I finished the 903-page Mutiny On the Bounty Trilogy late last night. I remember buying this a year or two ago and thinking how it was right up my alley. But, I would never really read it.

I am so glad I did, it was such a great book!

As the title suggests, it is three books in one, that were also published separately. (Published for the first time just a year before Hitler ascended to being the leader of Nazi Germany) The story, which is based on real events, did have three major parts, and each book was told from a different person. There was the voyage and the mutiny, then the cast-off captain and his loyalists and their torturous journey in a small boat across the Pacific ocean. And then for the third part, what happened to the mutineers.

The book had a lot of interesting aspects to it about western culture at the time, vs the cultures of other lands. How badly people treat each other, and the outcomes of such views. There were peaceful native islanders, and there were murderous ones. There were peaceful English, and selfish, murderous ones. On the value of relationships and life, how to accept new things and let go of old things, and vice-versa. It even ends on a high note, after so much suffering and brutality, with the last survivors and their offspring living a good life in a paradise, finding God and peacefully making contact with good people in the modern world (modern for 1808, that is).

Captain Bligh, even, that heartless captain with his sense of brutal oppression against lower classes of people, such as common sailors and native islanders, could also be noble and resolute in his devotion to get his men back to England in impossible circumstances. And then, Fletcher Christian, ever so realistic about their situation after having mutinied, constantly having to lead his group through not just a difficult and uncertain voyage, but establishing a new culture that was often at war with itself, all because of his emotional and split-second decision to mutiny. How that had effected so many people, it was on him, and he never didn’t feel guilty about it, and understood his responsibility to get things right for those under his command.

The characters growing and learning throughout the entire book. It was how tough times can create great people, and break others.

I also watched two of the three movies as well as some documentaries. I might watch the 1932 film with Clark Gable at some point, but I did watch the 1962 Marlon Brando epic (which had thousands of Polynesian extras for some scenes, incredible!) and re-watched 1984’s The Bounty with Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins, and Liam Neeson. The 1962 Marlon Brando film skipped the second book and barely touched the events of the third, with a completely different ending. And this was based on the original book of which I just read. Apparently, Brando was difficult to work with and wanted things his way, maybe this alternate ending was part of that. The Mel Gibson movie simply ends with the first book, which is understandable as they didn’t have time to tell the entire tale.

There is a non-fiction book on the facts of the story in a book titled the same as the 1984 movie The Bounty, but I have to find that in my library annex. Glad I happened to buy that at the thrifts!

It was nice to finish this 1943 reprint, of which I had to glue repair the front cover, which was separating. And after finishing the book, I had to do the same for the back cover. The feel of a good, old book in one’s hands is very nice. Still, next time, I plan to reread it by acquiring the leather-bound, gilded Easton Press editions as this book has proven to be worth that kind of high-end expense. Same goes for the Horatio Hornblower books, which were also published at the same time, and have their own Easton Press leather editions.

So far, I’ve introduced myself to the Horatio Hornblower books, of which I have ten more to go (the eight-episode A&E television movies-miniseries is fantastic!), read one of the big books on John Paul Jones, then a 1914 copy of Mutiny of the Elsinore by Jack London, and now this. I’m thinking of reading The Count of Monte Cristo next, I have a great copy of that which previously I got a third of the way through previously. I’ll need to restart that from the beginning. The 2002 movie is one of my all-time favorite films. I have added Treasure Island and Kidnapped! by Robert Louis Stevinson and Moby Dick to my list of nautical books to read this summer.

Friday night, I came across this painting that was briefly shown in a YouTube history video I was watching. I really, really liked this painting. It is the first picture above, with the Union soldiers in blue, prominently charging from the right to the left.

So, I took some serious time to try to find out who painted this thing, and it took a while but I eventually found out that the artist, Don Troiani, is still around and still painting.

I located all of the books of his work on Amazon, added them to my Wish List, and prepared to maybe buy some in the future, someday. When I have a job. But for now, no. It is at $91 on Amazon right now.

I have been book shopping every week for many years, and if I’d seen a book of his work, I would have absolutely purchased it by now. But I’ve never seen one.

SO. Today, the very next day, Dad and I stop at an estate sale, that I’d thought was a garage sale. A lame garage sale. I sat in my car for ten or fifteen minutes while I waited for Dad, who was probably chatting up some people, and when I finally went to collect him, he promptly told me that there were history books inside. And, among those history books, of all things, was “American Battles: The Art of the Nation at War, 1754-1865, by Don Troiani.

$3.

Less than the shipping for the $91 they want for it on Amazon.

What are the odds? The only thing like this that I’ve experienced before is when I saw a great hockey jersey at a garage sale, and it was $15, and all I had in my wallet was exactly… $15. I had never before seen, and haven’t since, a hockey jersey, much less one I wanted, at a garage sale.

Anyway. I’m very happy about this. It also rivals that DVD set of “Nowhere Man” that is very expensive online at $89, out of print and forgotten, that I picked up for $6 at a thrift. I never thought I’d get to watch that show again, or ever find the DVD at a thrift. You never know.

The down side to all of this are the fruitless garage sales and thrift store journeys it takes to run across things like this. But at least they happen sometimes.

And also, the talent and work put into art like this only furthers my distaste (to put it mildly) of modern art, which always lacks skill, talent, and beauty. You don’t have to like the subject matter of Don Troiani’s work, but it is an objective truth that it has very high artistic value to it. Unlike the thirty seconds of splashed paint on a canvas which represents so much of “Modern Art.”

Don Troiani Historical Artist