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Cover of Watership Down by Richard Adams

Watership Down

Richard Adams

  • 478 pages · about 8 hours
  • First published 1972
  • 108 editions
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1 About this book

Watership Down is an adventure novel by English author Richard Adams. Set in Hampshire in southern England, the story features a small group of rabbits. Although they live in their natural wild environment, with burrows, they are anthropomorphised, possessing their own culture, language, proverbs, poetry, and mythology. Evoking epic themes, the novel follows the rabbits as they escape the destruction of their warren and seek a place to establish a new home (the hill of Watership Down), encountering perils and temptations along the way.

Watership Down was Richard Adams's debut novel. It was rejected by several publishers before Collings accepted the manuscript; the published book then won the annual Carnegie Medal (UK), annual Guardian Prize (UK), and other book awards.

The novel was adapted into a 2D animated feature film in 1978 and a 2D animated children's television series from 1999 and 2001.

Summary adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

  • Adventure
  • Survival
  • Fantasy
  • Nature
  • Quests (Expeditions)
  • Rabbits
  • Children's stories
  • Effect of human beings on

2 What to expect

An epic adventure about a small band of rabbits who flee their doomed warren and search for a new home, meeting danger and temptation along the way. The rabbits have their own language, proverbs and myths, but the setting is a real English countryside, and the book deals with leadership, community, survival and the human impact on nature. It is long and unhurried, and it does not soften its fear and violence.

Good for readers who want: animal fantasy, an epic quest, and a classic adventure.

3 About Richard Adams

1920–2016

Richard George Adams (10 May 1920 – 24 December 2016) was an English novelist. He is best known for his debut novel Watership Down which achieved international acclaim. His other works included Maia, Shardik and The Plague Dogs. He studied Modern History at Worcester College, Oxford, before serving in the British Army during World War II. After completing his studies, he joined the British Civil Service.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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