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Under the Volcano
by Malcolm Lowry
- Used
- very good
- first
- Condition
- Very Good/Good
- Seller
-
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1947. Very Good/Good. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1947. First Edition, First Printing. Octavo; 375pp. Three-color contour map dust jacket, with First Printing signaled by "Advance critical acclaim" header and four blurbs (Kain, Warren, Aiken, Spender) on back. Light gray cloth with crimson lettering on front panel and spine.
Unclipped dust jacket chipped at spine foot and crown (about 1/2" at crown) and at corners and folds. Front flap separating along fold but still just holding at top. Color scraped on lower right corner of front; jacket now stabilized in backed mylar. Binding browned by sun where jacket chips were missing, otherwise clean. Textblock opens easily; several gatherings show a few serrated paper fore-edges where the trimming knife was a couple millimeters wide of the mark. Textblock unmarked; tightness of second half suggests the initial owner never finished reading it. Unpaginated valedictory postscript present, as published: ¿Le gusta este jardin que es suyo? ¡Evite que sus hijos lo destruyan!
Unclipped dust jacket chipped at spine foot and crown (about 1/2" at crown) and at corners and folds. Front flap separating along fold but still just holding at top. Color scraped on lower right corner of front; jacket now stabilized in backed mylar. Binding browned by sun where jacket chips were missing, otherwise clean. Textblock opens easily; several gatherings show a few serrated paper fore-edges where the trimming knife was a couple millimeters wide of the mark. Textblock unmarked; tightness of second half suggests the initial owner never finished reading it. Unpaginated valedictory postscript present, as published: ¿Le gusta este jardin que es suyo? ¡Evite que sus hijos lo destruyan!
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
- Capitol Hill Books, ABAA
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 5979
- Title
- Under the Volcano
- Author
- Malcolm Lowry
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Jacket Condition
- Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Publisher
- Reynal & Hitchcock
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1947
Terms of Sale
Capitol Hill Books, ABAA
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Capitol Hill Books, ABAA
Biblio member since 2019
Washington, District of Columbia
About Capitol Hill Books, ABAA
Capitol Hill Books is a used bookstore in the Eastern Market neighborhood of Washington, DC. We have three floors of quality used books, first editions, and rare books.
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....
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Gatherings
- A term used in bookbinding, where a gathering of sheets is folded at the middle, then bound into the binding together. The...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
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