Listen free for 30 days
-
Under the Volcano
- A Novel
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 14 hrs and 50 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Classics
People who bought this also bought...
-
Underworld
- By: Don DeLillo
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 31 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nick Shay and Klara Sax knew each other once, intimately, and they meet again in the American desert. He is trying to outdistance the crucial events of his early life, haunted by the hard logic of loss and by the echo of a gunshot in a basement room. She is an artist who has made a blood struggle for independence.
-
-
A modern classic - read it
- By shirley on 30-04-14
-
The Magic Mountain
- By: Thomas Mann
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 37 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hans Castorp is, on the face of it, an ordinary man in his early 20s, on course to start a career in ship engineering in his home town of Hamburg, when he decides to travel to the Berghof Santatorium in Davos. The year is 1912 and an oblivious world is on the brink of war. Castorp’s friend Joachim Ziemssen is taking the cure and a three-week visit seems a perfect break before work begins. But when Castorp arrives he is surprised to find an established community of patients, and little by little, he gets drawn into the closeted life and the individual personalities of the residents.
-
-
Paint dries before the war.
- By Richard on 11-08-20
-
Invisible Man
- A Novel
- By: Ralph Ellison
- Narrated by: Joe Morton
- Length: 18 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ralph Elllison's Invisible Man is a monumental novel, one that can well be called an epic of 20th-century African-American life. It is a strange story, in which many extraordinary things happen, some of them shocking and brutal, some of them pitiful and touching - yet always with elements of comedy and irony and burlesque that appear in unexpected places.
-
-
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
- By Susan Lynch on 18-10-20
-
The Razor's Edge
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Larry Darrell is a young American in search of the absolute. The progress of this spiritual odyssey involves him with some of Maugham's most brilliant characters: his fiancée Isabel, whose choice between love and wealth have lifelong repercussions; and Elliot Templeton, her uncle, a classic expatriate American snob. The most ambitious of Maugham's novels, this is also one in which Maugham himself plays a considerable part as he wanders in and out of the story, to observe his characters struggling with their fates.
-
-
One of my desert island books
- By AReader on 04-02-15
-
Hunger
- By: Knut Hamsun
- Narrated by: Gunnar Cauthery
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Verging on death, a starving, destitute writer navigates the cold and indifferent city of Kristiania in search of his next meal. Frenzied and fevered, he chews on stale bread, devours scraps of wood, and bites his own finger, sleeping under the stars in old, pungent blankets, until one day he is able to sell an article and buy some food - only for the cycle then to repeat itself....
-
-
Hypnotic descent into abjection
- By Oliver on 07-12-19
-
Autumn
- Seasonal Quartet, Book 1
- By: Ali Smith
- Narrated by: Melody Grove
- Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fusing Keatsian mists and mellow fruitfulness with the vitality, the immediacy and the colour hit of Pop Art - via a bit of skullduggery - Autumn is a witty excavation of the present by the past. Autumn is a take on popular culture and a meditation in a world growing ever more bordered: what constitutes richness and worth?
-
-
a collage of leaf-fall & never-ending stories
- By Rachel Redford on 08-11-16
-
Underworld
- By: Don DeLillo
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 31 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nick Shay and Klara Sax knew each other once, intimately, and they meet again in the American desert. He is trying to outdistance the crucial events of his early life, haunted by the hard logic of loss and by the echo of a gunshot in a basement room. She is an artist who has made a blood struggle for independence.
-
-
A modern classic - read it
- By shirley on 30-04-14
-
The Magic Mountain
- By: Thomas Mann
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 37 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hans Castorp is, on the face of it, an ordinary man in his early 20s, on course to start a career in ship engineering in his home town of Hamburg, when he decides to travel to the Berghof Santatorium in Davos. The year is 1912 and an oblivious world is on the brink of war. Castorp’s friend Joachim Ziemssen is taking the cure and a three-week visit seems a perfect break before work begins. But when Castorp arrives he is surprised to find an established community of patients, and little by little, he gets drawn into the closeted life and the individual personalities of the residents.
-
-
Paint dries before the war.
- By Richard on 11-08-20
-
Invisible Man
- A Novel
- By: Ralph Ellison
- Narrated by: Joe Morton
- Length: 18 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ralph Elllison's Invisible Man is a monumental novel, one that can well be called an epic of 20th-century African-American life. It is a strange story, in which many extraordinary things happen, some of them shocking and brutal, some of them pitiful and touching - yet always with elements of comedy and irony and burlesque that appear in unexpected places.
