Mr Bligh's Bad Language: Passion, Power and Theatre on the Bounty

OK that is not exactly what I was looking for and I now I seek another, more conventional history to plug in the gaps not include here.

There are many lovely passages in the book, though I found myself skipping over many of the sections I was not interested in.


Finely detailed, but worth reading   June 27, 2000
George P. Kraemer (New York)
Dening provides an interesting history of the Bounty story - what makes it different is his focus on the disparity between fact and the fiction that developed surrounding the characters of Christian and Bligh.

I liked the book (I read in twice, in fact), and I was a little put-off by the other online reviews. Maybe the book is, as another reader put it, "scholarly" but I didn't view that as a negative. All books need not be written for the average Joe (and, incidentally, cliometrics can be found in any decent dictionary) - so what's the problem?


Mr. Bligh's Impossible Language   March 26, 2000
Curtiss H. Johnson (Ontario, CA)
I, too, found this book to be a plodding bore. I did finally manage to get all the way through, but it took months of effort (got to get back to it--after all, I paid good money for it!). Way too scholarly for any except the most masochistic. Re-read "Mutiny on the Bounty" -- maybe not the historical accuracy wanted, but a wonderful read none-the-less!


hard going   October 16, 1999
I have given up on this tome half way through. It would have been more interesting and his points could have still been made had he written this for the average reader. The book seems poorly organized, and does anyone know the meaning of his much-used word "cliometrics"? An extremely intelligent acquaintance also gave up after skimming about half of the book. Don't waste your money.......