Under the Volcano

First published in 1947, Lowry's masterpiece has been compared to Jacobean tragedy, Melville's Moby Dick, Conrad's Nostromo, Joyce Cary and James Joyce. Now issued with a new introduction by poet and publisher Michael Schmidt, this highly original novel is set in and around Cuernavaca, a town in the mountains near Mexico City, on the Day of the Dead, 1938. It is told entirely in flashback, after an opening chapter set on the same day in 1939, a simple device which has given the novel an unnecessary reputation for difficulty. It is in fact often very funny, and at times deeply romantic, as Lowry charts the decline and tragic death of the British Consul, Geoffrey Firmin, an alcoholic of gargantuan proportions. His younger brother Hugh, recently returned from fighting in Spain, is visiting, as is Firmin's estranged wife, Hollywood starlet, Yvonne. On one level, there is a touching story of doomed love, with sinister undertones of espionage, while on another, Lowry's use of symbolism and poetically heightened prose make the Consul and his fate echo that of Europe, poised to tumble into the abyss of World War II. (Kirkus UK)