"Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.”

I really wanted to write about Watership Down by Richard Adams, I read it for the first time this year and I'm still not done thinking about it every waking moment. I haven't felt as invested in a book in forever, when I wasn't reading it I couldn't stop thinking about it and now I'm genuinely sad that it's over. I've seen the film many times before so knew what to expect, but the book just hit so much different and I love it deeply. This is not just a book about bunnies. I mostly read horror, and this was a lot darker in places!

“Animals don't behave like men,' he said. 'If they have to fight, they fight; and if they have to kill they kill. But they don't sit down and set their wits to work to devise ways of spoiling other creatures lives and hurting them. They have dignity and animality.”

I don't know what made me pick up the novel, I just saw it in the bookshop and figured that maybe I would like it as it aligns with my interests. Oh boy! I had no idea! I think because it's labeled as childrens fiction it's easy to overlook and underestimate it. There are layers to this book that children will miss, themes and allegory that won't carry the same impact. Calling it a childrens book is just flawed, and I think it got designated as such because 1970s publishers just couldn't conceive of a fantastical novel with a society of rabbits as anything but 'for kids' regardless of the rest of the content of the book. For some reason rabbits have suffered the fate of being relegated as content for babies which is not only absurd for a live animal, but often what gets them abused or even killed as they end up being given to small children by people with no idea of how to care for it's needs, or really even any knowledge of what a rabbit is beyond 'cute'. It's a serious issue far beyond a book being mis-genred.

While it is about rabbits, the characters were based on real people Richard Adams served with in WWII, and it makes you not only identify with but admire some of the most overlooked creatures on the planet. I loved the rich inner workings of the rabbits world, learning about their language, mythology, culture, and hierarchies. All of the characters felt so real to me, their way of life and belief system so plausible. I saw a review stating that "you quickly overlook the level of intelligence and humanity attributed to the dumb rabbits" which really irked me as it feels so arrogant. It's always struck me as strange that just because humans aren't privy to other creatures inner workings, they assume animals have less depth of thought and action.

“All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.”

“I am sorry for you with all my heart. But you cannot blame us, for you came to kill us if you could.”

I'd seen the movie adaptation before I read the book, but I never really connected with it in the same way, and re-watching it after I finished the novel I could tell why. Richard Adams said that the film was good but it wasn't his rabbits, and I'm inclined to agree. There's no heart to it like there is in the book, events happen to the characters and they move on, it's all too quick so neither the viewer nor the rabbits ever sit with any of it. Hazel acts like a leader from the first scene in the movie, and he takes control as soon as they leave the warren without any of the care and attention he gives the others in the novel. Book Hazel doesn't want to be chief rabbit, he doesn't consider himself capable, it's the other rabbits who make him so because he's always considering their needs and safety and is loyal to the end. So the Hazel of the movie feels arrogant and a smart ass by comparison. It is a good film though, and I do admire the art direction and the risks they took in portraying the violence (it suffers the same fate of the novel though in that it was never meant to be a kids film, but because it was an animation distributors slapped a U/G rating on it regardless and traumatized a generation. The rating has since been updated to PG to account for all of the blood and violence, and Richard Adams next book The Plague Dogs which was also animated never had the same mix up despite being about talking dogs. Funny that.)

Anyway, this is one of my favourite books now and I can't stop thinking about it. It doesn't matter if you read it as an adventure story, an allegory, or a commentary on society, it manages to be all of those things and more, it's so captivating and intricately told. I love this book, and I love it's characters so much.

“To come to the end of a time of anxiety and fear! To feel the cloud that hung over us lift and disperse—the cloud that dulled the heart and made happiness no more than a memory! This at least is one joy that must have been known by almost every living creature.”

(Photos of my new-to-me vintage 1976 edition beautifully illustrated by John Lawrence)