The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty
by Caroline Alexander
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Book Summary Information
Author: Caroline AlexanderEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2004-05-25
ISBN: 0142004693
Number of pages: 512
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780142004692
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Book Reviews of The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty
Book Review: Bountiful detail
Summary: 3 Stars
Like many today, the only knowledge I had of the mutiny on the Bounty had come in bits and pieces from popular culture. I was well aware of the portrait of Bligh as a tyrannical madman forcing his subordinates to his will. However, is that characterization correct? If not, then why would his men mutiny? These and many other questions are answered in great detail in Caroline Alexander's book. I began reading with the expectation that the mutiny would take place with some swashbuckling battle for control of the ship, ultimately deposing Bligh and his allies. The mutiny actually took place fairly peacefully and is really a strange spectacle. The bulk of the book is not concerned directly with the mutiny itself but in the courts-martial drama that follows. The events that took place on the Bounty are told from multiple, often contradictory standpoints. It is hard to tell exactly who is innocent and who guilty. It amazes me that the mutiny seems to have been put together at the last minute. Christian Fletcher's motives remain shrouded in some mystery. Alexander asserts, with good evidence, that it was the lure of Tahiti that ultimately lit the fuse. This seems a partial explanation in my mind however, because Fletcher's reaction seems so abrupt and drastic. Perhaps this can be attributed to the excess of alcohol.
I enjoyed being taken back to Tahiti, having read several books of Cook's voyages, and enjoyed reading of the mutiny, the sailors involved, and what eventually happened to the mutineers. I was, however, disappointed that I found myself in a book that reads more as a courtroom drama than adventure on the high seas. I wish Alexander had spent more time and detail on the open boat voyage and the mysterious malaise that eventually struck several who survived it. The scenes on the Pandora were interesting but I think I would have gotten more out of them if they had been placed after the mutiny and I knew the characters better. All in all the book is well researched, detailed, and does a good job of showing what eventually became of the major characters. The narrative does drag at times but there is always something interesting right around the next few pages. I really did like the suspense that was built up by not settling the fate of Fletcher until well into the book.
Summary of The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty
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.Surely this exhaustingly-researched, enthralling and enthusiastically-written tome is the last word on the most famous of all seafaring mutinies, that of shipmate Fletcher Christian and against Lieutenant Bligh on the Bounty. More than 200 years have gone by since the ship left England after dreadful weather kept it harbored for months, on its mission to transport breadfruit from Tahiti to the West Indies. The mutiny in Tahiti left the mutineers scattered about the paradisiacal islands and found Bligh and 18 of his loyal crew members set adrift in a 23-foot open boat. Bligh, who'd served as Capt. James Cook's sailing master, fantastically maneuvered the crew on a 48-day, 3,600-mile journey to safety. Caroline Alexander, author of The Endurance, is never in over her head even when weaving together densely twisting narratives, or explaining the unwritten rules of the Royal Navy, of the complexities of class and hierarchy that impelled much of what happened aboard the Bounty. The book centers far more on the effort to round up the mutineers than the actual mutiny itself. The book is enlivened by the colorful commentary of the crew members themselves, gleaned from letters and court documents. Alexander does us all the favor of presenting Bligh the way he was understood and received in his day--as a brilliant navigator who, when placed in context, was not a brutal task-master at all. She roots the tyrannical figure we know so well from the movies on the last-ditch efforts of one well-connected crew member to save his own hide from hanging. --Mike McGonigal
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