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Under the Volcano: A Novel by Malcolm Lowry

Introduction of the Author

Malcolm Lowry was an English experimental writer who produced a small but important body of writings. Influenced by the introspective, stream-of-consciousness literature of such authors as James Joyce, Lowry is remembered for his intense and highly personal brand of fiction. Only two of his works, the novels Ultramarine and Under the Volcano, reached publication before his death in 1957 at the age of forty-eight. Although several of the author's unfinished works have been edited and published posthumously, Under the Volcano, the largely autobiographical story of the final day in the life of an alcoholic, remains his crowning literary achievement.

Lowry was the youngest child born to an upper-class English family. Sent to a private boarding school at an early age, he failed to develop a close relationship with his parents and would later disregard his claims to the family cotton business. Lowry endured additional isolation for four of his preteen years, suffering a substantial loss of vision in both eyes due to ulcerations of his corneas. Following his recovery, however, he went on to become an avid and accomplished athlete. After a brief stint, as a crew hand aboard a British freighter, a diversion frowned upon by his father; Lowry placated his parents by agreeing to attend Cambridge University. Remaining remote and detached during his college years, he chose to cultivate his interest in literature and writing. During this time, Lowry's increasing reliance on alcohol began to surface. As Douglas Day noted in Malcolm Lowry: A Biography, alcohol served as “a source of spiritual strength, even of mystical insights ..., He liked to drink. (Bond 1999, p. 626)” Lowry's drinking addiction would overshadow both his personal life and his fiction, and it would eventually lead to his death (Sherrill, pp.509).

Biographers have described Lowry as a tormented and self-absorbed individual plagued by feelings of inadequacy, melancholia, detachment, and despair. Yet in spite of these shortcomings, the author is said to have possessed an unfailing charm. Day related that a barroom friend once said of Lowry that the very sight of the old bastard makes me happy for five days, no bloody fooling. Lowry's fiction mirrors his feelings of alienation, frustration, and internal turmoil. He intended to organize his writings under the general title “The Voyage That Never Ends,” but the sequence never materialized as Lowry planned. His tendency to write and rewrite numerous drafts of each of his works resulted in the realization of few projects. The works that were edited, and published after his death, then, must be viewed as unpolished representations of Lowry's literary vision.

The Story and Publications Problems

The semi autobiographical novel “under the Volcano” was written in 1947 by English author Malcolm Lowry. The story revolves around the character of Geoffrey Firmin, who is a councilor of alcoholism. Geoffrey lives in Quauhnahuac, a small town in Mexico. Geoffrey is surrounded by the annoying presence of some acquaintances, his half brother and his ex-wife. Geoffrey tumbles downs into a ...