Under the Volcano
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First published AD 1947, written in English
Under the Volcano is a novel by the English writer Malcolm Lowry (1909–1957) published in 1947. It tells the story of Geoffrey Firmin, an alcoholic British consul in the Mexican city of Quauhnahuac on the Day of the Dead in November 1938. It takes its name from the volcanoes Popocatépetl and Iztaccihuatl, which overshadow the city and the characters. It was Lowry's second novel, and the last one he completed.
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Where it is set
- Popocatépetl
Mexico
It takes its name from the volcanoes Popocatépetl and Iztaccihuatl, which overshadow the city and the characters. Source: Wikipedia, reviewed
- Iztaccihuatl
Mexico
It takes its name from the volcanoes Popocatépetl and Iztaccihuatl, which overshadow the city and the characters. Source: Wikipedia, reviewed
What it draws on
- Faust
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, AD 1808
Geoffrey Firmin, the drunken British consul in Mexico, is a modern Faust: a man of great gifts who has sold himself, this time to mescal. One of the novel's epigraphs is from Goethe's Faust, though Marlowe's damned doctor stands closer.
Source: Wikipedia, Under the Volcano
“Lowry alludes to Goethe's Faust as well and uses a quote for one of his three epigraphs but Marlowe's dominates, with the Consul being suggested as a Faustian black magician by Hugh.” Read it there
The author’s life
On these lists
- Modern Library 100 Best Novels, number 11
- Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century, number 99
- The Guardian: The 100 best novels (Robert McCrum), number 69