Malcolm Lowry Livres

Ultramarine is the story of Dana Hilliot's first voyage, as mess-boy on the freighter Oedipus Tyrannus bound for Bombay and Singapore: of his struggle to win the approval of his shipmates, trying to match their example in the bars and bordellos of the Chinese ports while at the same time remaining faithful to his first love, Janet, back home in England. Alternating between Dana's own narrative and the ribald humor and colorful language of the sailors' conversation, Ultramarine depicts a boy's initiation into the company of men.

"Under the Volcano" chronicles an entire lifetime in the course of a single day, the Day of the Dead, which is to be the last in the tragic life of alcoholic British consul Geoffrey Firmin. Set in Quahnahac, Mexico, against the backdrop of a conflicted Europe during the Spanish Civil War, it is a gripping novel of terror and a man's compulsive alienation from the world and those who love him. Considered to be a modern classic, "Under the Volcano" has been compared to the best of Joseph Conrad and James Joyce.

It is the Day of Death and the fiesta is in fullswing. Geoffrey Firmin, H.M. ex-consul, is drowning himself in liquor and mescal, while his ex-wife and half brother look on, powerless to help him. As the day wears on, it becomes apparent that Geoffrey must die.

October Ferry to Gabriola, like Malcolm Lowry's generously praised Under the Volcano, is a romantic, convoluted prose journey in quest of an easeful death. It is not a completed novel, however. According to Margerie Lowry, the author's widow, this published version is her "sorting out" of numerous drafts of chapters, paragraphs and even sentences that Lowry began to write in 1946.

"Dunkel wie die Gruft, in der mein Freund begraben liegt" ist Malcolm Lowrys zweiter großer Roman. Er basiert auf Tagebüchern einer Reise nach Mexiko 1945, wo Lowry mit seiner Frau Margerie die Orte besuchte, an denen er zuvor mit seiner ersten Frau lebte. Das Buch bietet ein schonungsloses Selbstporträt Lowrys und die Entstehungsgeschichte von "Unter dem Vulkan".

Malcolm Lowry hinterließ 1957 mehrere unvollendete Romane, vollendete jedoch sieben Prosastücke, die in diesem Band vereint sind. Diese Stücke bilden eine Reise von Kanada über den Panama-Kanal nach Italien und zurück. Sie zeigen jedoch nicht Reiseerlebnisse, sondern eine symbolreiche Innenwelt und ein außergewöhnliches Bewusstsein.