Malcolm Lowry's Volcano Author:David Markson In Malcolm Lowry's Volcano, originally published in 1978, David Markson extended the pioneering work of his 1951 Columbia University master's thesis-the first substantial study of Under the Volcano. In the years between thesis and book, Markson became Lowry's close friend (see the invaluable reminiscence at the end of the book) and an accomplish... more »ed novelist in his own right. His critical reputation has only grown in the past two decades. Markson's holds Under the Volcano to be the greatest English language novel after Ulysses-and very like it in ambition and method. While acknowledging that the novel's primary pleasure is its literal, dramatic story, he argues here that Lowry's book is a Joycean endeavor, both in its reliance on the mythic and in its allusive texture. Far from being incidental to the story-bits and pieces of learning merely stuffed into the text, as Lowry's one-time mentor Conrad Aiken thought them-the dense web of reference is an intrinsic part of Lowry's plan, and demonstrates his mastery.« less