The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty
by Caroline Alexander
List Price:
Our Price: $3.75
You Save: $13.25 (78%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Caroline AlexanderEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-05-25
ISBN: 0142004693
Number of pages: 491
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Book Reviews of The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty
Book Review: A vastly absorbing and well-written book
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm not sure how I even came to own this book; it was around for quite a while before I ever opened it, but having done so, I couldn't put it down. First, a confession: my only knowledge of the story of "The Bounty" was that contained in the two movies about the subject. What a shame! There is so much more to the story than just the mutiny and so much more to understand about the stratification of late-18th-Century society as it pertained to birthright vs. command and authority. It is interesting to note the The Bounty was not a large enough ship to require the rank of Captain as her commander and, in fact, Bligh was only a Lieutenant, who was called "Captain" as a courtesy.
The action around the mutiny takes place in one of history's greatest ages for exploration and Ms. Alexander doesn't give that fact short shrift. We are given to understand all that those epic sea voyages implied in importance and economic necessity and so much of what we are learning in this book presages the Napoleonic Wars that were shortly to follow. But in 1789, vast stretches of the globe were either unmapped or poorly understood and Cape Horn (southern tip of South American) and the Cape of Good Hope (southern tip of Africa) were nearly insurmountable obstacles to navigation. In fact, unable to negotiate Cape Horn, Bligh turned The Bounty toward Africa and approach Tahiti by way of the Cape of Good Hope, adding nearly 10,000 miles to his voyage. What a fallback position!
One of the gifts that Caroline Alexander gives us in this book is excerpts from the official ship journals, as well as the private journals and correspondence of some of the principals, to illustrate and propel the action of the book along. The better news is that she does not overwhelm the book with this very useful material, but instead uses it judiciously and with very good timing.
I think it is a tribute to both the writing and the subject matter that, as the book moved along, I found myself interested in the relationship between Bligh and Fletcher Christian and curious as to how the actual mutiny would be portrayed, but no more so than with the story of the exploration, the staffing of the ships, the backstory of Captain Cook (with whom Bligh had served) and the general atmosphere in England during those times. This is a very complete book and provides a depth to the story that may not have been achieved before in such a readable form.
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
England Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in England Books
King Edward VIII: The Official Biographyby Philip Ziegler
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd; Published: 1990-09-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $26.25
Court Lady and Country Wife: Two Noble Sisters in Seventeenth-Century Englandby Lita-Rose Betcherman
HarperCollins Canada; Published: 2005-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.72
Price in other shops:
Read My Heart: A Love Story in the Age of Revolutionby Jane Dunn
Harpercollins Canada; Published: 2008-10-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.94
Price in other shops:
No Graves As Yet (World War One Novels)by Anne Perry
Ballantine Books; Published: 2004-08-31; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.88
Price in other shops:
The Oxford History of BritainOxford University Press, USA; Published: 2010-06-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.05
Price in other shops:
The Nature of Monstersby Clare Clark
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Published: 2007-05-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Selkirk's Island: The True and Strange Adventures of the Real Robinson Crusoeby Diana Souhami
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Published: 2002-02-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.86
Price in other shops:
The Great Hunger: Ireland: 1845-1849by Cecil Woodham-Smith
Penguin Group; Published: 1992-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.24
Price in other shops:
The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sistersby Charlotte Mosley
Harper; Published: 2007-11-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.49
Price in other shops:
The Professor and the Madmanby Simon Winchester
Harper; Published: 1998-08-26; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.73
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Adrift: Seventy-six Days Lost at Seaby Steven Callahan
Mariner Books; Published: 2002-10-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.14
Price in other shops:
Captain James Cook: A Biographyby Richard Alexander Hough
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 1997-03-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.29
Price in other shops:
The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expeditionby Caroline Alexander
Knopf; Published: 1998-11-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.50
Price in other shops:
Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survivalby Dean King
Back Bay Books; Published: 2005-04-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops:
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essexby Nathaniel Philbrick
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2001-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.92
Price in other shops:
The BountyGIBSON,MEL; Release date: 2000-11-21; DVD
Best price: $7.15
Price in other shops:
The Bounty Mutiny (Penguin Classics)by William Bligh, Edward Christian
Penguin Classics; Published: 2001-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.29
Price in other shops:
Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe (P.S.)by Laurence Bergreen
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 2004-11-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.97
Price in other shops:
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyageby Alfred Lansing
Basic Books; Published: 1999-03-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.42
Price in other shops:
The Bounty Trilogyby Charles Nordhoff, James Norman Hall
Little, Brown and Company; Published: 1985-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $23.99
Price in other shops: