All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel
The masterpiece of the German experience during World War I, considered by many the greatest war novel of all time—with an Oscar–winning film adaptation now streaming on Netflix.
“[Erich Maria Remarque] is a craftsman of unquestionably first rank.”—The New York Times Book Review
I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. . . .
This is the testament of Paul Bäumer, who enlists with his classmates in the German army during World War I. They become soldiers with youthful enthusiasm. But the world of duty, culture, and progress they had been taught breaks in pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches.
Through years of vivid horror, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against the principle of hate that meaninglessly pits young men of the same generation but different uniforms against one another . . . if only he can come out of the war alive.
“[Erich Maria Remarque] is a craftsman of unquestionably first rank.”—The New York Times Book Review
I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. . . .
This is the testament of Paul Bäumer, who enlists with his classmates in the German army during World War I. They become soldiers with youthful enthusiasm. But the world of duty, culture, and progress they had been taught breaks in pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches.
Through years of vivid horror, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against the principle of hate that meaninglessly pits young men of the same generation but different uniforms against one another . . . if only he can come out of the war alive.
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Community Reviews
Somehow, I never managed to read this book during high school, or college. I decided to read it on the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day. It turned out to be one of the best war novels I have encountered. It's bleakness and realism jumped off the pages and into my bones. I felt the cold and hunger and pain of the soldiers on the front lines. I reveled in their camaraderie, and I mourned their losses. I felt the horror of life on the front lines of the Great War; but I also felt the horrors of life back home, a place that was no longer the same as when the soldiers left as mere boys. The war had changed them and the pain of those feelings were as horrible as shrapnel on the line.
The story is told from the point of view of a German soldier--America's enemy during the Great War. But I read it as though it could be any soldier. Nations don't matter at that individual level, laying in cold water, shivering in a trench a few yards from people trying to kill you. The fear, pain, and longing for peace were universal emotions.
My only qualm with the book was the very last scene. After an entire book in the first person, Remarque pulls us momentarily into third person for the final scene. I don't think the scene was necessary to make the book a success, but I think it could have been done without changing perspective. That final shift pulled me out of the story because it pulled me out of the character that I'd partnered with for this particular journey.
The story is told from the point of view of a German soldier--America's enemy during the Great War. But I read it as though it could be any soldier. Nations don't matter at that individual level, laying in cold water, shivering in a trench a few yards from people trying to kill you. The fear, pain, and longing for peace were universal emotions.
My only qualm with the book was the very last scene. After an entire book in the first person, Remarque pulls us momentarily into third person for the final scene. I don't think the scene was necessary to make the book a success, but I think it could have been done without changing perspective. That final shift pulled me out of the story because it pulled me out of the character that I'd partnered with for this particular journey.
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