Now with a new introduction by Madeline Miller, the New York Times bestselling author of The Song of Achilles and Circe. The 50th anniversary edition of Richard Adam’s timeless classic, the tale of a band of wild rabbits struggling to hold onto their place in the world—“a classic yarn of discovery and struggle” ( The New York Times ). A worldwide bestseller for over thirty years, Watership Down is one of the most beloved novels of all time. Set in England’s Downs, a once idyllic rural landscape, this stirring tale follows a band of very special creatures on their flight from the intrusion of man and the certain destruction of their home. Led by a stouthearted pair of brothers, they journey from their native Sandleford Warren, through the harrowing trials posed by predators and adversaries, and toward the dream of a mysterious promised land and a more perfect society. “Spellbinding…Marvelous…A taut tale of suspense, hot pursuit and derring-do.” — Chicago Tribune “I…recall…finishing Richard Adam’s Watership Down —a rousing adventure that was also about the impossible courage of the weakest and the lowest—a theme which for a young person never fails to resonate—a book with tremendous intelligence and wisdom and yes, wonder—and at the end of its last sentence, knowing with all the force of my young heart that my happiness would forever be caught up with reading. True then and true now.”—Junot Diaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao "All books should end the way Watership Down ends, with one hundred pages of Ahhhhh ."—Madeline Miller, author of Circe "Spellbinding...Marvelous...A taut tale of suspense, hot pursuit and derring-do."—Chicago Tribune "Marvelous... powerful."— The New York Times Book Review ― Chicago Tribune Richard Adams (1920–2016) was educated at Bradfield College and Worcester College, Oxford. He served in the Second World War and in 1948 joined the civil service. In the mid-1960s he completed his first novel, Watership Down , for which he struggled for several years to find a publisher. It was eventually awarded both the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Award for children’s fiction for 1972. He would go on to publish several more books, including Shardik , Tales from Watership Down , Maia , The Plague Dogs , and The Girl in a Swing . Madeline Miller is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Song of Achilles , which won the Orange Women’s Prize for Fiction 2012, and Circe , which was short-listed for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019. Her books have been translated into over thirty-two languages. Watership Down By Richard Adams Scribner Book Company Copyright ©2005 Richard Adams All right reserved. ISBN: 9780743277709 Chapter One The Notice Board Chorus: Why do you cry out thus, unless at some vision of horror? Cassandra: The house reeks of death and dripping blood. Chorus: How so? 'Tis but the odor of the altar sacrifice. Cassandra: The stench is like a breath from the tomb. -- Aeschylus, Agamemnon The primroses were over. Toward the edge of the wood, where the ground became open and sloped down to an old fence and a brambly ditch beyond, only a few fading patches of pale yellow still showed among the dog's mercury and the oak-tree roots. On the other side of the fence, the upper part of the field was full of rabbit holes. In places the grass was gone altogether and everywhere there were clusters of dry droppings, through which nothing but the ragwort would grow. A hundred yards away, at the bottom of the slope, ran the brook, no more than three feet wide, half choked with kingcups, watercress and blue brooklime. The cart track crossed by a brick culvert and climbed the opposite slope to a five-barred gate in the thorn hedge. The gate led into the lane. The May sunset was red in clouds, and there was still half an hour to twilight. The dry slope was dotted with rabbits -- some nibbling at the thin grass near their holes, others pushing further down to look for dandelions or perhaps a cowslip that the rest had missed. Here and there one sat upright on an ant heap and looked about, with ears erect and nose in the wind. But a blackbird, singing undisturbed on the outskirts of the wood, showed that there was nothing alarming there, and in the other direction, along the brook, all was plain to be seen, empty and quiet. The warren was at peace. At the top of the bank, close to the wild cherry where the blackbird sang, was a little group of holes almost hidden by brambles. In the green half-light, at the mouth of one of these holes, two rabbits were sitting together side by side. At length, the larger of the two came out, slipped along the bank under cover of the brambles and so down into the ditch and up into the field. A few moments later the other followed. The first rabbit stopped in a sunny patch and scratched his ear with rapid movements of his hind leg. Although he was a yearling and still below fall weight