''Fifteen Rabbits'' (german: Fünfzehn Hasen: Schicksale in Wald und Feld) is a 1929

survival Survival, or the act of surviving, is the propensity of something to continue existing, particularly when this is done despite conditions that might kill or destroy it. The concept can be applied to humans and other living things (or, hypotheti ...

and

adventure novel Adventure fiction is a type of fiction that usually presents danger, or gives the reader a sense of excitement. Some adventure fiction also satisfies the literary definition of romance fiction. History In the Introduction to the ''Encyclopedi ...

by the

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n writer

Felix Salten Felix Salten (; 6 September 1869 – 8 October 1945) was an Austro-Hungarian author and literary critic in Vienna. Life and death Salten was born Siegmund Salzmann on 6 September 1869 in Pest, Austria-Hungary. His father was Fülöp Salzmann, ...

. The novel depicts a year in the life of a colony of

rabbit Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit speci ...

s in the same forest where

Bambi ''Bambi'' is a 1942 American animated drama film directed by David Hand (supervising a team of sequence directors), produced by Walt Disney and based on the 1923 book ''Bambi, a Life in the Woods'' by Austrian author and hunter Felix Salten. ...

dwells. As the title indicates, there are 15 rabbits who feature in the story, but not all of them survive to the end. Although ''Fifteen Rabbits'' is a story of a collective, the young Hops is the main character, with his beloved Plana.

Publication history

''Fifteen Rabbits'' was first published in German language, serialized in ''

Neue Freie Presse ''Neue Freie Presse'' ("New Free Press") was a Viennese newspaper founded by Adolf Werthner together with the journalists Max Friedländer and Michael Etienne on 1 September 1864 after the staff had split from the newspaper ''Die Presse''. It ex ...

'' newspaper from August 20 till October 10, 1929, and later that year by the Zsolnay company in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

as a book. In 1930, the novel was published in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in an English translation by

Whittaker Chambers Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer-editor, who, after early years as a Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet spy (1932–1938), defected from the Soviet underground (1938), ...

, and republished in 1942 with illustrations by

Kurt Wiese Kurt Wiese (April 22, 1887 – May 27, 1974) was a German-born book illustrator, who wrote and illustrated 20 children's books and illustrated another 300 for other authors. Background Kurt Wiese was born on April 22, 1887, in Minden, Germ ...

, and in 1976 illustrated by John Freas. In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, Chambers’ translation was published with illustrations by Sheila Dunn in 1943. After Salten was forced to exile to

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, his new publisher put out new editions of his work with novel illustrations, and in 1938, ''Fünfzehn Hasen'' was published with drawings by Hans Bertle. These illustrations have since then been used in translations, too, including the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

, French, and

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

one. In total, the novel has been translated at least into 11 languages, and other illustrations have been created as well.

Interpretation

As the other forest novels by Salten, also ''Fifteen Rabbits'' can be interpreted as an

allegorical As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...

depiction of the diaspora of the Jewish people (''interpretatio judaica''). This was noted, among others, by Salten's archenemy Karl Kraus who mocked the "rabbits with the Jewish manner of speaking" (German: ''jüdelnde Hasen''). The humans (called "He" by the animals) treat the animals in the forest like God in the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

: both protecting and punishing. The discussions that Hops has with older rabbits may be modelled after the debates between youths and men that occur at a

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...

school; it is notable that the female rabbits do not take part in these dialogues. The subjects of these debates concern aspects that are central for the Jewish life in a diaspora: threats and persecution.

Selected editions

* ''Fünfzehn Hasen: Schicksale in Wald und Feld.'' Wien: Paul Zsolnay Verlag, 1929. * ''Fifteen Rabbits.'' Translated by Whittaker Chambers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1930. * ''Fünfzehn Hasen: Schicksale in Wald und Feld.'' Mit zahlreichen Federzeichnungen von Hans Bertle. Zürich: Albert Müller, 1938. * ''Fifteen Rabbits.'' Translated by Whittaker Chambers. Illustrated by Kurt Wiese. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1942. * '' Fifteen Rabbits.'' Translated by Whittaker Chambers. Illustrated by Sheila Dunn. London: Commodore Press. 1943. * ''Fifteen Rabbits: A Celebration of Life.'' Translated by Whittaker Chambers. Illustrated by John Freas. New York: Delacorte Press, 1976. * ''Fifteen Rabbits.'' Translated by Whittaker Chambers. New York: Aladdin, 2015.

Sources

{{Authority control 1929 German-language novels Adventure novels Austrian novels Survival fiction Books about rabbits and hares Novels by Felix Salten

Publication history

Interpretation

See also

Selected editions

Sources