- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: HarperOne; 25 Anv edition (1 Sep 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0060574607
- ISBN-13: 978-0060574604
- Product Dimensions: 22.1 x 11.9 x 1.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 658,766 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Walter Wangerin's profound fantasy concerns a time when the sun turned around the earth and the animals could speak, when Chauntecleer the Rooster ruled over a more or less peaceful kingdom. What the animals did not know was that they were the Keepers of Wyrm, monster of evil long imprisoned beneath the earth ... and Wyrm, sub terra, was breaking free.
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First Sentence
In the middle of the night somebody began to cry outside of Chauntecleer's Coop. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
In the middle of the night somebody began to cry outside of Chauntecleer's Coop. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have loved this book since first reading it over twenty years ago, when the first chapter had me rolling on the floor with laughter. The edition that I read compared it favourably to both Animal Farm and Lord of the Rings, and for sheer impact I would have to agree, but this is a masterpiece of its own. There is a marvellous array of characters - from Chauntecleer, ruler of the Coop, to TickTock the pedantic black ant, the wonderfully pompous Ocellata the wild turkey ... and my favourites: Mundo Cani, the dog who is "MAROOOOONED!" in his body, and John Wesley Weasel ("John W of the W's"). I'm unsure why Amazon describe this book as "full of religious allegory ... I mean - yes, it describes a world made by God in which the animals are the keepers of the evil Wyrm, and the battle that commences as Wyrm attempts to break free ... but does this make it allegorical?
Please, treat yourself to an explosive treat and buy this book. I can all but promise you laughter, tears and a read that you will return to again and again.
Please, treat yourself to an explosive treat and buy this book. I can all but promise you laughter, tears and a read that you will return to again and again.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I'd compare this book to the World War 2, than lord of the rings.
Chauntecleer obviously being Churchill, Wyrm being hitler and Cockatrice and his Basilisks being Nazies. The Turkeys being the Italiens. Mundo Cani being, well very unique. I just loved that dog. The weazels being the good ¨hard working Tommies.
I love this book, even if the writing does get a bit voctorian in it's dialog. Which at times is frustrating.
Chauntecleer obviously being Churchill, Wyrm being hitler and Cockatrice and his Basilisks being Nazies. The Turkeys being the Italiens. Mundo Cani being, well very unique. I just loved that dog. The weazels being the good ¨hard working Tommies.
I love this book, even if the writing does get a bit voctorian in it's dialog. Which at times is frustrating.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
50 reviews
58 of 60 people found the following review helpful
Fantastical and Poetic
13 Dec 2000
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Wangerin has written a book that begs to be read aloud, but is a joy to read to yourself as well. His use of language is breathtaking -- evoking both a classic fairy tale and stylized character study. Do NOT let the fact that the main characters are talking animals throw you.
TBODC is fable about Chauntacleer the Rooster, his Coop (and the surrounding lands), and their battle against a monstrous, mythic evil. Both intimate and epic, the story of the animals' battle are filled with heartrending sadness and soulcleansing joy.
I would hard-pressed to label or categorize this book. Many have called it an allegory, and there ARE allegorical elements to it, but it is much more (or much different) from straight allegory. I consider myself a reasonably intelligent person, and a skilled reader, but Wangerin layers his story with meanings and submeanings, many of which I am sure escaped me. I didn't care, though. The wonderful language and emotion of the story immersed me into Chauntacleer's world, and I could marvel at the depth without knowing exactly HOW deep it went.
If you're searching for a new fable that feels familiar but not predictable, one you can treaure and read aloud to friends and family, The Book of the Dun Cow is for you.
29 of 31 people found the following review helpful
A Truly Great Work & roosters best friend
11 Feb 2005
Format:Paperback
Before my review of the rest of the book I would like to spend a paragraph in praise of my favorite character from the book. Mundo Cani, if you are a dog person, will evoke such emotion from you that you will fall in love with him within bare lines. If you are not a dog person, and, in fact, hate all dogs, it might take as much as a few pages for you to fully enjoy and care for this humble and self-sacrificing character. Mundo Cani is worth the price of the book all by himself, and the depth of the other characters that play their parts in this beautiful story will simply spoil you for the flat and tasteless fare that many of us sometimes find we have accidentally become accustomed to.
As a reader, I regretfully admit, I am fairly easy to please. However, I am happy to amend that quality with a very critical nature when it comes to comparing newer or lesser-known writings with my established favorites among classics. Very few works, in my opinion, can stand rank file with the best of, to name a few, Lewis, Tolkien, and Peake. If anyone had told me before I read this Book of the Dun Cow, that it should surpass Watership Down, that I should stand in awe of a cow the way I stood for Galadriel, that I should fear maggots and a simple cockatrice more than any foul thing born in the darks of Mordor, that my mind should be as stirred by prose concerning a chicken coop as it was by the darkly beautiful language that told of the Castle Gormenghast, and that this same story should be imbued with meaning so as to rival or even surpass the great works of C.S. Lewis, I would have spit on their forehead, laughed in their face, and made a crude reference concerning a deficiency in their genetic background. As it is, I must swallow all of my pride and humbly apply to any readers of this review, that Wangerin has taken a barnyard where others have taken castles and great forests, and created characters of cows where others used tall elves and mysterious wizards, and, with these common instruments, has created an epic work of fantastic literature that can stand fairly beside any of these others' greatest works.
As a reader, I regretfully admit, I am fairly easy to please. However, I am happy to amend that quality with a very critical nature when it comes to comparing newer or lesser-known writings with my established favorites among classics. Very few works, in my opinion, can stand rank file with the best of, to name a few, Lewis, Tolkien, and Peake. If anyone had told me before I read this Book of the Dun Cow, that it should surpass Watership Down, that I should stand in awe of a cow the way I stood for Galadriel, that I should fear maggots and a simple cockatrice more than any foul thing born in the darks of Mordor, that my mind should be as stirred by prose concerning a chicken coop as it was by the darkly beautiful language that told of the Castle Gormenghast, and that this same story should be imbued with meaning so as to rival or even surpass the great works of C.S. Lewis, I would have spit on their forehead, laughed in their face, and made a crude reference concerning a deficiency in their genetic background. As it is, I must swallow all of my pride and humbly apply to any readers of this review, that Wangerin has taken a barnyard where others have taken castles and great forests, and created characters of cows where others used tall elves and mysterious wizards, and, with these common instruments, has created an epic work of fantastic literature that can stand fairly beside any of these others' greatest works.
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
An excellent book to read aloud, to adults or to children.
26 May 1999
Format:Paperback
When I was 9 years old, my father read this book to me. It stayed with me. I am now 30 and after re-reading Watership Down last month I was reminded of this book, and of how good it was. Last weekend, I spent three days reading it to my new bride. We both cried. There are some people who chose to read this novel as some kind of radical religious parable. Those people are missing the point. It is a pure story of how everyone, everyday, fights against the urge to be the worst they could be; and how sometimes, with the right circumstance they become the best they can be. Without this hope, we are all alone and simply, ""marooned.''
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