The Bounty

The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty

By: Caroline Alexander

Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton

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.

Critic reviews

“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)

Good Story

Reader was very good. Story was well written but occasionally, probably unavoidably, dry.

My overall takeaway from this is that the entire reasoning behind the mutiny are, from a modern perspective, not fully understandable. The extreme class system and almost self indulgent sense of moral purity of the upper class is well exposed in this book. Honestly, can one blame a common seaman wanting to stay in Tahiti, considering their quality of life and prospects in Britain?

The real story

I was actually surprised and delighted to hear this rendition of The Bounty. It is a good example of how a story can be so twisted as to have so few facts to the original. Wonderful story and well presented.

Outstanding from start to finish

A very balanced and detailed narrative of the voyage, the mutiny, and its aftermath. Bligh bore some fault, but he was made into a caricature by some very effective propaganda coming from two well connected families.

An engaging and detailed account of a very old tale.

The narrative flowed very easily and covered a lot of ground. A lot of the lesser characters in the story are brought to life. And Bligh is not a vilified as he has been in so many other accounts.