tips: 1. Make the effort to read this book, and 2. If you do, for goodness' sake make the effort to read the right one.