Watership down
First edition
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| Author | Richard Adams |
|---|---|
| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Rex Collings |
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Publication date
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November 1972 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 413 (first edition) plus maps |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 633254 |
| 823/.9/14 | |
| LC Class | PZ10.3.A197 Wat |
| Followed by | Tales from Watership Down |
Watership Down is a classic adventure novel, written by English author Richard Adams, published by Rex Collings Ltd of London in 1972. Set in southern England, the story features a small group of rabbits. Although they live in their natural environment, they are anthropomorphised, possessing their own culture, language, proverbs, poetry, and mythology. Evoking epic themes, the novel follows the rabbits as they escape the destruction of their warren and seek a place to establish a new home, encountering perils and temptations along the way.
Watership Down was Richard Adams' first novel. Although it was rejected by several publishers before Collings accepted it, it won the annual Carnegie Medal, annual Guardian Prize, and other book awards. It was adapted into the 1978 animated film Watership Down. Later there was a television series also titled Watership Down which ran from 1999 to 2001.
Adams completed a sequel almost 25 years later, Tales from Watership Down (Random House, 1996; Hutchinson and Alfred A. Knopf imprints). It is a collection of 19 short stories about El-ahrairah and the rabbits of the Watership Down warren, with "Notes on Pronunciation" and "Lapine Glossary".
The title refers to the rabbits' destination, Watership Down, a hill in the north of Hampshire, England, near the area where Adams grew up. The story began as tales that Richard Adams told his young daughters Juliet and Rosamond during long car journeys. As he explained in 2007, he "began telling the story of the rabbits ... improvised off the top of my head, as we were driving along." The daughters insisted he write it down—"they were very, very persistent". After some delay he began writing in the evenings and completed it 18 months later. The book is dedicated to the two girls.
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