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Under the Volcano: A Novel (Perennial Classics) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Two mountain chains traverse the republic roughly from north to south, forming between them a number of valleys and plateaus..." (more)
Key Phrases: vivir sin amar, malcolm lowry, walnut grower, Malcolm Lowry, Calle Nicaragua, Mexico City (more...)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (89 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"One of the towering novels of this century." -- --New York Times

"The book obviously belongs with the most original and creative novels of our time." -- --Alfred Kazin


Product Description

Geoffrey Firmin, a former British consul, has come to Quauhnahuac, Mexico.Here the consul's debilitating malaise is drinking, and activity that has overshadowed his life. Under the Volcano is set during the most fateful day of the consul's life--the Day of the Dead, 1938. His wife, Yvonne, arrives in Quauhnahuac to rescue him and their failing marriage, inspired by a vision of life together away from Mexico and the circumstances that have driven their relationship to the brink of collapse. Yvonne's mission is to save the consul is further complicated by the presence of Hugh, the consul's half-brother, and Jacques, a childhood friend. The events of this one day unfold against a backdrop unforgettable for its evocation of a Mexico at once magical and diabolical.

Under the Volcano remains one of the most powerful and lyrical statements on the human condition and one man's constant struggle against the elemental forces that threaten to destroy him.

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Product Details

  • Paperback: 432 pages
  • Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics; 1st Perennial Classics ed edition (April 25, 2000)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0060955228
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060955229
  • Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (89 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #530,832 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Malcolm Lowry
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First Sentence:
Two mountain chains traverse the republic roughly from north to south, forming between them a number of valleys and plateaus. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
vivir sin amar, malcolm lowry, walnut grower, absolutamente necesario, old bean, first policeman
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Malcolm Lowry, Calle Nicaragua, Mexico City, Bella Vista, Geoffrey Firmin, Chief of Municipality, Yvonne Griffaton, Vera Cruz, Few Fleas, Oedipus Tyrannus, Chief of Gardens, William Blackstone, Cortez Palace, New York, Battle of the Ebro, Peter Lorre, Uncle Macintyre, Calle Tierra del Fuego, Juan Cerillo, Las Manos de Orlac, Casino de la Selva, Hell Bunker, Lee Maitland, Los Angeles, Yvonne Constable
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Customer Reviews

89 Reviews
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4.0 out of 5 stars (89 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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71 of 78 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Surface, mysterious depths, October 28, 2000
By Gregory N. Hullender (Bellevue, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Under the Volcano chronicles the last day in the life of the British Consul to Quauhnahuac, Mexico. The surface story recounts how his ex-wife, Yvonne, and his half-brother, Hugh, try to pull him from the alcoholic funk he's fallen into, and in the course of the day, they visit several locations in and around Quauhnahuac.

The descriptive prose makes the setting come alive, and you're left with the feeling of actually seen some of these places. The mini parks, the ruins of Maximilian's Palace, the cinema, the backyard of the Consul's house, and the great volcano, Popocatepetel, which keeps appearing and disappearing, growing and shrinking, as they wander around the landscape - all these things become very real under Lowry's brilliant examination.

Inspired by Joyce, Lowry's book has several parallels with Ulysses. Except for the first chapter, it all takes place in a single day -- November 1, 1938 (the Mexican holiday called "The Day of the Dead.") There are three principal characters, two male, one female, who wander around the landscape, etc. However, Ulysses is an extremely difficult read, and all the interesting parts are below the surface; Under the Volcano is an easy read, and quite satisfactory without looking deeper.

A lot has been written about the deeper meanings of the book, of course, but the most obvious seems to be the allegory to Europe on the edge of war. In this view, the Consul represents the old Europe heading to its destruction despite the efforts of idealists to save it. Or perhaps more accurately, the senseless decline of the Consul to his death parallels the senseless descent of Europe into the destruction of World War II. Likewise as the day proceeds the bright hope of the morning darkens as the sun declines into the hopeless dark and storms that come with the night. And the very first chapter - the one set exactly one year later - is darkened by a tremendous storm -- a storm which seems to represent the European war then already in full career.

A powerful book, thoroughly enjoyable, and meriting repeated reading.

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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars "I love hell. I can't wait to get back there.", December 1, 2005
Geoffrey Firmin, the former British consul to Mexico, is a prisoner of alcoholism. A victim of the shakes, he hears voices, talks to people who are not there, and hallucinates, though he is often able to hide the extent of his drinking. "True, he might lie down in the street, but he would never reel." On The Day of the Dead in 1938, his recently divorced wife Yvonne returns to Quauhnahuac, over which two smoking volcanoes loom, to try to persuade him to reconcile.

Coincidentally, Geoffrey's half-brother Hugh, with whom Yvonne apparently had a brief affair, also arrives that day, and the three share quarters, each hoping to recapture the past. When they take the bus to Tomalin to a bull-riding event, they see a wounded peasant dying beside the road, the peasant's horse with the number 7 branded on its rump, a tricky pesado, and a group of vigilantes, all of whom play a role in the climax which follows.

