Geoffrey Firmin, a former British consul, has come to Quauhnahuac, Mexico. Here the consul's debilitating malaise is drinking, and activity that has overshadowed his life. Under the Volcano is set during the most fateful day of the consul's life--the Day of the Dead, 1938. His wife, Yvonne, arrives in Quauhnahuac to rescue him and their failing marriage, inspired by a vision of life together away from Mexico and the circumstances that have driven their relationship to the brink of collapse. Yvonne's mission is to save the consul is further complicated by the presence of Hugh, the consul's half-brother, and Jacques, a childhood friend. The events of this one day unfold against a backdrop unforgettable for its evocation of a Mexico at once magical and diabolical.</p>
Under the Volcano remains one of the most powerful and lyrical statements on the human condition and one man's constant struggle against the elemental forces that threaten to destroy him.</p>

「本世紀最傑出的小說」
──《紐約時報》
一部傑作！絕對是本世紀以來最重要的十部小說之一……展現出作者的過人天賦，充滿細緻入微的自傳性色彩，並以過人的語言掌控能力將詩與敘事的形式融為一體，陳述出世界性的宣言」
──《洛杉磯時報》
入選美國紐約公共圖書館「世紀之書」、藍燈書屋「當代文庫」、時代雜誌「跨時代」二十世紀英文百大小說鉅作
這是熱門音樂、一首詩、一首歌、一齣喜劇、一場鬧劇……
膚淺，深刻？枯燥，精彩？別太早下定論。
破滅的理想、死灰復燃的愛情、憤世嫉俗的世界觀，經酒精催化後的魔幻之旅即將展開……
「魔幻的旅程即將在這別具意義的一日，展開……
政治失意、婚姻失敗的英國領事傑佛瑞．費明，藉由一杯杯的麥斯卡爾酒來逃避現實，選擇了以酒精麻痺自我的同時，卻也從身邊的關愛之中逃開……當妻子伊溫妮再度回到身旁，原本放任肆性的自我墜落開始有所動搖，呼喚著他放下酒杯，並在陽光的熱烈照耀之下重新開始。但不論是否再繼續喝很多酒，黑夜都必然會等候著他。儘管步履蹣跚，一心還是要走到那在火山下的法羅立特──而這裡是他絕望的天堂……

Geoffrey Firmin, a former British consul, has come to Quauhnahuac, Mexico. His debilitating malaise is drinking, an activity that has overshadowed his life. On the most fateful day of the consul's life--the Day of the Dead, 1938--his wife, Yvonne, arrives in Quauhnahuac, inspired by a vision of life together away from Mexico and the circumstances that have driven their relationship to the brink of collapse. She is determined to rescue Firmin and their failing marriage, but her mission is further complicated by the presence of Hugh, the consul's half brother, and Jacques, a childhood friend. The events of this one significant day unfold against an unforgettable backdrop of a Mexico at once magical and diabolical. "Under the Volcano" remains one of literature's most powerful and lyrical statements on the human condition, and a brilliant portrayal of one man's constant struggle against the elemental forces that threaten to destroy him.

One of the twentieth century's great undisputed masterpieces, Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano includes an introduction by Michael Schmidt in Penguin Modern Classics. It is the fiesta 'Day of the Dead' in the small Mexican town of Quauhnahuac. In the shadow of the volcano, ragged children beg coins to buy skulls made of chocolate, ugly pariah dogs roam the streets and Geoffrey Firmin - ex-consul, ex-husband, an alcoholic and a ruined man - is living out the last day of his life. Drowning himself in mescal while his former wife and half-brother look on, powerless to help him, the consul has become an enduring tragic figure. As the day wears on, it becomes apparent that Geoffrey must die. It is his only escape from a world he cannot understand. His story, the image of one man's agonised journey towards Calvary, became a prophetic book for a whole generation.

Geoffrey Firmin， a former British consul， has come to Quauhnahuac， Mexico. His debilitating malaise is drinking， an activity that has overshadowed his life. On the most fateful day of the consul's life—the Day of the Dead， 1938—his wife， Yvonne， arrives in Quauhnahuac， inspired by a vision of life together away from Mexico and the circumstances that have driven their relationship to the brink of collapse. She is determined to rescue Firmin and their failing marriage， but her mission is further complicated by the presence of Hugh， the consul's half brother， and Jacques， a childhood friend. The events of this one significant day unfold against an unforgettable backdrop of a Mexico at once magical and diabolical.
Under the Volcano remains one of literature's most powerful and lyrical statements on the human condition， and a brilliant portrayal of one man's constant struggle against the elemental forces that threaten to destroy him.

