Product Description

"Watership Down" is stunning - a compulsive read. The story is a picaresque saga about a motley band of rabbits who desert their ancient warren when the gentle 'fiver' predicts imminent destruction of all who remain. Led by Fiver's intelligent brother Hazel, the refugees set out on an epic search fro a new home.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21684 in Books
• Published on: 1973-01-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

From Amazon.com
Watership Down has been a staple of high-school English classes for years. 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's 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 analogs 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

From AudioFile
This simple story of the arduous migration of a band of rabbits to a safer home is an artful blending of epic, myth and creative language. While this rendition conveys the basic story, it obstructs deeper appreciation of this rich work. The narrator seems rushed. There are few suspenseful pauses and no modulation of voice for chapter breaks, lexical footnotes, literary extracts or mythic digressions. The result is an amorphous stream of words which are difficult to disentangle. Such a complex book will succeed in audio only with an articulate reading to help the listener follow its many threads. This reading does not. B.M.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

--Chicago Tribune
"Spellbinding...Marvelous...A Taut Tale of Suspense, Hot Pursuit, and Derring-Do."