-
-
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
- By Susan Lynch on 18-10-20
-
The Razor's Edge
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Larry Darrell is a young American in search of the absolute. The progress of this spiritual odyssey involves him with some of Maugham's most brilliant characters: his fiancée Isabel, whose choice between love and wealth have lifelong repercussions; and Elliot Templeton, her uncle, a classic expatriate American snob. The most ambitious of Maugham's novels, this is also one in which Maugham himself plays a considerable part as he wanders in and out of the story, to observe his characters struggling with their fates.
-
-
One of my desert island books
- By AReader on 04-02-15
-
Hunger
- By: Knut Hamsun
- Narrated by: Gunnar Cauthery
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Verging on death, a starving, destitute writer navigates the cold and indifferent city of Kristiania in search of his next meal. Frenzied and fevered, he chews on stale bread, devours scraps of wood, and bites his own finger, sleeping under the stars in old, pungent blankets, until one day he is able to sell an article and buy some food - only for the cycle then to repeat itself....
-
-
Hypnotic descent into abjection
- By Oliver on 07-12-19
-
Autumn
- Seasonal Quartet, Book 1
- By: Ali Smith
- Narrated by: Melody Grove
- Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fusing Keatsian mists and mellow fruitfulness with the vitality, the immediacy and the colour hit of Pop Art - via a bit of skullduggery - Autumn is a witty excavation of the present by the past. Autumn is a take on popular culture and a meditation in a world growing ever more bordered: what constitutes richness and worth?
-
-
a collage of leaf-fall & never-ending stories
- By Rachel Redford on 08-11-16
-
Inside Story
- By: Martin Amis
- Narrated by: Alex Jennings
- Length: 22 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
His most intimate and epic work to date, Inside Story is the portrait of Martin Amis' extraordinary life, as a man and a writer. This novel had its birth in a death - that of the author's closest friend, Christopher Hitchens. We also encounter the vibrant characters who have helped define Martin Amis, from his father Kingsley, to his hero Saul Bellow, from Philip Larkin to Iris Murdoch and Elizabeth Jane Howard, and to the person who captivated his 20s, the alluringly amoral Phoebe Phelps.
-
-
A Tour de Force.
- By Sententiae on 31-10-20
-
Serotonin
- By: Michel Houellebecq
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dissatisfied and discontent, Florent-Claude Labrouste begrudgingly works as an engineer for the Ministry of Agriculture and is in a self-imposed dysfunctional relationship with a younger woman. When he discovers her ongoing infidelity, he decides to return to the Normandy countryside of his youth. There he contemplates lost loves and past happiness as he struggles to embed himself in a world that no longer holds any joy for him. His only relief comes in the form of a pill - white, oval, small. Captorix is a new brand of anti-depressant, recently released for public consumption.
-
-
Excellent
- By Justice Peace on 16-10-19
-
Beware of Pity
- By: Stefan Zweig
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
- Length: 14 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the twilight of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a young cavalry officer is invited to a dance at the home of a rich landowner. There - with a small act of attempted charity - he commits a simple faux pas. But from this seemingly insignificant blunder comes a tale of catastrophe arising from kindness and of honour poisoned by self-regard. Beware of Pity has all the intensity and the formidable sense of torment and of character of the very best of Zweig's work. Definitive translation by the award-winning Anthea Bell.
-
-
Pity the listener.
- By George on 19-05-18
-
The Sound and the Fury
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First published in 1929, Faulkner created his "heart's darling", the beautiful and tragic Caddy Compson, whose story Faulkner told through separate monologues by her three brothers: the idiot Benjy, the neurotic suicidal Quentin, and the monstrous Jason.
-
-
a great masterpiece performed beautifully.
- By TechGuy on 12-10-19
-
A Farewell to Arms
- By: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: John Slattery
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse.
-
-
Farewell to a good listen
- By James on 16-12-07
-
Naked Lunch
- The Restored Text
- By: William S. Burroughs
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Naked Lunch is one of the most important novels of the 20th century, a book that redefined not just literature but American culture. An unnerving tale of a narcotics addict unmoored in New York, Tangiers, and, ultimately, a nightmarish wasteland known as Interzone.
