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Under the Volcano
by LOWRY, Malcolm
- Used
- first
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
Winchester, Virginia, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1947. First American Edition. First Printing. Octavo (21cm); light gray linen, with titles stamped in maroon on spine and front panel; dustjacket; 375pp. Slight lean, with some very faint soil to boards and extremities, rough erasure to front pastedown, and some glue residue from a small, circular sticker on the rear pastedown; Very Good+. Dustjacket is the first issue, with four advance reviews printed on the rear panel; price is clipped, with wear along the flap folds, and some shallow chipping and tears along the edges; Very Good. Lowry's most enduring novel, and basis for the 1984 John Huston film starring Albert Finney, Jacqueline Bisset, and Anthony Andrews.
Synopsis
Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano tells the story of Geoffrey Firmin, an alcoholic British consul in the small Mexican town of Quauhnahuac, on the Day of the Dead in 1938. The novel was precipitated by a short story he wrote after a trip to Mexico with his wife. The story was expanded into a novel completed in 1940, but was rejected and then revised multiple times before finally getting published in 1947. Under the Volcano thoroughly demonstrates Lowry’s highly stylistic writing choices. Drawing heavily upon autobiographical material (Lowry himself was well-known to be an alcoholic), the author amplifies the complexity of the story with unexpected narrative shifts and allusive layers of symbolism. In fact, the complexity of Under the Volcano has been compared with James Joyce’s stylistic masterpiece, Ulysses. The novel was out of print by the time Lowry died of alcoholism in 1957, yet is critically acclaimed today. The Modern Library ranked Under the Volcano eleventh on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. TIME included the book in its list of 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present. In 1984, John Huston directed a film adaptation of Under the Volcano. It received Oscar nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role and Best Original Score.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Lorne Bair Rare Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 17189
- Title
- Under the Volcano
- Author
- LOWRY, Malcolm
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First American Edition
- Publisher
- Reynal & Hitchcock
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1947
- Bookseller catalogs
- Modern Fiction;
Terms of Sale
Lorne Bair Rare Books
All items are offered subject to prior sale. Orders must be prepaid, though billing may be arranged for institutions and customers with established credit. Payment may be made by Check, Money Order, Paypal or by valid credit card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover). Any item may be returned within 10 days of receipt for full refund. Signed and manuscript items carry an unlimited guarantee of authenticity.
About the Seller
Lorne Bair Rare Books
Biblio member since 2006
Winchester, Virginia
About Lorne Bair Rare Books
Lorne Bair Rare Books specializes in books, mansuscripts, and printed ephemera relating to American Social History, with an emphasis on radical and utopian movements of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. We are available in our showroom by appointment, at shows, and on-line through various booksellers' sites or at our website www.lornebair.com.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Chipping
- A defect in which small pieces are missing from the edges; fraying or small pieces of paper missing the edge of a paperback, or...
- Good+
- A term used to denote a condition a slight grade better than Good.
- Octavo
- Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...
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