Watership Down - Softcover

Adams, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141186666 ISBN 13: 9780141186665

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2001

Synopsis

Fiver could sense danger - something terrible was going to happen to the warren. His brother Hazel could sense it too. They had to leave the warren, and they had to persuade the other rabbits to join them. And so a band of rabbits begin a long and perilous journey. One of the most remarkable and bizarre British novels of the 1970s, WATERSHIP DOWN'S success has been so great that it is one of the very few books that can be described as having changed a generation's view of the world.

About this title

Review:

Despite the fact that it's often a hard sell at first (what teenager wouldn't cringe at the thought of 400-plus pages of talking rabbits?), Richard Adams' bunny-centric epic rarely fails to win the love and respect of anyone who reads it, regardless of age. Like most great novels, Watership Down is a rich story that can be read (and reread) on many different levels. The book is often praised as an allegory, with its analogues between human and rabbit culture (a fact sometimes used to goad skeptical teens, who resent the challenge that they won't "get" it, into reading it), but it's equally praiseworthy as just a corking good adventure.

The story follows a warren of Berkshire rabbits fleeing the destruction of their home by a land developer. As they search for a safe haven, skirting danger at every turn, we become acquainted with the band and its compelling culture and mythos. Adams has crafted a touching, involving world in the dirt and scrub of the English countryside, complete with its own folk history and language (the book comes with a "lapine" glossary, a guide to rabbitese). As much about freedom, ethics and human nature as it is about a bunch of bunnies looking for a warm hidey-hole and some mates, Watership Down will continue to make the transition from classroom desk to bedside table for many generations to come. --Paul Hughes

Review:

Exquisite... a treasured keepsake for those whose original version has become tattered, and a delightful introduction to a new generation

(The View magazine)

'This new edition is quite spectacular' 

(Bill Heine, BBC Radio Oxford)

‘Watership Down is stunning, compulsive reading.’ 

(Sunday Times)

'A great book. A whole world is created, perfectly real in itself, yet constituting a deep incidental comment on human affairs.' 

(Guardian)

‘This beautifully written and intensely moving story is the work of an extraordinary imagination.’ 

(Sunday Telegraph)

‘An impressive, immensely readable story, held together over 400 pages by a powerful imagination that soon forbids disbelief.’ 

(New Statesman)

'A gripping story of rebellion in a rabbit warren and the subsequent adventures of the rebels. Adams has a poetic eye and a gift for storytelling which will speak to readers of all ages for many years to come.' 

(Sunday Times)

'A masterpiece. The best story about wild animals since The Wind in the Willows. Very funny, exciting, often moving.' 

(Evening Standard)

‘This lovely, lovely novel will join those classics which preserve the simpler joys... and there is the wonder of the English countryside, seen with the ground-level detail of a rabbit’s eye and ear and nose, the scent and savour of short, sweet grass, the aromatic tiny wild plants, their names used like charms.’

(Monica Dickens)

‘Quite marvelous... A powerful new vision of the great chain of being.’ 

(New York Times Book Review)

‘A classic... A great book.’  

(Los Angeles Times)

‘Spellbinding...Marvelous...A taut tale of suspense, hot pursuit and derring-do.’ 

(Chicago Tribune)

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0141186666
• ISBN 13: 9780141186665
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 496