More than two centuries have passed since Fletcher Christian mutinied against Lt. Bligh on a small armed transport vessel called Bounty. Why the details of this obscure adventure at the end of the world remain vivid and enthralling is as intriguing as the truth behind the legend.
Caroline Alexander focusses on the court martial of the ten mutineers captured in Tahiti and brought to justice in Portsmouth. Each figure emerges as a richly drawn character caught up in a drama that may well end on the gallows. With enormous scholarship and exquisitely drawn characters, 'The Bounty' is a tour de force.
Contents:
Ship's Company
Author's Note
Prelude
Pandora
Bounty
Voyage Out
Tahiti
Mutiny
Return
Portsmouth
Court-Martial
Defence
Sentence
Judgement
Latitide 25S, Longitude 130W
Home is the Sailor
A Note on Sources
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Index
Reviews:
'Alexander… handles the story with great thoroughness and calm. She
appears to have unearthed and examined every possible shred of
evidence, and it is difficult to imagine that this will not long remain
the definitive account… what Alexander does here superbly, what is new
to this account, and what makes this simple story worth examining in
such detail, is her revelation of how the myth grew from
unsubstantiated scraps, who founded and nourished it, and why.' - Peter
Nichols, Sunday Times
'This book should find an enduring place
as the definitive rendering, and its appearance should elevate Caroline
Alexander to the ranks of the finest historians of teh most romantic,
and most romanticised, period in British Imperial history.' - Simon
Winchester, Daily Telegraph
'Alexander profiles history’s most
famous mutiny in the same stylish manner she brought to Shackleton’s
Antarctic expedition in The Endurance… A great sea story, surpassed
perhaps only by the Odyssey, handled with dexterity to capture
characters and circumstances with faithfulness to the record and a
steady feeling of anticipation for history in the making.' - Kirkus
Reviews