-
-
Defies a pithy title
- By Ant on 11-11-13
-
Herzog
- By: Saul Bellow
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 15 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of the National Book Award when it was first published in 1964, Herzog traces five days in the life of a failed academic whose wife has recently left him for his best friend. Through the device of letter writing, Herzog movingly portrays both the internal life of its eponymous hero and the complexity of modern consciousness.
-
-
Two Stars!?!?!?!
- By S. Wragg on 05-04-11
-
The Sun Also Rises
- By: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: William Hurt
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Sun Also Rises is one of Ernest Hemingway's masterpieces and a classic example of his spare but powerful style. A poignant look at the disillusionment and angst of the post-World War I generation, the story introduces two of Hemingway's most unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley. Follow the flamboyant Brett and the hapless Jake as they journey from the wild nightlife of the 1920s Paris to the brutal bullfighting rings of Spain with a motley group of expatriates.
-
-
Great book but not the best Hemingway
- By Ariel on 14-02-19
-
The Rainbow
- By: D. H. Lawrence
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 18 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Rainbow, D. H. Lawrence challenged the customary limitations of language and convention to carry into the structures of his prose the fascination with boundaries and space that characterize the entire novel. A visionary novel, considered to be one of Lawrence's finest, it explores the complex sexual and psychological relationships between men and women in an increasingly industrialized world.
-
The Red and the Black
- By: Stendhal
- Narrated by: Bill Homewood
- Length: 22 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young Julien Sorel, the son of a country timber merchant, carries a portrait of his hero Napoleon Bonaparte and dreams of military glory. A brilliant career in the Church leads him into Parisian high society, where, 'mounted upon the finest horse in Alsace', he gains high military office and wins the heart of the aristocratic Mlle Mathilde de la Mole. Julien's cunning and ambition lead him into all sorts of scrapes.
-
-
Wonderful reading....
- By Jyoti on 22-09-14
-
Nostromo
- By: Joseph Conrad
- Narrated by: Nigel Anthony
- Length: 18 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the fictional South American country of Costaguana, Nostromo explores the volatile politics and crippling greed surrounding the San Tomé silver mine. The story of power, love, revolutions, loyalty and reward is told with richly evocative description and brilliantly realised characters. But Nostromo is more than an adventure story; it is also a profoundly dark moral fable. Its language is as compellingly resonant as the sea itself; the characters absorbing and complex.
-
-
Very difficult to engage with
- By Oli on 14-02-19
-
For Whom the Bell Tolls
- By: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: Campbell Scott
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1937, Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war there for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Three years later he completed the greatest novel to emerge from "the good fight", For Whom the Bell Tolls.
-
-
For whom the bell tolls
- By Martin on 17-10-10
Summary
Critic reviews
"One of the towering novels of [the twentieth] century." ( New York Times)
"[Lowry's] masterpiece...has a claim to being regarded as one of the ten most consequential works of fiction produced in this century...." ( Los Angeles Times)
More from the same
What listeners say about Under the Volcano
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- T
- 20-02-14
brilliant book, but beware of the narration
Often voted one of the greatest books of the 20th Century, this book should not disappoint. Unfortunately in my case, it did somewhat because John Lee's narration was so very poor when reading the many places and phrases in Spanish/Mexican. John has a great voice and his style suits sci-fi particularly well, but he desperately needed coaching before taking this one on.
That said, please do what you can to ignore the pronunciation issue because the story itself is very rewarding. Under The Volcano is cleverly constructed, rich in symbolism and literary references - which is why I had put off reading the book, as it sounded intimidating! Thankfully this is not the case and it can be enjoyed simply as an extraordinary tragedy, lightened with great humour and wit. And I'll listen again and hope to get more of the literary stuff!
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- sheila jones
- 10-09-19
Narrator does justice to this brilliant novel
Beautiful, sad, and absorbing novel - one of my favourites ever. I get sucked into it every time, reading or listening. Narrator John Lee does a startlingly beautiful job. Thank you.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amir El Alem
- 02-05-19
unreadable and unlistenable gibberish
I really tried to like this book but either it is too dense or it is my comprehension that is too dense
-
Overall

- Melinda
- 07-12-10
Excellent...but not for everyone
I loved this story of a day-long drunken binge told from 3 different viewpoints, but I know that not everyone liked it (ask my book club)...but I thought it was classic. It gets tough in some places, but I found Under the Volcano to be a wonderful tale in a vast desert of somewhat underwhelming books. 5 stars for writing and 5 stars for narration.
