Paul Baumer enlisted with his classmates in the German army of World War I. Youthful, enthusiastic, they become soldiers. But despite what they have learned, they break into pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches. And as horrible war plods on year after year, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against the principles of hate that meaninglessly pits young men of the same generation but different uniforms against each other--if only he can come out of the war alive. "The world has a great writer in Erich Maria Remarque. He is a craftsman of unquestionably first trank, a man who can bend language to his will. Whether he writes of men or of inanimate nature, his touch is sensitive, firm, and sure." THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
a moving read:
I read this in hight school, and yes it was an assignment,(fortunately my literature always made us think about the books we read instead of gripe about them in ignorance) but I loved it. Basically, it pulls no punches, sugarcoats nothing. The author is telling it like he knows it from being there - war is hell, no matter what it's fought for, no matter whose side you're on. Reading a book from the point of a German fighter and seeing how they were all just lost kids too brings it home. This is not Tolkien... more info
"A line, a short line, trudges off into the morning.":
I first read this book when I was quite young. Too young, I think, to understand it. What I took away with me then was the anti-war message and a lingering sense of the grim awfulness of the Front. Sort of, at least-- I'm pretty sure that I didn't know what a Front was besides some general sense of the Front Line. I certainly wasn't really old enough to feel the poignancy of my own mortality-- death at that age was restricted to grandfathers and other people. I honestly think that I felt more for the dying... more info
A Great Work:
I am a soldier with the US Army who has been deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom twice and Operation Enduring Freedom once. And yes I have lost some close friends to these wars. I must say this is one of my favorite books on war that I have read next to the Red Badge of Courage. Yes soldiers are opened minded, I do know that this book focuses on the darker side of War and is considered an Anti-War Novel. I do not want to go into specific details of the book; it is something you should experience for... more info
Murder on the Western Front:
'All Quiet on the Western Front' is Remarque's timeless tale of war during WWI. It is trite to refer to it as an 'anti-war' story. It is all of that and much more. It's a story of youth, patriotism, naivete and brutal death in the mud of German trenches. It's a tale of bloody assaults, destructive retreats and the story of brave men facing impenetrable walls of bullets and steel. It is told from the German pespective but the story could have been told, with equal impact, from the British, French or Russian... more info
