Watership Down by Richard Adams

Published 1972 · 164,011 words · about 11 hours at an average pace · Fantasy, Literary Fiction

How hard is Watership Down to read?

Watership Down scores 52 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 68 out of 100
Richard Adams introduces a significant number of invented 'Lapine' words (e.g., 'Owsla', 'hrududu', 'elil', 'tharn') that readers must learn, alongside precise botanical and zoological terms (e.g., 'dog's mercury', 'sainfoin', 'cockchafer'). This specialized lexicon, combined with literary allusions in chapter epigraphs, elevates the vocabulary beyond accessible contemporary fiction, placing it above '2666' but below the extensive archaisms of 'Moby-Dick'.
Sentence structure: 75 out of 100
The prose features numerous long, multi-clause sentences, often extending over a hundred words, such as the detailed description of martins and swallows assembling. These complex, hypotactic structures demand sustained reader attention to parse, creating a dense reading experience. While navigable, this style is significantly more demanding than the direct sentences of '1984' and approaches the intricate subordination seen in '2666'.
Abstraction: 78 out of 100
Beyond its concrete animal adventure, the narrative consistently explores abstract themes of society, leadership, freedom, and the nature of belief through the rabbits' experiences and their foundational El-ahrairah mythology. The Cowslip warren section, in particular, delves into profound existential questions about the price of security and self-deception, elevating the content to a philosophical allegory comparable to the thematic depth of 'Waiting for Godot' within a narrative framework.
Information density: 77 out of 100
The book rapidly introduces a rich world-building, including a unique language, an intricate mythology, a complex social structure, and a large cast of characters. New concepts, dangers, and cultural elements are presented at a brisk pace, requiring readers to absorb a continuous stream of detailed information. This dense layering of world-specific details and unfolding events demands high attention, exceeding 'The Great Gatsby' and aligning with the comprehensive scope of '2666'.
Narrative indirection: 55 out of 100
The narrative relies significantly on Fiver's prophetic visions, which are often cryptic and require Hazel's and the reader's interpretation to understand impending dangers. The mystery surrounding Cowslip's warren also demands inference, as the true nature of its 'hospitality' is gradually revealed through subtle cues and Fiver's insight rather than direct exposition.
Symbolic density: 75 out of 100
The book is rich with symbolic meaning, particularly through the rabbits' mythology of Frith and El-ahrairah, which allegorizes their struggle for survival against a 'Thousand Enemies.' The Cowslip warren functions as a powerful allegory for a society that sacrifices freedom and natural instinct for a deceptive sense of security, exemplified by the 'shining wire' of the snares.
Ironic distance: 20 out of 100
The narrative maintains a largely earnest and direct tone, inviting the reader to engage empathetically with the rabbits' struggles and perspectives. There is minimal ironic distance between the author's voice and the events described, unlike works employing unreliable narrators or pervasive satire.
Resolution withholding: 35 out of 100
The narrative follows a clear, linear progression, resolving immediate conflicts and dangers as the rabbits journey. While the ultimate goal of a permanent, safe home is a long-term quest, individual challenges like crossing the river or escaping the snare warren are met with decisive actions and clear outcomes, providing consistent, albeit temporary, closure.
Structural complexity: 30 out of 100
The book employs a straightforward, chronological narrative structure, primarily following Hazel's perspective. Although it integrates traditional rabbit folk tales (El-ahrairah stories) and occasional authorial explanations of Lapine culture, these elements are clearly framed and do not introduce significant shifts in timeline, perspective, or formal experimentation.

How Watership Down is regarded

Watership Down holds a literary regard score of 63 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

Where Watership Down sits in Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism

Placed by a full reading of the text (311 passages), not from reputation. Each verdict quotes the passage that earned it. On the axis from myth to irony, Watership Down scores 32 out of 100. A second mythos, irony, pulls at it with a weight of 0.2. About the map of stories.

Mode: Romance
Lord Frith sent one of his great Messengers to save us from the Efrafan Owsla.
Symbol: Mythical (archetypal)
What Robin Hood is to the English and John Henry to the American Negroes, Elil-Hrair-Rah, or El-ahrairah – The Prince with a Thousand Enemies – is to rabbits.
Mythos: Romance iii (quest) (romance iii)
‘That’s the place for us, Hazel. High, lonely hills, where the wind and the sound carry and the ground’s as dry as straw in a barn.
Genre: Romance + Novel
The rabbit is better off. His forelegs support his horizontal body and the great back legs do the work.

Where the story of Watership Down takes place

  • Hampshire and Berkshire downs, Test valley, May to October (c. 1970s) (1970 to 1971), the main setting
  • El-ahrairah's mythic world of Frith, Prince Rainbow and Inlé

6 things that are true of Watership Down, with the passage for each

  1. The notice board that Fiver fears announces a housing development by a Newbury firm.

    THIS IDEALLY SITUATED ESTATE, COMPRISING SIX ACRES OF EXCELLENT BUILDING LAND, IS TO BE DEVELOPED WITH HIGH CLASS MODERN RESIDENCES BY SUTCH AND MARTIN, LIMITED, OF NEWBURY BERKS.

  2. Bigwig is caught in a copper-wire snare at Cowslip's warren.

    A length of twisted copper wire, gleaming dully in the first sunlight, was looped round his neck and ran taut across one fore-paw

  3. The wounded bird the rabbits shelter and feed is a black-headed gull.

    Black-headed gulls are gregarious.

  4. Ten Efrafan does ride the punt downriver with the rabbits.

    There were in fact ten does altogether – though none of the rabbits knew the number

  5. Rabbits in this book can count only to four; anything above is 'hrair', a lot.

    Rabbits can count up to four. Any number above four is Hrair – ‘a lot’, or ‘a thousand’.

  6. The book ends with Hazel's death, when a visitor with silver-shining ears invites him to join his Owsla.

    I’ve come to ask whether you’d care to join my Owsla. We shall be glad to have you and you’ll enjoy it.

Scenes in Watership Down that Frye would name

29 sightings of Frye's terms in the text. The strongest:

Lyric, untitled
The wind is blowing, blowing over the grass. It shakes the willow catkins; the leaves shine silver. Silverweed's embedded poem is a lyric overheard in the great burrow.
Anagnorisis, untitled
That warren’s nothing but a death-hole! The whole place is one foul elil’s larder! Fiver's recognition of the warren's secret reverses the rabbits' plan and pivots the story.
Hamartia, untitled
For one beat of his pulse the lame rabbit’s idea shone clearly before him. He grasped it and realized what it meant. The next, he had pushed it away from him. Woundwort's refusal of an alliance is his tragic misstep.
Agon, untitled
His claws found Woundwort’s leg, ripping sideways; but before he could draw back, Woundwort’s whole weight came down on him Bigwig and Woundwort fight in the narrow run, the climactic contest of the siege.
Pathos, untitled
It seemed to Hazel that he would not be needing his body any more, so he left it lying on the edge of the ditch Hazel's death-and-translation scene closes the book.
Epos, untitled
‘Long ago, Frith made the world. He made all the stars too and the world is one of the stars. Dandelion's oral creation tale of Frith and El-ahrairah.

Books that share these scenes with Watership Down

About the author

Richard Adams