The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty - Softcover

Alexander, Caroline

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0142004693 ISBN 13: 9780142004692

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2004

Synopsis

More than two centuries after Master's Mate Fletcher Christian led a mutiny against Lieutenant William Bligh on a small, armed transport vessel called Bounty, the true story of this enthralling adventure has become obscured by the legend. Combining vivid characterization and deft storytelling, Caroline Alexander shatters the centuries-old myths surrounding this story. She brilliantly shows how, in a desperate attempt to save one man from the gallows and another from ignominy, two powerful families came together and began to create the version of history we know today. The true story of the mutiny on the Bounty is an epic of duty and heroism, pride and power, and the assassination of a brave man's honor at the dawn of the Romantic age.

About this title

Review:

Few episodes in the history of British sea-faring are as gripping and sensational as The Bounty--an account of a mutiny of 1789. While the French were having a revolution in Paris, in the South Pacific a very English coup took place when Master's mate Fletcher Christian deposed Captain Bligh, the ruler of his ship, and set off with his fellow mutineers for a new life in the paradise of Tahiti. The tale has all the ingredients of an adventure--Robinson Crusoe, Captain Cook, Robert Louis Stevenson and Lord of the Flies all rolled into one. And, as Caroline Alexander points out, myth and legend have often got in the way of the real truth of why the mutiny took place. She sets out to find out what really happened, and does so by not only reconstructing the fateful voyage of the ship, but also by focusing in on all the principal and minor characters in the drama.

The trouble with this book is that there seems to be too many different tales to tell and the author struggles to keep up with her narrative. Like a lost ship we set sail in one direction only to back-track and recover the same course over again. The promised treasure--why Christian really did it--is never found. Readers wanting a clearer and simpler chart might be better advised to read Captain Bligh's own famous account, and Edward Christian's defence of his brother The Bounty Mutiny and then follow-up with Greg Dening's book, Mr Bligh's Bad Language. --Miles Taylor

Review:

"Stirring. . . With this and her previous book, The Endurance, she has made the wondrous genre of open-boat-voyage narratives still more wondrous. . . . A sea mist hangs over this age-old tale. Alexander dispels it to the reader's fascinaton."

With all the drama and intrigue of a rollicking adventure novel, Alexander's beautifully written and painstakingly researched book goes a long way to rehabilitate one of history's most notorious villains. ("Entertainment Weekly") Stirring... With this and her previous book, "The Endurance", she has made the wondrous genre of open-boat-voyage narratives still more wondrous... A sea mist hangs over this age-old tale. Alexander dispels it to the reader's fascination. (Verlyn Klinkenborg, "The New York Times Book Review", front page)

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0142004693
• ISBN 13: 9780142004692
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 544