Top 30 Modern Classics - XII

Watership Down

Richard Adams

Watership Down, written by English author Richard Adams, was published in 1972. The novel follows a group of 11 rabbits as they escape the destruction of their warren and seek a place to establish a new home.

The travelling group of rabbits finds itself following the leadership of Hazel, previously an unimportant member of the warren. They travel through dangerous territory, with Bigwig and Silver, the strongest rabbits among them. Eventually they meet a rabbit named Cowslip, who invites them to join his warren. However, when Bigwig is nearly killed in a snare, the rabbits realize that the new warren is managed by a farmer who protects the rabbits but also harvests a number of them for his own purposes, and the residents of the new warren are simply using them to increase their own odds of survival. After Fiver rescues Bigwig from the snare they continue on their journey. The group eventually finds Watership Down, an ideal location to set up their new warren.

The group manage to induct female rabbits into their group through a series of adventures. The group identifies an Efrafan doe named Hyzenthlay to leave the warren and recruit other does to join in the escape. Hazel and Bigwig devise a plan to rescue the group and join them on Watership Down, after which the Efrafan escapees start their new life of freedom .Although Watership Down is a peaceful habitat, Hazel realizes there are no does (female rabbits), thus making the future of the warren certain to end with the inevitable death of the rabbits present. With the help of a black-headed gull named Kehaar, they locate a nearby warren, Efrafa, which is overcrowded and has many does. Hazel sends a small embassy to Efrafa to present their request for does. While waiting for the group to return, Hazel and Pipkin scout the nearby Nuthanger Farm to find two pairs of hutch rabbits there; Hazel leads a raid on the farm the next day and rescues two does and a buck from the hutch. When the emissary returns, Hazel and his rabbits learn Efrafa is a police state led by the despotic General Woundwort, and the four rabbits dispatched there manage to return with little more than their lives intact.

Shortly Woundwort himself arrives to attack the newly formed warren at Watership Down. The watership Down rabits unleash the farm watchdog on Woundwort and his team. Woundwort fights bravely when the dog closes on him for the kill. Hazel is nearly killed by a cat, but is saved by the farm girl Lucy, the owner of the escaped hutch rabbits.

The epilogue is for the reader to read.

A classic full of symbolism. 

Namaste

Prabir