17 people found this helpful
-
Overall

- Marcus Vorwaller
- 09-02-10
Great book, slightly flawed narration
It took me awhile to warm up to this book. For the first hour or two I seriously considered quitting it but I'm glad I didn't. It gets more and more beautiful and more tragic with every chapter. The symbolism and metaphors build on themselves and the descriptions flow smoothly into plot. The literary references (the ones I actually caught) are fun and add another layer of meaning to the story. By the end I was sitting in my driveway long after arriving home entranced with the story. Stick out the beginning, it's worth it!
The narration was great except that the Lee's Spanish pronunciation leaves a *lot* to be desired. Understanding the bits that are in Spanish isn't key to understanding the book but I found it distracting to hear the pretty blatant mistakes. Other than that though, it's a really, really well-done production.
18 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- John
- 11-01-17
Well...
I have to say before anything, that this is an absolutely remarkable novel, and possibly the most beautiful thing I've ever read. On the other hand, it is extremely hard to follow(it's supposed to be like this), which makes it a difficult read. The symbolism is intense. But in the end it's just such a beautiful book, just wow, it really brings out the human condition. Don't read if you expect something happy, it's gloomy (I enjoy books like this myself but if you're not into depressing books don't read it).
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Barry
- 25-09-12
There sure is a lot of symbolism
I don't know if there's any way to express my disappointment with this book that doesn't involve spoilers, so I'll start with what I liked about it. Lowry does an awesome job of delineating his characters. Their attitudes and feelings are completely understandable and realistic. Lowry's use of imagery, motifs, and symbolism are masterful. He builds his story layer by layer with rising intensity right up to the end. The story that he tells--of a man bent on destroying himself--is compelling in an existential sort of way. So why, when all is said and done, do I feel less than satisfied with the book as a whole? That is a question I suppose I will be pondering for a long time.
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Michael
- 23-11-14
Great Prose, Too much drunk guy
This is the story of one day, the Day of the Dead, of a British drunk in Mexico. The prose of this book are, at points, sublime and the imagery and characterizations are strong, but I did not really like any of the characters, and the story was not compelling to me. The portrait of the drunken main character is quite realistic and both compelling and repellant.
I have never read the short story this novel was based upon, but I suspect, as a short story, this would be wonderful. Stretched into a novel, was too much drunk guy for my taste.
John Lee reads these prose with the intensity of poetry with a rhythm and power, but does not do the Spanish justice.
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Adam Aseraf
- 17-01-15
Meh
I'm sure this book is a classic but it sure didn't feel like one when listening to it. The narration was droopy, inarticulate and lacked variety between the characters. The storytelling itself is best absorbed when reading the novel.
It was very apparent one chapter into this book that it was going to be confusing, troubling and overall not that enjoyable.
Save yourself the listen. Buy the book instead.
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall

- gnudung
- 22-08-11
challenged narrator . . .
Many books contain passages in more than one language. John Lee, a reader I have liked before now, should restrict himself to narrating books written entirely in English. His Spanish pronunciation is . . . excecrable. Malcolm Lowry's text deserves better.
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Wild Horses Flying
- 28-05-18
splashes of exquisite writing
I do not have the fortitude to wade through the depression and troubles-of-life-and-the-world angst that constitute the main body of this work to get to the writing gems buried like diamonds deep within it. I know many cognoscenti all but revere this book. Maybe I'd agree if I could work my way through it but I am no longer convinced that the only way to write great literature is to convulse in difficulty and misery. Not enough light here in this writing.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall

- W.Denis
- 05-05-09
Be prepaired
I will listen to John Lee read any book and when I investigated the history and Author I was set for a great experience. I am also quite sensable to an alcoholics recovery process and this book would be an excellent AA case study. That said, I often found myself listening to long descriptive sections and wishing the author would get on with the story. Because this is said to be an epic novel I was reluctant to miss anything. I certainly learned a lot about Mexico in the mid-thirties. Be prepared to listen diligently and perhaps you will come away more intheusiastic than I am.
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- McDonough
- 13-09-11
Get a Different Edition
For the first time in my life I couldn't finish a book. To say that the performance by John Lee is unlistenable is, in my opinion, giving the performance too much credit. For a story that utilizes as much Spanish you'd think that the performer would be able to put together more than a slurred Italian interpretation. I'd rather listen to Brad Pitt read Cormac McCarthy.
8 people found this helpful