Book Review: Watership Down by Richard Adams

Yes, I know it’s talking bunnies. But that’s what makes Watership Down so amazing. With characters whose line of sight is about 8 inches off the ground, and who can’t hold a sword or do magic, Adams wrote one of the best fantasies in print.

Hazel’s brother, Fiver, has a vision foretelling the destruction of Sandleford Warren. When Hazel brings the danger to the attention of the Threarah, the Threarah shrugs off the warning. Frustrated, Hazel leaves the warren with a group of rabbits in search of safety. They briefly find a haven in Strawberry’s warren, which turns out to be a horrifying counterfeit of safety. After a narrow escape, they settle on Watership Down, and prepare to live the good life. Unfortunately, they forgot to bring any female rabbits with them. Off they go again in search of doe rabbits. They find does, but they have to fight the dictatorial General Woundwort to get them.

Because you can’t talk about fantasy without talking about Tolkien, I’ll talk about Tolkien. Lord of the Rings is the best fantasy series every written. It was so good that floods of authors who want to write fantasy found a formula in LOTR, and essentially create Tolkienesque derivative fantasies. Some of them are fantastic stories. It’s a testament to Tolkien’s accomplishment that even second and third generations copies of his work are so much fun to read.

Watership Down is not a Tolkien fantasy derivative. Unlike LOTR-based works, Adams does not create several different races and then draw one representative in each race to join an uncertain and angst-ridden leader on a quest to destroy the enemy. There is only one society in Watership Down. And while the rabbits are affected by humans, birds and mice, their story isn’t about learning to work with different races. Their struggles are in learning to work with the familiar faces they’ve always known. Working with familiar people can be just as challenging as working with people who are obviously different.

Hazel is not a heroic leader because that is his destiny. He is a leader because someone has to do the job, and if the stronger rabbits take over, they might not treat his brother very well. Unlike the leaders in Tolkienesque fantasy, Hazel has no angst. Occasionally he is uncertain, but he is too practical to procrastinate a decision in order to agonize about whether or not he ought to be the one making the decision.

We know leaders like Hazel. He isn’t out to prove his worthiness to rule the world. He’s just trying to get the job done. And he’s got to do the job with the people at hand. He doesn’t get a sidekick with magical powers or otherworldly wisdom. You can see leaders like Hazel in the ward leadership, or on the local community council. They are average guys working with average people who somehow keep things moving forward by day-to-day decisions instead of by vanquishing all their foes in one cataclysmic confrontation. Hazel is a leader you know face to face, not one you read about in the newspaper.

Another difference between LOTR-based fantasy and Watership Down is the complexity and familiarity of the evil. LOTR-based evil is very one-dimensional. Sauron is unredeemably evil, and never had the capacity to be any different. His followers share his flat evil, and have no purpose but to be sword-fodder for the good guys.

The rabbits in Watership Down never meet one-dimensional evil. They deal with the careless evil of man, who shrugs at the rabbits’ existence and destroys them. They deal with the complacent evil of the Threarah, who will not listen to counsel because it will discomfit him. The evil at Strawberry’s burrow is a different kind of complacency, one even the Threarah would never countenance.

Then there is General Woundwort, the one actively evil villain of the book. But even General Woundwort wasn’t always evil. Fear turned him into a dictator. Even now, he sees himself as a benefactor and protector of his warren. When Hazel confronts Woundwort with a choice, there is enough depth in him that the outcome is not a foregone conclusion. Woundwort could choose either way, and either way would be believable for his character.

Total Sauron-level evil exists in our world, but it isn’t anything I’m likely to encounter. I live in a happy little bubble. I’m more likely to run into Threarah-level evil: “I’m too comfortable to really think anything bad will happen.” Or Strawberry’s warren-level evil: “As long as the bad things don’t happen to me, it doesn’t matter if other people suffer.” Or General Woundwort-level evil: “I’m afraid and I’ll turn into a control freak just to eliminate my fear.”

Watership Down is a prosaic fantasy. Evil is not going to end the world in one blaze of hatred. The humans who destroy Sandleford Warren aren’t doing it to be evil. The rabbits, poignantly, realize their own unimportance. “It was just because we were in their way,” says Captain Holly, one of the only survivors of the destruction of Sandleford Warren. You can’t force a dramatic showdown with your own insignificance.

Adams’ book is a fantasy about living in the world, not about saving the world. It’s a fantasy that is surprisingly close to the life we actually live, even if it is about rabbits.