Under the volcano

Malcolm Lowry, 1947
HarperCollins, Perennial Classics, 2000

Characters

• Geoffrey Firmin, the Consul
• Yvonne, his wife
• Hugh Firmin, the Consul's half brother
• M. Jacques Laruelle, French film producer
• Dr. Arturo Díaz Vigil
• Sr. Bustamente

Much quoted, among others, by Frédéric Beigbeder.

Introduction by Stephen Spender, p xi

The Consul had drunk himself sober.

II, p 44-47
Transition on words: "absolumente necesario" and "Las manos de Orlac".

IX; p 277

What was the use of a will if you had no faith?

XII, p 351

Popocatepetl towered through the window, its immense flanks partly hidden by rolling thunderheads; its peak blocking the sky, it appeared almost right overhead, the barranca, the Farolito, directly beneath it. Under the volcano! It was not for nothing the ancients had placed Tartarus under Mt. Aetna, nor within it, the monster Typhoeus, with his hundred heads and --relatively-- fearful eyes and voices.

p 365

Half past sick by the cock.