The Leaping Rabbit

This is probably the only novel about rabbits to ever reach #1 on the bestseller list. Some call it a children’s book, but I don’t think it is. And I wouldn’t exactly classify it as a fantasy, either; it’s more of an epic myth akin to The Iliad and The Odyssey.

Unlike the characters in The Wind in the Willows or the Redwall books, the rabbits of Watership Down aren’t anthropomorphic creatures, wearing clothes and drinking ale; they are just rabbits. Their desires are therefore the most basic animal desires: survival, food, safety. But these simple desires lead them into epic journeys, raids, and battles. Because the characters are such small and common creatures living in a hostile world full of dangers and predators, their story becomes a story of remarkable courage.

Richard Adams writes beautifully, and the story’s rolling landscapes and wide open spaces are part of what makes this book feel like summer to me. It’s not light reading; the story takes its time to get going, and my copy is almost 500 pages long, but Watership Down is definitely a story worth reading and one that, for me, carries the flavor of summer. It’s also one of the stories that inspired the title of this blog.