The Bounty - by Caroline Alexander (Paperback)

About the Book

In giving the story its historical due, Alexander focuses on the court-martial of the mutineers who were captured in Tahiti and brought to justice in England. This fresh perspective revivifies the entire saga, and the salty, colorful language of the men conjures up the events of that morning in 1789.

Book Synopsis

Has history been wrong for 200 years? Read the startling truth about the mutiny on the Bounty, its characters, causes, and aftermath. Television rights are now in development with Ridley Scott's Scott Free Productions.

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.

Review Quotes

"With this and her previous book, The Endurance, [Alexander] has made the wondrous genre of open-boat-voyage narratives still more wondrous." --The New York Times

"Meticulously researched and smoothly readable." --The Washington Post

"A rollicking sea adventure told with enormous confidence and style." --Booklist (starred review)

"Alexander profiles history's most famous mutiny in the same stylish manner she brought to Shackleton's Antarctic expedition (The Endurance)." --Kirkus Reviews

"Alexander's work is destined to become the definitive, enthralling history of a great seafaring adventure." --Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

About the Author

Caroline Alexander is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Endurance as well as four other books. She has written for The New Yorker, Granta, Condé Nast Traveler, Smithsonian, Outside, and National Geographic.