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Product Summary
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Overlook Press
ISBN-10: 1585676950
ISBN-13: 9781585676958
Buy.com Sku: 31159840
Publish Date: 7/26/2005
Dimensions:
(in Inches) 8.25H x 5.5L x 0.75T
Pages:
203
Age Range:
NA
See more in Literary
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From the Publisher:
On his first voyage as a mess-boy for the freighter Oedipus Tyrannus, Dana Hilliot tries to fit in with the crew while remaining true to himself during their odyssey through the fleshpots and temptations of the Far East. Reprint.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. |
Annotation:
Lowry's first novel is the story of a young man, Dana Hilliot, who, inspired by reading Conrad and Melville, deserts his life of wealth and leisure to go to sea as a common deckhand. On board ship, he must prove himself among his rougher companions and survive their ridicule and contempt, as well as master his own anger at their prejudices. Lowry, who once worked as a deckhand, writes vividly about the backbreaking labor of life at sea--and the boredom, the petty disputes, and the temptations of life in port towns. Hilliot's struggle to remain faithful to the woman he left behind is a poignant and passionate part of the novel.
Lowry's first novel is the story of a young man, Dana Hilliot, who, inspired by reading Conrad and Melville, deserts his life of wealth and leisure to go to sea as a common deckhand. On board ship, he must prove himself among his rougher companions and survive their ridicule and contempt, as well as master his own anger at their prejudices. Lowry, who once worked as a deckhand, writes vividly about the backbreaking labor of life at sea--and the boredom, the petty disputes, and the temptations of life in port towns. Hilliot's struggle to remain faithful to the woman he left behind is a poignant and passionate part of the novel.
Author Bio
Malcolm Lowry
Lowry was born in a small Cheshire town and attended local schools as well as a boarding school in Cambridge. When he was 17, he sailed to the Far East as a cabin boy aboard the S.S. Pyrrhus, but returned in 1929 to begin his university studies at Cambridge, graduating with a B.A. in English. His first novel, ULTRAMARINE, was published in 1933, and in 1934 he married his first wife, Jan Gabrial, in Paris. A year later he was briefly hospitalized in the psychiatric wing of Bellevue Hospital in New York City. In 1936, in Cuernavaca, Mexico, he began writing UNDER THE VOLCANO. While the novel was in progress, his wife left him, and Lowry moved from Mexico to Los Angeles where, in 1939, he met Margerie Bonner (his second wife) and went with her to Vancouver, continuing to toil away at UNDER THE VOLCANO in the squatter's shack they rented. In 1944, the shack burned down, and the Lowrys moved to Niagra-on-the-Lake, Ontario to stay with friends while Lowry completed what was by now the fourth draft of his novel. In 1946, the novel was finally completed, and it was published in 1947. In the remaining years of his life, Lowry alternated between Vancouver, New York, and Europe, continuing to write stories and poems. In 1955 he returned to England, to a small village in Sussez, where he died two years later.Lowry was born in a small Cheshire town and attended local schools as well as a boarding school in Cambridge. When he was 17, he sailed to the Far East as a cabin boy aboard the S.S. Pyrrhus, but returned in 1929 to begin his university studies at Cambridge, graduating with a B.A. in English. His first novel, ULTRAMARINE, was published in 1933, and in 1934 he married his first wife, Jan Gabrial, in Paris. A year later he was briefly hospitalized in the psychiatric wing of Bellevue Hospital in New York City. In 1936, in Cuernavaca, Mexico, he began writing UNDER THE VOLCANO. While the novel was in progress, his wife left him, and Lowry moved from Mexico to Los Angeles where, in 1939, he met Margerie Bonner (his second wife) and went with her to Vancouver, continuing to toil away at UNDER THE VOLCANO in the squatter's shack they rented. In 1944, the shack burned down, and the Lowrys moved to Niagra-on-the-Lake, Ontario to stay with friends while Lowry completed what was by now the fourth draft of his novel. In 1946, the novel was finally completed, and it was published in 1947 to great acclaim in the US. In the remaining years of his life, Lowry alternated between Vancouver, New York, and Europe, continuing to write stories and poems. In 1955 he was persuaded by his wife to return to England, to a small village in Sussex, where he died two years later under mysterious circumstance after a drinking binge; there is reason to believe that he either committed suicide or was in fact murdered by his wife.
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