The Rabbit Underground : Contexts and Legacies of Watership Down

Contributions by Douglas A. Anderson, Catherine Butler, Frances Critchley, Virginie Douglas, Vivienne Féasson, Dimitra Fimi, Frances Foster, Andrew Higgins, Kat J. Melia, Michael Mikesell, Amanda Potter, John D. Rateliff, Scott R. Robinson, SF Said, and Lisa Sainsbury

Since its publication in 1972, Watership Down has become one of the most celebrated works of twentieth-century children’s literature. With more than fifty million copies sold worldwide, Richard Adams’s tale of a band of rabbits searching for a new home defied expectations with its epic scope, mythological depth, and environmental consciousness—qualities that continue to resonate more than fifty years later. A landmark of crossover fiction, the novel captivates readers of all ages through its sophisticated prose, vividly imagined world, and profound reflections on community, leadership, survival, and the natural world.

Yet despite its critical and commercial success, Watership Down has received surprisingly little scholarly attention. This collection offers a long-overdue reappraisal of the novel’s significance, assembling contributions from an international range of scholars of literature, ecology, linguistics, classics, translation, film, and even the creator of Bunnies & Burrows, the Watership Down role-playing game. The essays explore the book’s mythopoeic structure, its place within the epic tradition, its invention of language and lore, and its powerful legacy in animal fiction and ecological thought. They also trace the novel’s complex adaptation history—from the controversial 1978 animated film to the 2018 Netflix miniseries—and examine its wide-reaching influence on writers, gamers, and environmentalists alike. As themes of displacement, climate change, and interspecies understanding come into ever-sharper focus, this volume shows how Adams’s rabbits still have much to teach us.