Book Review: Tales from Watership Down by Richard Adams

Tales from Watership Down by Richard Adams

This collection of stories continues the world of Watership Down, a popular and well-written novel from the 1970s about a group of rabbit who set out to establish a new warren for themselves. The stories are divided into three sections.

The first section tells stories from the legends of El-ahrairah, a semi-mythical rabbit who was a trickster and an adventurer. He goes way back, before rabbits had a sense of smell, so the first story tells how he obtained that gift from the gods. He uses his wiles to beat seemingly unbeatable opponents like a giant rabbit called King Fur-Rocious and a pair of foxes. The second section contains tales of El-ahrairah and his companion Rabscuttle, though Rabscuttle appears in some of the earlier stories and the tone of the second section is very similar. I'm not sure it really needed to be a separate section.

The third section gets back to the adventures of the Watership Down warren. Several stories are more like chapters of a longer narrative since the plots lead directly from one to the next. Seeing Hazel, Fiver, Bigwig, and the others in action is fun. The stories are entertaining though they do not have the epic sweep of the original novel. I still found them very entertaining and a fun visit with some old friends.

Recommended, especially for Watership Down fans (which should be everyone, because how can you not like that book?).