All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel

I was needing to buy this book for my daughter’s class who is a sophomore in highschool. The book arrived super fast, in good condition and my daughter enjoyed reading it.

For someone who is interested in war novels, this one is a requirement to read. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is an excellent novel about the First World War. One of the first books published about the war it was one of the first insights of life in the trenches. This novel gave people sometimes there first experience of what it was like. Leading the way for writers and filmmakers to visualize it. All Quiet on the Western Front is one of the best books ever written for its overall imagery that’s gives a vivid image of all the aspects of life as a soldier in World War One. Paul Baumer is 18 years old and has just finished school when the war began. His schoolmaster encouraged him and his classmates to enlist for it was there divine duty to Germany. Soon in just the first week half of them are dead now being stuck in a trench surrounded by artillery bombardment. One interesting use the book does is how the protagonist is a German soldier as well being written by a German soldier. Many consider Germany as the enemy during the Great War so having a German enlisted man gives a shape to opinion of those who read it. How all the armies whether German, French, British or Russian, every soldier was a man with a life suffering in war. Another is how it tells all the aspect of a soldier in World War one. The book does not tell the whole story inside the trenches as Paul Baumer experiences other parts of life during warfare. When Paul goes on leave returning home, when he worked at a prisoner of war camp, when he was hospitalized surrounded by slowly dying men. Each moment gives a visual and emotional pull of how each felt. The last is its use of imagery. This novel cares one of the best uses of imagery in how it tells life in the trenches. How men spend months living in holes full of mud with only rations to eat and nothing to entertain oneself but small talk and cigarettes. How you could die at any moment in dozens of ways by artillery, gas, snipers, disease or just standing three inches to far to the left at the wrong time. The book doesn’t just say what happens but the emotional aspect it as well. How Paul describes how you must separate your emotions fully from yourself because if you think to hard where you are, you will go crazy. In the war Paul says “there is no liberation, no freedom, no pride, only death.” All Quit on the Western Front is a book everyone should read whether there are interested in war or not. It is a lesson of how horrible war really is and how the only thing it brings in the end is death. Everyone should know what the war was like. That it was much more than just starting WWII, a war long ago that doesn’t matter anymore, or how that could only happen during that time. The Great War changed the world forever and if we are not careful it could happen again.

All Quiet on the Western Front Written by Enrich Maria Remarque Reviewed by Yael Bozzay Originally banned and burned in Germany by the Nazi's in 1933 (five years after it was first published) because of it's antinationalist, pacifist, and dissident sentiment, All Quiet on the Western Front by Enrich Maria Remarque reached acclaim across the world as an intimate portrayal of life during the war from the "enemy's" point of view. It was translated to over twenty-five languages, two movies have been made, and it has sold many million copies. As a result of its popularity across the world and its subsequent distaste to the Nazi's, Enrich Maria Remarque was exiled in 1938, and his citizenship in Germany was revoked. All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel written from the point of view of a German soldier, Paul Baumer, fighting on the western front during 1917 & 1918 (the last two years of WWI). Through Paul's experiences we can see the similarities between all men in war. From detailed descriptions given by Paul of the food soldiers ate, the boots and clothes they wore, and the conditions under which they lived and fought to the corpse rats, the war field graveyards where the bodies of buried soldiers were unearthed during battle, Remarque leaves no stone unturned about the conditions and subsequent effects of war upon its soldiers. Closely paralleling Hemingway's "Soldier's Home," an account of the effects of WWI on an American soldier, All Quiet on the Western Front displays the universal effects of the war upon those who fought heroically - disillusionment with war and facing the reality of a country who, upon the soldier's return, cannot identify with his life. Estrangement and distance grows with society as the men realize that "the world they (girls & those in society) were in was not the world that he was in" ("Soldier's Home") and "men will not understand us and ... [they will] push us aside; ... the years will pass by and in the end we shall fall into ruin"(All Quiet on the Western Front 294). The similarity between men on both sides of the war reveals the universal result of war - death (if not physical then social or emotional). When, upon entering the war, Paul Baumer says, " Our early life is cut off from the moment we came here, and that without even lifting a hand" (AQWF 19), he foreshadows the life of the young soldiers who must face war without a choice and whose life pays the ultimate price of victory for his country. But will Paul willingly sacrifice all for sake of his country? Through the griping battle scenes and the loss of friends to returning home to a "foreign country," All Quiet on the Western Front reveals the struggles of not only soldiers but of ordinary men forced to fight a battle against other men: "...for the first time, I see you are a man like me... Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us... forgive me comrade; how could you be my enemy?" (All Quiet On the Western Front 223) Remarque's personal experience in the war and his realization of the terror that actually occurs - man killing man - reveals the necessity of counting the cost of war and maintaining peace whenever possible. This is what we face today, and the question remains - have we learned from the past, or do we continue to tread upon the same course that leads us to destruction? It is this grim realization that caused his book to be banned and burned by the Nazi's and spread acclaim throughout the rest of the world. Spreading the truth of the real tragedy of war opened people's eyes to the reality that faced those condemned to die - a reality that faces everyone and is the same for everyone in the midst of war ... a reality that is no respecter of persons and takes all it can - a reality called death.

