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Recommended Reading: 600 Classics Reviewed

Under the Volcano

by Malcolm Lowry

1947

Novel

Stream-of-Consciousness

This modern masterpiece, a troubling exploration of the theme of commitment, questions the individual's ability to continue to function as a human being in the face of tragic events and seemingly inescapable doom.

Set in Quahnahuac, Mexico, in the late 1930's, the novel is governed by the mind of Geoffrey Firmin, an alcoholic British consul. He has recently resigned his post and is in despair over the loss of his wife, Yvonne, whom he cannot believe will be his again—even when she returns after their divorce.

The continuity of Firmin's thinking is often hard to follow and seems at the mercy of how much he has had to drink, but if his life is in ruins, so is the world which is tearing itself apart in conflicts like the Spanish Civil War.

Given his disappointment in human beings, Firmin's stubborn probing of how people treat one another is heroic. He simply will not let go of ethical issues even though his debilitation seemingly disqualifies him from being taken seriously. As the consul quite rightly insists, he is battling for “the survival of the human consciousness.”

Firmin forgets nothing. Other people pretend “not to know” about the causes of volcanic eruptions, which, in their built-up pressures, are so like the political history of the 20th century, but he realizes that, both in the cases of individuals and nations, people have interfered with one another and explosions are the result. Ultimately it is Firmin's surprising integrity of character and language, his way, as he says, of stretching a point, that makes this novel an indispensable exercise of the modern imagination.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Lowry, Malcolm. "Under The Volcano." Recommended Reading: 600 Classics Reviewed, edited by Editors of Salem Press, Salem Press, 2015. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=6CR_0568.
APA 7th
Lowry, M. (2015). Under the Volcano. In E. Salem Press (Ed.), Recommended Reading: 600 Classics Reviewed. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Lowry, Malcolm. "Under The Volcano." Edited by Editors of Salem Press. Recommended Reading: 600 Classics Reviewed. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2015. Accessed September 15, 2025. online.salempress.com.