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A review of Watership Down

by Richard Adams

Reviewed by: Susan Buckner
About Susan Buckner

Watership Down Picture this: A band of travelers leave their old home, which is facing certain destruction. They struggle through strange lands and dangerous places, finally reaching their new home. Then, when all seems perfect, an army from another land comes to try and kill them. And, what is most surprising about these travelers is…they are rabbits.

Watership Down is the story of the rabbit Hazel and his companions, who leave their old warren when Hazel’s brother, a visionary rabbit, foresees catastrophe. Hazel collects a group of rabbits who want to leave the warren, and they make their escape into an unknown world. After a long and exhausting journey, they arrive at Watership down, a hill untouched by men. It is there they find, to their surprise, they have left out one detail: All the rabbits are males. They need to locate some females, or their warren will vanish.

The rabbits locate another warren a few days travel away. Hazel sends messengers with a proposal to let some does come to their warren. When they arrive, however, the messengers discover this warren is a dictatorship, ruled by a huge, fierce rabbit called General Woundwort. He refuses to let any of his does go to Hazel’s warren, instead trying to keep the messengers as part of his warren. They escape, and Hazel devises a plan to liberate some of the does.

What makes Watership Down such a wonderful story is that it makes no apologies for its characters. Hazel and his friends are not “cute”, they are fully drawn and unique individuals. It is easy to believe them as they travel across the English countryside. The reader has no trouble envisioning Watership Down, Woundwort’s warren, and the rabbits themselves. Watership Down can be read and enjoyed by adults and children alike, although some scenes may be a little brutal for very young readers. This is a book to be read over and over again.

Click here to buy this book, or read more about it at Amazon.com: Watership Down

Copyright © by Susan Buckner, 2002

Reviewed by Susan Buckner:
-- Gone With the Wind - by Margaret Mitchell
-- Watership Down - by Richard Adams
-- The Chronicles of Narnia - by C.S. Lewis
-- The Dark is Rising Sequence - by Susan Cooper









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