My goodness, this book takes one through all of the terrors and horrors of war. Well written with a great pace

Surprisingly, this is one of the few novels concerning World War I that I have found worth reading. It is widely acclaimed as "The Greatest War Novel of all Time." It may seem trite in this day and time to label a novel as "anti-war". However, this novel was written in the years immediately after World War I, a time when in many circles, war was deemed to be a glorious endeavor and romanticized, especially by those non-participants with little actual knowledge of events on "the front". While the American Civil War should have opened the eyes of potential combatants to the certainty of mass carnage presented by new technology coupled with classic military theory and technique, the European powers nevertheless stumbled blindly into the abyss. This is a VERY short novel, verging on novella. While it comes in at 295 pages, they are small pages with large type and wide spacing. It can easily be read in a single afternoon. As such, there is very little story development, apart from numerous vignettes involving Paul Baumer, a young German private, and his compatriots in the trenches. Again, the prose, while somewhat mild in current times, would have been shocking to the readers of the day. An example: Haie Westhus drags off with a great wound in his back through which the lung pulses at every breath.... We see men living with their skulls blown open; we see soldiers run with their two feet cut off, they stagger on their splintered stumps into the next shell hole; a lance corporal crawls a mile and a half on his hands dragging his smashed knee after him; another goes to the dressing station and over his clasped hands bulge his intestines; we see men without mouths, without jaws, without faces; we find one man who has held the artery of his arm in his teeth for two hours in order not to bleed to death. Such things just were not discussed in polite company. It's all here: the blood and guts; the horrifying injuries, amputations and pre-antiseptic gangrene; the rats; the putrefying and spoiled food which was eaten anyway by starving troops; the dysentery; the ignorance of the German people who cling to the ideal of glorious warfare. But through it all shines the humanity of Paul and his childhood friends, as they succumb one by one. After several succeeding wars, many of which became unpopular, and hundreds of books and movies which spotlight the actual conditions faced by front line troops, this novel has lost much of its originality and shock power. Though it must be said, it was the first and it remains powerful even to this day.

First time reading this and I'm very upset I went so long without reading it. By far the greatest war novel I've ever read. Very deep and makes you appreciate the things we usually take for granted.

I read this book a long time ago but just now realized that I never wrote a review for it. I think I know why: no words can’t possibly describe what a true masterpiece this novel is. I’m a huge WWII history buff, but this story taking place during the horrific Great War still undoubtedly holds a special place in my heart because it’s definitely my favorite war novel. It’s strange calling a war novel “favorite” and saying how much you enjoyed reading and re-reading it, however when the most unimaginable horrors are delivered through such a beautiful, poetic prose it becomes so much more than just a war novel; it becomes a first-hand account of a broken life that has just started, a eulogy to the generation that would never return home the same, if those boys return home at all… Told from a young German boy’s - just hardly out of school - point of view, each chapter makes you not only relive all of the horrors of the war together with him but also poses eternal questions that every man fighting in the front line eventually asks himself: what is this all for? Aren’t we all brothers under our uniforms? Why all these unnecessary deaths? Why take another one of my comrades today? The gory fighting scenes described with brutal honesty are masterfully repleted with some beautiful, melancholic prose of ceasefire days; of camaraderie and glimpses of civil life on leave; of broken families and former acquaintances - all of which suddenly loses its very meaning after the horror one will never forget once he lived through it. Incredibly touching and almost painfully truthful at times, this novel should definitely be on everyone’s must-read list. It’s one of those novels that will stay with you forever once you dive into its dark, riveting depth.

All Quiet on the Western Front is an incredibly moving and brutally honest portrayal of a soldier’s experience during World War I. The author’s vivid descriptions and deep emotional insight bring to life the physical and psychological horrors faced by young soldiers on the front lines. The novel strips away any romantic notions of war, showing the brutal reality, the loss of innocence, and the lasting trauma endured. It’s a profound anti-war statement that still resonates strongly today. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in history, humanity, or the true cost of conflict. It left me reflecting long after I finished it.

Increible lectura, recomendada 10/10, muy amena la forma de escribir, está en inglés por si lo preguntabas. La presentación es perfecta, cabe en un bolsillo de abrigo o donde sea, no ocupa mucho, buena calidad de portada y muy estetico.

Great book for WWI buffs :)

This is a must have. The book, though translated, reads like a book written natively in English. The "adventures" (or better said as lack of adventure) shown depict an aspect of warfare we commonly overlook. The book displays the destruction of warfare, and changes your view of the world. This is a must havebif you want to learn to see the humanistic factors of any disaster. The book is also much better than the movie, and the plot is completely different. Seriously, why is the movie named after the book if the plots are different?

Libro indispensable para tu lectura en inglés.

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