Rich with details, both of the external world of Quauhnahuac and the internal world of Geoffrey, the novel, first published in 1947, reflects Lowry's own experiences as an alcoholic. Geoffrey, a fully-rounded character, knows that he must stop drinking in order to function effectively, but he is unable to function at all without drinking. He both loves and despises Yvonne, wants to leave Mexico but wants to stay, and wants to find peace but creates chaos.

As Lowry reconstructs this one day in Geoffrey's life, the Day of the Dead, the pervasive symbolism adds to the feeling of overpowering doom--the smoking volcanoes ready to erupt, the "hideous pariah dog" that follows Geoffrey and Yvonne to the house, a barranca (chasm) which exists beside the house and which contains a dead dog, an Indian carrying "the weight of the past," vultures in the forest, Yvonne's release of an eagle in a cage, and sudden storms. All add weight and intensity to this powerful story of dissolution.

Despite the depressing subject matter and a frustrating main character who cannot or will not help himself during the novel's four hundred pages, the novel is breath-taking--elegant both in language and construction. Carefully plotted, filled with unique imagery, and enhanced by symbolism which brings it alive on new levels, it overwhelms the reader with its impact and approaches classical tragedy as the inevitable, doom-filled events play out. Though the novel includes peripheral political issues of the day--Mexico's instability and the philosophical conflicts between fascism and socialism--it is primarily a variation on the story of the Garden of Eden and the fall of man--full, rich, dense, and rewarding, despite its pervasive sadness. Mary Whipple
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30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The tragedy of a man in the 20th century, April 27, 2000
By Ian Muldoon (Coffs Harbour, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Suddenly with a gun or slowly using other means, including alcohol, why does a man(I use the term generically) self-destruct?. Why was there virtually no suicides among occupants of Nazi concentration camps? Camus asserted there was only one important philosophical question and that was suicide. The protagonist in UNDER THE VOLCANO, Geoffrey Firmin ponders " Why am I here, says the silence, what have I done, echoes the emptiness, why have I ruined myself ....................." (p342) Suffused with superstition, mystery, bizarre activities set on the Day of the Dead in Mexico at the foot of a Volcano, with echoes of guitar music, and dead dogs, images reminiscent of an hallucinatory carnival from Alice in Wonderland, colour, horror, sounds, this is a novel rich in atmosphere. " A sound like windbells, a ghostly tintinnabulation reached their ears."(p324) "Three black vultures came tearing through the trees low over the roof with soft hoarse cries like the cries of love." p151 And telling and true insights like " It's amazing when you come to think of it how the spirit seems to blossom in the shadow of the ABBATTOIR".P91 A profoundly moving novel which must rank as one of the great novels of the 20th century so well is it crafted and so telling its story.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Have a discussion group handy, and maybe a grade on the line, to help you get through this
Maybe I'm being a curmudgeon, but I think this Malcolm Lowry tale of a broken man during his last days is "literary" in the worst sense. Read more
Published 12 days ago by Joseph P. Menta, Jr.

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous Fiction for a Cold Day
Lyrical language to help you forget about our disgusting political climate of Glenn Beck, and Limbaugh.
Published 2 months ago by Mark A. Sangerman

5.0 out of 5 stars literature at its best
Under the volcano is a great novel though very demanding in terms of vocabulary and construction. For a foreigner like me it helps a lot one's understanding to read and listen at... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Jacques Piquet

1.0 out of 5 stars Verbal eruption
I know it's incredibly pretentious, arrogant even, to give the lowest mark to a classic, the `prophetic book for a whole generation', a novel Burgess himself called a masterpiece... Read more
Published 2 months ago by reader 451

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!!!

This is an extraordinary novel, complex and interesting, presenting deep characters with a thrilling history. Read more
Published 3 months ago by E. Franco

4.0 out of 5 stars For lack of a twelve-step program and a Betty Ford Clinic...
+ After seeing this novel cited with great fanfare by several authors whose work I much admired, I decided to give it a read. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mark Nadja

5.0 out of 5 stars A technically flawless, complete and unabridged, 12 CD disk, audio book edition
Superbly narrated by accomplished stage actor John Lee, "Under The Volcano" by the late Malcolm Lowry is a riveting novel of the human condition which is set in 1938 against a... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Midwest Book Review

2.0 out of 5 stars Underwhelming volcano
My immediate and continuing impression of the book was: This is the work of an amateur, and should never have been published. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Calochortus

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating author
This is the kind of book that you either love or hate. There are already tons of reviews on this site about the book itself from both camps, but if you want to learn more about... Read more
Published 7 months ago by M. Deschenes

5.0 out of 5 stars Dead dogs and Englishmen
In his forward to 'Under the Volcano', Stephen Spender, writing twenty years after the initial publication, directs the reader away from Lowry's alcoholic Consul as a... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Bryan Byrd

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