The Plague Dogs (Novel)
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- Publication Date: September 22, 1977
- Written by: Richard Adams
- Illustrated by: A. Wainright
- Page count: 389
I picked up the original novel of The Plague Dogs because I'm a big fan of its film adaptation. The book was adapted by Watership Down director Martin Rosen in 1982, and I consider it to be one of the greatest animated films ever made. It's a harrowing tale of survival following two dogs that escaped from an animal research facility. We follow them as they face starvation, brutal winter weather, and humans who are hunting them because they think they're carrying the bubonic plague. It's a gripping, gut-wrenching story that shows the absolute best of what adult animation could be. Since the movie was so good, I wondered if the original source material would hit me in the same way.
The Plague Dogs is a fine book on its own, but I can't help but feel that its film adaptation is a better telling of the story. The book's version of the story bounces back and forth between the dogs' perspectives and the humans who are hunting them down. The human characters have names, backstories, motivations, and entire subplots that aren't seen in the film version. We follow the news reporter who drums up the story about the dogs carrying the plague, a couple of scientists who worked in the lab, various locals who encounter the dogs, and others. The film version cut all of these characters and subplots out, reducing the humans' parts to off-screen dialogue to string events along. This places much more emphasis on the dogs' survival tale, and I found that a lot more gripping. When I was reading this book, every time it would get to a human-focused chapter, I found myself counting the pages and getting eager to get back to the dogs' point of view. The human chapters aren't poorly written, and they have some British wit and humor that gets glossed over in the movie. I just didn't find them as engaging as the dogs.
The ending of this book is also quite different from the film version. I'm not going to spoil it, because I feel that the movie is something that you should experience as a blind viewing. The book's ending, while featuring the same events as the film, actually goes on for a few more chapters and offers a much different resolution to the story. It's a sweet and wholesome ending, and it does make you feel good after the long journey that these characters went through. I just can't help but feel that it's sort of a hard turn from the bleak feeling of the rest of the story. It feels unearned, and that's probably because it was literally tacked on after the fact. Richard Adams once stated that he wrote the extended ending because so many people were displeased with the original conclusion. I'm not going to say he was wrong for doing so, I just prefer the story with its original end point.
Even though I personally find the film adaptation to be better, The Plague Dogs is still worth reading. It has great characters, a captivating story, and lot of British charm in its prose style. It sort of feels like a grown-up children's book at points, and is sure to tug hard at your heartstrings.