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For some reason over the last week or so I have been trying to think of books for adults where animals are the main characters. I have been shocked to realize how few I can think of and I am hoping the C-D community can help me ientify sme more. I can think of many for young adults or kids (Rats of NiMH, a great book, the Incredible Journey, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, etc.) and books where animals are central but not really the main characters (Black Beauty, Old Yeller, etc. although those probably fall into both categories). So I have been able to come up with TWO books that I would call adult fiction in which animals are the central protagonists - Watership Down by Richard Adams and Animal Farm by George Orwell, although arguably in boh cases the animals represent metaphors for the human condition. I am convinced I am forgetting some major novels, and if I am not forgetting them but have simply not read or heard of them, I would be very interested in the references.
I immediately thought of Watership Down, too, although I admit that Animal Farm wouldn't have occurred to me. I can think of a few stories, rather than books.
I think some of the dog books of Albert Payson Terhune would qualify, where the dog is often the main character, even though if not necessarily written from the dog's point of view.
And I'll put in a good word for a fantastic book, Timbuktu, by Paul Auster.
Although the main character is a human (the first-person narrator), the two dogs whom the boy obtains as puppies, trains, and spends several years of his boyhood with are certainly so central to the book as to qualify as characters also.
A deeply moving book, and I am not even a dog lover.
I would suggest War Horse. It was a book first, then a stage play, then a film.
Going a long way back into the past, a series of books by an Englishman, who pretended to be a Canadian aboriginal, named Grey Owl. He lived in the bush in northern Ontario, and his friends were a pair of beavers. His real name was Archie Delaney, and he was quite a well known character in the 20's and 30's. The native people tolerated his 'made up " name and his stage show with his beavers. Here is a silent film about him, by the Canadian National Film Board.
Finally, continuing the Canadian theme, I will mention Farley Mowat, who wrote about various animals that he knew, in the Arctic. One title is Never Cry Wolf.
"The Call Of The Wild" by Jack London. It was a favorite of mine as a kid, and I just finished reading it again, as my daughter is reading it for school. It was every bit as good this time as I remember it being as a kid.
How about Moby-Dick? Not the main character, but a main character.
Similarly in Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon, about the world of horse racing, a horse is one of the main characters.
And what about Seabiscuit?
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