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Summary
Summary
The original US edition of the masterpiece of war literature depicting the plight of German soldiers during World War I--now an Oscar-nominated Netflix film
From the perspective of Paul Bäumer, a young German soldier in World War I, comes an unsettling tale of the mundanity and misery of trench warfare on the Western Front. When Paul and his comrades volunteer for the Imperial German Army, pressured into this act of patriotism by idealistic parents and a steely schoolmaster, they quickly learn that the authorities they trusted to shape their minds and guide their growth were condemning them to unimaginable danger and squalor, in the name of duty to an old world in its death throes.
Bombarded by shells and bombs, by horror after horror, Paul absorbs the sordid lessons of combat and reflects upon the strangers on the arbitrary other side, transformed into enemies by a distant "word of command." With timeless insight and searing prose, Erich Maria Remarque draws readers into the embattled consciences of soldiers on the frontlines, enlivening a tragic story with characters whose survival one hopes for against all odds.
Author Notes
Erich Maria Remarque was born Erich Paul Remark on June 22, 1898 in Germany. He was drafted into the German Army at the age of 18. He was assigned to the Western Front and later moved to the 15th Reserve Infantry Regiment. He was wounded by shrapnel in the left leg, right arm and neck, and was moved to an army hospital in Germany where he spent the rest of the war. After the war, he continued his teacher training and became a primary school teacher. He also began pursuing his writing career. He started writing essays and poems and his first novel, The Dream Room. When he published All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque changed his middle name in memory of his mother and reverted to the earlier spelling of the family name. The original family name, Remarque, had been changed to Remark by his grandfather in the 19th century.
All Quiet on the Western Front was written in 1927, but Remarque was unable to find a publisher. The novel was published in 1929 and described the experiences of German soldiers during World War 1. His other works include: Station at the Horizon, The Road Back, Three Comrades, Flotsam, and Shadows in Paradise. Erich Remarque died in 1958 of heart collapse brought on byan aneurysm.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
This World War I narrative was originally published in 1929, while the senseless destruction of the Great War was still fresh in the minds of those who lived through its horrors. Hearing 19-year-old Paul Baumer describe his experiences as a German recruit, the depth of his deprivation in the trenches, the cruel loss of life, and the cumulative devastation on mind and body is heart wrenching. Muller's understated performance, with its steady pacing and paradoxically soothing vocal timbre, enhances the lyrical language and elicits a palpable sense of the terror faced by Paul and his friends through the unrelenting close combat. In 1930, the movie adaptation won the Academy Award for best picture and best director and is now in the Library of Congress's National Film Preservation Board's Film Registry (http://ow.ly/kwRp2). (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Guardian Review
Does the selection in my local library - predominantly Agatha Christie and books about the two world wars - reflect the reading preferences of its audio customers, I wonder - or their age? Probably the latter since a lot of them are still on cassette which, until this new Hachette edition of Remarque's classic German novel came out, was all you could get. Eighty years after it was first published, it is still the definitive book about not just the Great War but all wars. Remarque's descriptions of the horror and hopelessness of war have been compared to the poems of Wilfred Owen. This is his narrator, 19-year-old Private Paul Baumer, describing the aftermath of a frontline attack in which 118 of B Company's 150 soldiers have been killed. "The tension has worn us out. It is a deadly tension that feels as if a jagged knife blade has been scraped along the spine. Our legs won't function, our hands are trembling and our bodies are like thin membranes stretched over barely repressed madness, holding in what would otherwise be an unrestrained outburst of endless screams." In the 18 months after its publication it sold 2.5m copies in 25 languages, but was later banned and burned by the Nazis. I'm not sure if it's the way the narrator tells it or the way Tom Lawrence reads it that makes it so gut-wrenchingly sad. One by one the small group of schoolfriends Paul joined up with and who have become closer than his family disappear or die. Birdsong, Sunset Song, Regeneration, Goodbye to All That, How Many Miles to Babylon? - there are so many memorable novels about the first world war, but if I had to choose just one, this would have to be it. - Sue Arnold Does the selection in my local library - predominantly Agatha Christie and books about the two world wars - reflect the reading preferences of its audio customers, I wonder - or their age? Probably the latter since a lot of them are still on cassette which, until this new Hachette edition of Remarque's classic German novel came out, was all you could get. Eighty years after it was first published, it is still the definitive book about not just the Great War but all wars. - Sue Arnold.
Booklist Review
Fighting in the nightmare trenches of World War I, a group of high school classmates realizes that false patriots sent them to fight for a cause they know nothing about: ``We were all at once terribly alone . . .''
Library Journal Review
This edition of Remarque's 1929 World War I classic includes numerous period photos of German soldiers. If you're looking for a nice hardcover, try it. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
