Under the Volcano

Lore & Background

Under the Volcano was Lowry's second published novel, but not his last completed work. The novel's name comes from the volcanoes Popocatépetl and Iztaccihuatl. The first full manuscript, written while Lowry lived in Mexico, was rejected by publishers. The novel was accepted by Reynal & Hitchcock in the US and Jonathan Cape in the UK. Cape initially requested drastic revisions, but Lowry's passionate defense led to publication without further changes.

Reader's Guide

Under the Volcano is significant for its complex structure and thematic depth. The novel consists of twelve chapters, with the first set a year after the main events, and the remaining eleven covering a single day. Lowry used numerological symbolism, linking the twelve chapters to hours, months, and Kabbalistic meaning. The work is noted for its portrayal of self-destruction and alcoholism, with TIME calling it a 'vertiginous picture of self-destruction.'

Did You Know?

• In earlier versions, Yvonne was the Consul's sister-in-law, not his wife.
• The novel's 12 chapters symbolize hours, months, and Kabbalistic spiritual aspirations.

A Novel Germinated in Exile and Ruin

Under the Volcano germinated in the wreckage of Lowry's first marriage and his escalating self-destruction. When authorities began taking notice, he fled to avoid deportation and drifted into Hollywood, where he attempted screenwriting and, around that time, began writing the novel that would define his career. He carried the still-unfinished manuscript to the Hotel Normandie in Los Angeles, where his father's rent checks were routed directly to the hotel manager, and the novel entered its next, equally turbulent chapter.

The Author's Demons on the Page

Lowry's personal wreckage provided the raw fuel for Under the Volcano. He began drinking at fourteen, and his alcoholism shadowed every subsequent chapter of his life. At Cambridge, his roommate Paul Fitte took his own life after Lowry refused a homosexual advance, and the guilt haunted him until his death. His second marriage to Margerie Bonner brought a measure of stability but also violence—during their European travels, Lowry twice attempted to strangle her. Inconsistencies in Margerie's shifting accounts of that night have fueled both suicide and murder theories. The novel's protagonist, a man unraveling under the weight of drink and inherited guilt, mirrors Lowry's own trajectory with an almost biographical precision that readers have noted for decades.

The Manuscript's Perilous Journey

The physical manuscript of Under the Volcano nearly perished more than once before it reached readers. Margerie eventually followed, bringing the pages north to join him, and the couple settled into a squatter's beach shack near the community of Dollarton, north of Vancouver, where they lived and wrote. Margerie proved indispensable to the novel's eventual completion, editing his work with skill and ensuring he ate as well as drank.

Posthumous Standing and Literary Legacy

Under the Volcano has secured a firm place among the great novels of the twentieth century. Lowry's broader literary footprint extends well beyond that single achievement. He lived nightly, and drank daily, and died playing the ukulele.' Yet that wry verse never appeared on his actual gravestone. The gap between the poem's irreverent tone and the gravity of his literary legacy speaks to a man who never fully reconciled his own myth with his art.