The Primroses Were Over
This is the first line of my very favorite book in the world, introduced to me by my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Fox.
She was a gem, that Mrs. Fox, a mentor in disguise, acquainting us with amazing stories of adventure, sacrifice, love, honor, and heart, reading these stories with a passion that made the characters jump off the pages and join us in our reading circle.
It was magic.
“The primroses were over.”
Polyanthus Crescendo Red Primrose
I guarantee that I had no idea what a primrose was, or why it would be “over,” but I didn’t care. Those words were the beginning of an enchanted story of exploration, courage, and comradery that has stayed with me my whole life.
I usually get one of two responses when I explain the subject matter of my favorite book in the world:
Isn’t that a children’s book? (major look of confusion)
Rabbits?? Really? (more confusion, rolling eyes)
The answer to both of those questions is “Yes.”
What usually happens after that is the person gives me a withering look and tries to change the subject.
So sad.
Watership Down was written by Richard Adams, an English novelist born in 1920, who studied at Worcester College, Oxford before joining the British army during World War II.
Some say the characters in Watership Down are based on the soldiers he fought with during World War II. The novel definitely has a fraternal feel to it, similar to Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1975.
This is the cover from the paperback that I got from the library bookmobile that summer after fourth grade, and I wore it out by reading and re-reading. My grandmother took pity on that dilapidated paperback and bought me my own copy, still one of my childhood treasures.
I’m not sure why I feel the need to defend my choice of favorite book of all time, or to persuade others to love it with my level of zeal, but I do want everyone I know to read it at least once!
Yes, its about rabbits, but SO much more.
First, it begins with a clairvoyant character, Fiver, a lapine version of the prophetic Greek princess, Cassandra, who foretells the future but is never believed.
Fiver is misunderstood as an attention-seeking nobody in his community, supported and protected only by his brother, Hazel, who is unpretentious and unassuming, yet strong and direct.
Cassandra of Troy (artwork by Mila Strugatski)
I dare not ruin the adventure for you, but suffice it to say that the relationship between these two brothers makes even a rising fifth grader root for them just a few pages into the story.
The last time I read Watership Down was during the summer of 2020 (during the coronavirus pandemic), and I reflected more than usual on the experiences of the band of brothers in Adams’ narrative.
Their journey seemed eerily similar to the awakening and changes happening to everyone around the planet at that time.
For example, at the novel’s outset, Hazel, Fiver, Bigwig, Dandelion, Blackberry, Pipken et al., found themselves in a community where they didn’t fit in, they believed their voices went unheard, they felt frustrated and unfulfilled, but felt obligated by society to to carry on as usual.
Sound familiar? They were stuck in a routine they had no part in creating, because it was all they had ever known, it was what they were taught, and everyone else did it too.
“The one who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The one who walks alone is likely to find themselves in places no one has ever been before.”
Until Fiver saw something coming that convinced them it was time to change. It seems that this realization hit many of us last summer, when we were forced to change our lives, which then led us to rethink them as well.
Adams’ rabbits set off on an adventure, leaving the safety of their former home, encountering new dangers around every corner. They faced many trials as they ventured into new territory, challenged just to survive.
More importantly, however, upon leaving the bounds of conventional society, they were compelled to depend on each other, trust each other, acknowledge and rely on their different strengths, and support each other in their weaknesses in order to succeed.
They trusted Fiver that there was a better place for them, and they did not give up in their quest to find it.
My copy of Watership Down was 476 pages, and I often found myself slowing down as I neared the final chapters because I didn’t want the story to end.
I don’t care that the story is about rabbits.
Each one of Adams’ characters seemed as real as you or me, and their desire for a better life and a better community is one that we all share.
Adams ends Watership Down with the following Epilogue from Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well:
“He did look far
Into the service of the time, and was
Discipled of the bravest: he lasted long,
But on us both did haggish age steal on
And wore us out of act. . . .”
And now as people are being vaccinated and it feels like a corner has been turned on the pandemic, it reminds me that the way we live is continuing to change. I’m drawn again to Adams’ classic novel of discovery and adventure, beginning with those beloved words, “The primroses were over.”
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