Richard Adams Writings Essays - British Films,

Richard Adams Writings Richard Adams was born in Newbury, England in May of 1920. He was the youngest of three children, a sister, Katherine, and a brother, John. (Richard had had another brother but he died at the age of three from influenza.) Richard was his father's favorite. George Adams (his dad), spent most of his time with young Richard teaching him about all the nature in the area. Richard grew up a few miles from the town of Newbury on a three acre piece of land with a house named "Oakdene." Richard's father was a doctor at the local hospital in Newbury and his mother, Lilian Rose Adams, was a nurse. Richard spent most of his childhood at home and out wandering around Newbury, enjoying its beauty. At about the age of 10, he was sent to the Horace Hill boarding school. After a few years, he was sent to another prep school, Bradfield, and at the age of 18, received a history scholarship to Oxford University. At the age of 21 he was enlisted in the British Army. Adams has produced a variety of different writings. Along with his numerous novels: Watership Down, Shardik, The Plague Dogs, The Girl in a Swing, Maia, and Traveller, Adams has also written books of short stories: The Iron Wolf and Other Stories, and The Unbroken Web. As well, he has done picture books in verse: The Tyger Voyage, and The Ship's Cat, and books on nature: Nature Through the Seasons, Nature Day and Night, and A Nature Diary. Adams' first novel, Watership Down, is about a group of rabbits who leave their home because of disaster, and go out in search of a new home. On the way, they encounter two other groups of rabbits. One group lives life with a constant knowledge that they are just food for the neighboring farmer, neglecting their own culture. The other group lives so as to never be found by man and to protect itself from predators. When, at last, a new home is found, the rabbits have to undertake a journey in order to find some females so that their colony will grow and prosper. Throughout the novel, Adams puts in various ideas and themes that are meant to make the reader think twice about their relationships with nature and themselves. This novel sets up the themes of freedom and survival, which are also found in two of his other novels, and the theme of the stupidity and cruelty of man to the earth and her creatures. The Plague Dogs, Adams' third novel, is about two dogs who escape from an animal research station and try to fend for themselves in the hills of England. Rowf, a large, black, strong mongrel who has a mean temper and who has a deathly fear of water due to the experiments performed on him. Snitter, a fox terrier who has fits and has the power to see the future because of the brain surgery performed on him in the research station. Together, they meet up with a tod (fox). The tod helps them survive while reporters follow the dogs and spread dangerous rumors of the plague, getting politics involved. The themes in this novel are similar to the ones in Watership Down: survival, freedom, and human cruelty, but added to this list is the theme of rights. In this case, the right of animals, but, in some of his other works the theme extends to those people who are less fortunate and are in awful situations. The Girl in a Swing, his fourth novel, talks about a young man, Alan Desland, who has devoted his life to the business of fine ceramics and who is completely swept off his feet by a young German woman, K?the. They get married, in Florida, after a very short courtship and return to England, where Alan returns to his business and K?the holds spellbound his friends, family, and even him, with her beauty and charm. Inside K?the, though, is a secret which Alan finds out about too late. The main theme in this novel is completely different from his other novels. Adams concentrates mostly on guilt - A guilt that K?the held inside her and eventually caused her destruction. He also explains how guilt affects those around the guilty. Adams' fifth novel, Maia, is a story about a young, beautiful girl who is thrown into slavery by her jealous mother. She makes friends with an exotic girl, Occula, who is sent on a mission from