Mutiny on the Bounty (1932)

Mutiny on the Bounty is one of those books that somehow managed to seep into my consciousness without ever actually having read it. I'm sure I saw one of the movie versions at some point, which gave me the basic outline of the plot. But that bare-bones version of the story that I thought I knew doesn't hold a candle to the actual novel, which is rich, riveting, and extremely well told. When I picked it up I didn't think it would be one of those books I had a difficult time putting down, but I very nearly read it all in one sitting. ( )

Captain Bligh and his ship the Bounty are being sent to Tahiti by the English navy. Young Roger Byam jumps at a chance to go with Bligh in order to learn the language and create a Tahitian dictionary. While life on the island is pleasant for everyone, life on the ship is not. The crew's mutiny against Bligh is just the beginning of their adventures and troubles.

My dad just finished reading the whole Bounty trilogy, and he wasn't thrilled with this one, although he did like the other two better. I usually agree with him when it comes to books, so I wasn't expecting much out of this, but I was pleasantly surprised. It's a good adventure novel made more interesting because it was based on a true story, and the authors really tried to make the novel as close to fact as possible. I do wish the authors had explained some of the seafaring terminology better. ( )

I was totally taken by this novelistic account of the Mutiny. One could not help but feel some empathy for the mutineers, but if the women of Tahiti had not been so complicity, would the mutiny ever have happened? ( )

In 1787,December.
Many men going to Tahiti from England by ship.
But the ship's captain Bligh is very angry person.
So other men don't like him...

This is not interesting story.
I was bored during read this. ( )

This is famous story.
Several years ago, one ship have sailed from Tahiti.The captain was Bligh.
Because of Bligh was easy to get angry, one day, Bligh wes mutinied...

It is surprising that Bligh and some other crew could live in small lifeboat.
When it has been decided that they don't come near to a small island, I couldn't guess how to survive. It is surprisind way. This is interesting book. ( )

Book Description: Pennsylvania: The Franklin Library, 1982. 24x15cms. hc 1/4 modern leather w. brown buckram sides, gilt embellished w. gilt borders enclosing maritime vignette. a.e.g. & decorated eps. 353pp. illustrated w. chapter heads & woodcuts by Roland Keller. internally fine although sml, barely noticeable stain on fore-edge. minimal wear to covers. overall Very Good Condition 0.90kg.

O’Brien takes students on the journey of The Bounty, a British ship sailing for Tahiti; as problems aboard the ship arose, men struck out on their own, abandoning their caption and their ship. O’Brien tells the tale through figurative language and dialogue, which add elements of immediacy to the narrative. The illustrations accompany each page relate to the narrative and are done with much detail. ( )

This is the classic novelization of the real-life Bounty mutiny, from which the four movies were based. When the writing team of Nordhoff and Hall - both WWI vets who had recently moved to Tahiti - published this their most famous collaboration in 1932, the Bounty mutiny was already about 140 years in the past, a source of legend and myth for boys and men who imagined the unlimited potential, and exotic women, of the islands of the vast South Pacific. Looking at it today in the 21st century, the novel contains colonial tropes of "exoticism" pioneered by Melville (Typee), Conrad and particularly Pierre Loti's descriptions of Tahiti in Le Mariage de Loti (1880). It is a fun read but one word holds it back from being a timeless novel: Post-Colonialism. Had it been written in 1832 it would be a classic, but by 1932 it is a colonial artifact rife with certain expectations that ring flat. To enjoy this novel is to sustain the colonial beliefs of European cultural superiority, to be complacent of the colonial venture. However, it is still a great story, the plot is excellent and the characters memorable, Bligh is one of the great villeins of literature, a peer of Captain Ahab (Moby-Dick) and Queeg (The Caine Mutiny). For the true story, see Caroline Alexander's The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty (2003).

--Review by Stephen Balbach, via CoolReading (c) 2008 cc-by-nd ( )

by Charles Nordhoff; And James Norman Hall