Down and Out in Watership Hills (Watership Down - Richard Adams)

Member Name: Ophelia

Product:	Watership Down - Richard Adams
Date:	07/05/03 (345 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Rural descriptions, Excitement, No gore

Disadvantages: None

At the tender age of six or seven I was taken by my parents to see my first ever film in a cinema. That film was Watership Down; what could be more appropriate for a youngster than a film about fluffy bunny rabbits? Those of you who have seen the film will not be surprised to hear that I came out of the cinema severely traumatised by the horror of the film and the scenes of blood and death.

As a result of this horrific childhood experience I have, to this day, avoided reading the book by Richard Adams, as I couldn?t face the harrowing tale of rabbits on the run. Recently I was persuaded by a friend to pick up the novel and face my fears. Did I make it to the end without using up the EU?s tissue mountain?

THE STORY

Fiver is a rabbit with a special talent; he has premonitions of danger. Fiver lives in Sandleford Warren in Hampshire and is suddenly struck by a huge fear that terrible and inescapable danger is approaching the warren.

The Chief Rabbit will not listen and so Fiver, his best friend, Hazel, Bigwig, a strong fighter, and some other rabbits agree to escape the warren together to set up a new warren in a safe place.

The rabbits face many dangers before finding suitable ground. However, their troubles are not yet over, as they are a group of bucks and without some does they will be unable to breed and the warren will die out.

So the rabbits send out an expedition to find does. The only nearby warren is named Efrafa and it is from here that they must find their females. However, the warren is run in an inhumane (or inrabbit) way, the rabbits are terrified of their Chief and it seems that our heroes will have to risk lives in order to complete the task.

THE SETTING

The book is set on the Hampshire Downs between Kingsclere and Sydmonton. In the normal course of events such a setting would provide beautiful descriptions of the countryside. However, as this book is written from a rab
bit?s point of view, not only is the reader delighted by tremendously vivid descriptions of the wildlife, foliage and flowers but the scene is brought more to life by the even richer smells and sounds of the downs, which to a rabbit would be just as significant.

Adams paints a wonderful picture of the natural surroundings and the descriptions are so intricate that the reader feels transported to the depths of the Hampshire countryside.

RABBIT LINGUISTICS

With any book it is extremely important that the reader is able to empathise with the main characters. With this book you may think that this could be a problem as the reader is of a different species to the protagonists. However, Adams explains the way of life of the rabbits well and the complexity of their conventions and etiquette is emphasised by the fact that he uses numerous made-up rabbit words to describe things for which there would be no word in the human language.

These words are well explained when they first arise and there are not so many of them as to make the reading hard going. The balance is just right to demonstrate that the rabbits world is as interesting as that of a human.

The words themselves are, in many cases, delightful to the eye and to the tongue (try reading them aloud). For instance, my favourite word (which I haven?t stopped using since reading the book) is silflay, which is the activity of going out of the warren to graze.

Hlessil = a rabbit living in the open without a hole.
Owsla = a group of strong or clever rabbits who exercise authority in the warren under the control of the Chief Rabbit.
Elil = predators, such as foxes, stoats or cats.

When the rabbits encounter other animals in the book, such as mice and birds, these other animals cannot speak rabbit but they can communicate through a shared language of hedgerow talk, which is not as sophisticated as rabbit. When these creatures speak, Adams writes
their words in dialect, which appears a little like Spanish. This differentiates the rabbits from the other animals.

The reader learns to understand the rabbits, their morality and cultural heritage through stories which are told by some of the characters throughout the book. These stories involve El-ahrairah, the first ever rabbit on Earth, created by the God, Frith. The stories normally consist of a tale in which El-ahrairah uses his quick wits to concoct a plan to fool the rabbits? enemies and help his own rabbit people in some way. Through these stories we gain further insight into rabbits? beliefs and see our heroes as more than just animals.

THE RABBITS

The characters in the book all have different personalities and throughout the story we get to know them well and respect and love them.

Hazel: He is Fiver?s best friend and becomes Chief Rabbit of the new warren. Although he is neither big nor particularly strong, the other rabbits respect him as he is clever, clear-headed in a crisis and always puts the welfare of the other rabbits first.

Fiver: While he may seem a little eccentric due to his premonitions, Fiver?s instincts prove to be correct and he eventually turns the other rabbits disdain towards him to a healthy respect.

Bigwig: The largest of the rabbits who was a high ranking member of the Sandleford Owsla. He is extremely brave and strong and often risks himself to save the other rabbits or protect the weaker rabbits.

Blackberry: The cleverest of the rabbits. One of the nice aspects of this book is that the rabbits are just that, rabbits; they are not humanised and still maintain animal traits. Most of the rabbits (bless them) are a little dim but luckily Blackberry is intelligent and it is he who has to think up plans and schemes and explain them to the others.

EFRAFA

The danger the rabbits face escalates when they commence their attempts to collect some does fr
om the Efrafa Warren. Efrafa is ruled by a Chief Rabbit called General Woundwort, the most terrifying character in the book. He is a heartless and power-hungry rabbit who controls the warren through fear and brutality.

The rabbits are divided into groups called Marks and each member of a Mark is distinguished by a scar given at birth by a vicious bite. They are ruled by Captains who are recruited from members of the Owsla. The warren is run like a prison and all rabbits must remain underground unless supervised by a Captain. They are not free to come and go as they please and can only silflay at determined times of the day.

Any rabbit who tries to escape is punished severely, such as Blackavar who had his ears chewed off for his attempt. Strange rabbits who wander into their territory are either captured or put to death and any rabbits who try to set up a new warren in the vicinity are brutally dug out and killed.

As you can see the rabbits task is not an easy one and by the time we reach this stage in the story we have come to know the group well and are very concerned about the welfare of the heroes. As they embark upon their task the reader is gripped with excitement, anticipation and fear. The book is a nail-biting and compulsive read.

WOT NO BLOODBATH?

The most startling aspect of the book was its lack of horrific rabbit death scenes! Despite my expectations created by the film, the story is narrated relatively gently and, although death does touch the rabbits from time to time, descriptions are not graphic and I can promise you a happy ending.

The plot is interesting, the descriptions of rabbit life intriguing, the characters lovable and the pace exciting. I cannot recommend the book highly enough and, best of all, you won?t have nightmares after reading it!



OTHER INFO
Publisher: Penguin Books
Price: £4.99
ISBN: 0-14-00-3958-9

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