這是一首詩、一部交響曲、一齣喜劇、一場鬧劇，你我都無法定義，
世界何其荒謬，人生又何嘗不是呢？
勞瑞從來沒有遺漏掉任何一個受苦的靈魂，他們的痛如此真誠……
他寫宿醉、寫頭的劇痛、寫酒鬼隔著一層厚玻璃孤寂活著、那種口乾舌燥、黃金液態搖晃之感，那種斷片然後「咦？我怎麼又拿著龍舌蘭酒瓶在飲著？」，寫那種活得不耐煩，寫得多麼好！那種廢，像蒼蠅連翅被黏在熾熱日照下的融化蜜糖……
在那個充滿熱塵的南方，人無法從燒起來的夢境醒過來，被各式各樣的酒像琥珀一樣包圍著……
他們著迷於過去的記憶，在希望與絕望間搖搖晃晃，
各自遺落在孤寂的迷宮、墜入罪疚的深淵中；
愛，恰恰只能建立在這共同的悲劇之上。
英國領事傑佛瑞．費明，藉由一杯杯麥斯卡酒來逃避現實。政治失意、婚姻失敗的他，選擇了以酒精痲痺自我的同時，卻也從身邊的關愛之中逃開……
一九三八年亡靈節那天，妻子伊芳再度回到墨西哥夸恩納華克鎮，試圖挽回在墜落邊緣的婚姻；自我放逐的逃避開始有所動搖，呼喚著他放下酒杯。但此時同父異母的弟弟修，以及兒時好友拉呂爾的出現，各人千絲萬縷的過去交織在一起，彼此帶著無法言明的秘密生活在熾熱的時空中。
二十世紀上半葉，西方價值面臨崩潰，現代人在困境前不知所措、苦苦掙扎。
散落在情節中間的各種象徵，流露出作者對於歐洲納粹政權、法西斯主義、殖民主義的撻伐。
人生，就是無可逃脫的地獄機器。
我們順著勞瑞的腳步，找到了真理，以他的缺憾作為代價。
在領事的不幸裡，你彷彿聽得見伊芳呢喃：「沒有愛，怎麼活？」

A NEW YORK REVIEW BOOKS ORIGINAL
Notorious for a misspent life full of binges, blackouts, and unimaginable bad luck, Malcolm Lowry managed, against every odd, to complete and publish two novels, one of them, Under the Volcano , an indisputable masterpiece. At the time of his death in 1957, Lowry also left behind a great deal of uncollected and unpublished writing: stories, novellas, drafts of novels and revisions of drafts of novels (Lowry was a tireless revisiter and reviser—and interrupter—of his work), long, impassioned, haunting, beautiful letters overflowing with wordplay and lament, fraught short poems that display a sozzled off-the-cuff inspiration all Lowry’s own. Over the years these writings have appeared in various volumes, all long out of print. Here, in The Voyage That Never Ends , the poet, translator, and critic Michael Hofmann has drawn on all this scattered and inaccessible material to assemble the first book that reflects the full range of Lowry’s extraordinary and singular achievement.
The result is a revelation. In the letters—acknowledged to be among modern literature’s greatest—we encounter a character who was, as contemporaries attested, as spellbinding and lovable as he was self-destructive and infuriating. In the late fiction—the long story “Through the Panama,” sections of unfinished novels such as Dark as the Grave Wherein My Friend Is Laid , and the little-known La Mordida —we discover a writer who is blazing a path into the unknown and, as he goes, improvising a whole new kind of writing. Lowry had set out to produce a great novel, something to top Under the Volcano , a multivolume epic and intimate tale of purgatorial suffering and ultimate redemption (called, among other things, “The Voyage That Never Ends”). That book was never to be. What he produced instead was an unprecedented and prophetic blend of fact and fiction, confession and confusion, essay and free play, that looks forward to the work of writers as different as Norman Mailer and William Gass, but is like nothing else. Almost in spite of himself, Lowry succeeded in transforming his disastrous life into an exhilarating art of disaster. The Voyage That Never Ends is a new and indispensable entry into the world of one of the masters of modern literature.

“Lowry’s masterpiece” about a fateful Day of the Dead in a small Mexican town and one man’s struggle against the forces threatening to destroy him (Los Angeles Times).

In what the New York Times calls “one of the towering novels of [the twentieth] century,” former British consul Geoffrey Firmin lives alone with his demons in the shadow of two active volcanoes in South Central Mexico. Gripped by alcoholism, Geoffrey makes one last effort to salvage his crumbling life on the day that his ex-wife, Yvonne, arrives in town.
 
It’s the Day of the Dead, 1938. The couple wants to revive their marriage and undo the wrongs of their past, but they soon realize that they’ve stumbled into the wrong place and time, where not only Geoffrey and Yvonne, but the world itself is on the edge of Armageddon.
 
Hailed by the Modern Library as one of the one hundred best English novels of the twentieth century, Under the Volcano stands as an iconic and richly drawn example of the modern novel at its most lyrical.