Richard Adams

Librarian's note: See alternate cover edition of ISBN13 9780380395866 here. Set in England's Downs, a once idyllic rural landscape, this stirring tale of adventure, courage and survival 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 friends, they journey forth from their native Sandleford Warren through the harrowing trials posed by predators and adversaries, to a mysterious promised land and a more perfect society.

Rediscover the A Puffin Book series and bring the best-loved classics to a new generation - including this highly anticipated edition of Tales from Watership Down. Return to the warren with this treasured collection of short stories, an epic encore to the timeless classic Watership Down. Dig deeper into the extraordinary inner lives of Bigwig, Dandelion, Fiver, Hazel, and the legendary El-ahrairah steeped in rich tradition and unearth the untold legends, passed down through generations, that shaped their destinies. . .

Richard Adams, the author of Watership Down, creates a lyrical and engrossing tale, a remarkable journey into the hearts and minds of two canine heroes, Snitter and Rowf. After being horribly mistreated at a government animal research facility, Snitter and Rowf escape into the isolation, and terror, of the wilderness. Aided only by a fox they call ''the Tod,'' the two dogs must struggle to survive in their new environment. When the starving dogs attack some sheep, they are labeled ferocious man-eating monsters, setting off a great dog hunt that is later intensified by the fear that the dogs could be carriers of the bubonic plague.

Nel sud dell'Inghilterra, sulle colline del Berkshire, vive in pace una numerosa comunità di conigli. Tra loro c'è il piccolo Quintilio, che ha il potere di fare dei sogni premonitori: questa volta il sonno gli ha parlato di una terribile minaccia che sta per abbattersi sulla sua gente. Qualcosa di inspiegabile, che viene dagli uomini. Ma quando tenta di mettere in guardia il suo popolo, come spesso accade ai profeti, nessuno gli crede. E cosa può fare il piccolo Quintilio se nemmeno il Coniglio Capo gli presta attenzione? Semplice, decidere di fuggire lontano con un gruppo di amici fidati. Attraverso terre sconosciute e impervie, la coraggiosa compagnia di conigli intraprende un viaggio alla conquista della libertà e di una nuova possibilità di vita, imbattendosi in pericoli di tutti i tipi: da una conigliera dove i conigli sono un po' apatici ma hanno cibo in abbondanza (anche se ogni tanto qualcuno scompare), a una strana comunità dove le coniglie non fanno più cuccioli... Un romanzo epico, a metà tra Tolkien e Orwell, un classico in cui Richard Adams dà forma a un universo divertente e appassionante, alla ricerca di un mondo migliore.

Unten am Fluss - nur scheinbar eine Tiergeschichte, doch eigentlich ein Spiegelbild der menschlichen Gesellschaft, eine Parabel über den langen, mühsamen Weg in die Freiheit. Richard Adams erzählt die spannende Geschichte vom Alltag und Leben in einem Kaninchengehege und von den Helden dieser kleinen Welt, wie dem mutigen Kaninchen Bigwig, dem klugen Hazel und dem hellseherischen Fiver. Sie brechen mit ihren Freunden zu einer gefährlichen und abenteuerlichen Reise auf, um ihr Gehege vor dem Aussterben zu bewahren. Die Kaninchen geraten in einen Krieg mit ihrem gewissenslosen Artgenossen General Woundwort, der seine Untertanen wie Sklaven behandelt und tyrannisiert. Zusammen mit der Möwe Kehaar nehmen sie den Kampfe gegen den General auf und es gelingt ihnen, mehrere Kaninchenweibchen aus seinen Fängen zu befreien. Doch schon nimmt Woundwort die Verfolgung der Flüchtlinge auf und droht, deren Heimat zu zerstören. Wird es ihnen gelingen, Woundwort zu besiegen?

