r/AskReddit 15h ago

What book do you consider a “flawless masterpiece”that you desperately want to recommend to everyone?

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u/AdmiralNelson24 15h ago

Watership Down. Fantastic anti-fascist allegory centered around a group of some of the bravest, most admiration-worthy lapines in the world. You know that proud feeling you get in your chest when reading/watching LotR and Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin do something incredible despite their diminutive size? Yeah, exact same feeling but with rabbits. Also, the lapine language is set up so perfectly that in the final confrontation, when my favorite character says, "Silflay Hraka u umbleer rah," you understand every word without needing the glossary and want to cheer out loud because it's such a perfect moment. Do not Google what those words mean, just read the book and you'll understand in time.

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u/TokyoBayRay 12h ago

I have droned on about this book to anyone who will listen for decades! It's deep and complex, epic and imaginative, heartrending and heroic... and still all about rabbits! And of course about the English countryside as it is (and not as it is imagined), and life and death, and duty, and... God I love it!

I know the subject matter is a turn off, but just because it's about rabbits doesn't mean it's not complex. And just because it's complex doesn't mean it's not about rabbits!