The Making of Malcolm Lowry's Under the VolcanoTen years in the making, Under the Volcano is the best-known work of writer Malcolm Lowry. Published first in 1947, it is a brilliant, moving, and complex novel, perhaps the last fictional masterpiece to emerge from the modernist movement. As the years went by, Lowry's obsessive rewriting took him further and further into his book, which changed relatively little in the outer semblance of action and main characters but became utterly transformed in texture from the thin and mediocre version of 1940 to the rich tapestry of 1947. The numerous manuscripts allow a look at the processes by which Lowry created not only his masterwork but also his own reputation as a modernist genius. This study offers an extended examination of individual drafts as the novel slowly developed and, in a final chapter, an appraisal of the implications of Lowry's revisions for the book as published, an appraisal that suggests bases for new readings of Under the Volcano. |
Contents
PROLOGUE The UrVolcano | 17 |
CHAPTER ONE The 1940 Under the Volcano | 29 |
CHAPTER TWO 1941 | 71 |
CHAPTER SIX The Complete Consort | 319 |
APPENDIX A Stages of the 1940 Under the Volcano | 387 |
APPENDIX B The Manuscript Record | 395 |
WORKS CITED | 457 |
| 465 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Acapulco action Aiken alcoholic alterations appears become begins Bella Vista cantina Cape Chapter XII characters comic Conrad Aiken consciousness Consul course created David Markson death dialogue dramatic drink earlier early echo episode Farolito feel figure final Firmin galley proofs garden Geoffrey Geoffrey's holograph Hugh and Yvonne Hugh's imagined insert instance Jacques Jacques's Laruelle Laruelle's later letter Lowry's Malcolm Lowry manuscript Margerie Margerie's material Matson menu mescal Mexican Mexico mind Miss Lonelyhearts Moby-Dick motif move narrative never Nonetheless notes novel Noxon Oaxaca once opening paragraph passage past pelado pencil perhaps porch precisely present previous draft Quauhnahuac question recall recollection reference reflections refolioed rendering response revision rewriting rhythm scene seems sense sentence sheets simply Spain stage story suggest surviving Templeton tequila Texas tion Tlaxcala typescript verso Vigil vision voice Volcano William Ames Yvonne's