Um dos maiores clássicos de fantasia nos países de língua inglesa, Em busca de Watership Down é uma fábula sombria sobre coragem e sobrevivência. Quando um coelho vidente prevê a destruição da toca onde vive, ele se une a seus amigos para achar uma nova casa. No caminho rumo à mítica colina de Watership Down, enfrentam rivais e armadilhas. Mas, mesmo depois de chegarem e, teoricamente, encontrarem um lugar seguro para viver, precisarão lutar para salvar a colônia vizinha e repopular a própria comunidade. Em busca de Watership Down fala de dominação e opressão, de fascismo e utopia, de mitologia e delírio coletivo, de sentimento de comunidade e de loucura. No Reino Unido, ocupa o segundo lugar entre os juvenis de fantasia mais vendidos do século XX, atrás apenas da saga Harry Potter. Em 2017, a Netflix anunciou o lançamento de uma série de animação baseada no livro.

The ship's cat is introduced as a patriotic swashbuckling crew member of the English privateer Alcestis. After attacking a lone Spanish ship, the Alcestis is defeated by Spanish reinforcements and its crew taken as captives to the Panamanian port of Chagres. The ship's cat is initially imprisoned, but the gaoler's daughter takes pity on him and has him released to serve in the gaoler's kitchen. After the gaoler and his companions become drunk celebrating Saint Philip's Day, the ship's cat steals the keys to the gaol and releases his shipmates. Together, they steal a ship from the harbor and sail for home, pursued by their erstwhile captors. Their pursuers are frightened off by the sudden appearance of Sir Francis Drake (outward bound on his global circumnavigation of 1577). After Drake departs, the ship's cat reveals that he has discovered a hoard of treasure in the ship's hold. The crew sail home to England, where they are greeted as heroes and the cat is knighted by Queen Elizabeth I.

In this volume, Richard Adams has collected together nineteen enchanting folk-tales from almost as many parts of the world - from Europe to China and from Polynesia to the Arctic Circle. Each has a special magic, an aura that is sometimes beautiful and fascinating, sombre and frightening, or exciting and colourful. But what unites all these stories is the essential quality of folk-lore, something that transcends the boundaries of nations, of custom and time, that gives them their permanence and universality of appeal. "Authors need folk-tales," Richard Adams says, "in the same way as composers need folk-song. They're the headspring of the narrator's art, where the story stands forth at its simple, irreducible best. They don't date, any more than dreams, for they are the collective dreams of humanity." In order to preserve as far as possible the immediacy and directness of authentic folk story-telling, each of the nineteen tales is presented as being told by an imagined narrator to one or more hearers at a particular time and place, sometimes past, sometimes present. However, the reader is never told the identity either of the teller or his hearers, but is left free to infer both them and the occasion solely from the narrator's own words. This original technique adds a novel dash of piquancy to this fine collection.

Brežuljak Voteršip je priča o šačici divljih kunića koji se, suočeni sa skorim uništenjem svoga staništa, otiskuju na dalek put pun neizvesnosti, opasnosti i iskušenja, tragajući za “obećanom zemljom” gde će osnovati novo naselje. Ova lepa, poetična i izuzetno zanimljiva knjiga “za decu od 7 do 77 godina”, sa svim osobinama originalne klasike, čita se “nadušak” uprkos zamašnom obimu. Čitalac se poistovećuje sa kunićima koji se grčevito bore za opstanak i duboko se uživiljava u njihov život, opasan i lep kao što je i ljudski život, postajući pri tom za nijansu bolji i plemenitiji. Možda je u tome i najveća vrednost ovog Adamsovog dela.

Maia is a fifteen-year-old peasant beauty growing up in poverty beside Lake Serrelind. Seduced by her stepfather and betrayed by her jealous mother, Maia finds herself in the hands of slave-traders to be sold as a concubine. She attracts the attention of General Kembri who uses her to obtain information from her admirers and her adventures uncover a plot for civil war. Proclaimed as a heroine, she finds that one sinister result of fame is to have enemies in high places and Maia has to struggle for survival through treachery, cruelty, lost love and a final flight through a wild empire to escape a crumbling regime.