Product Description

One by one the boys begin to fall...In 1914, a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to the 'glorious war'. With the fire and patriotism of youth, they sign up. What follows is the moving story of a young 'unknown soldier' experiencing the horror and disillusionment of life in the trenches.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3525 in Books
• Published on: 1996-01-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Irish Times, Eileen Battersby
'this harrowing narrative is unexpectedly beautiful, more pensive than angry'

Review
'Remarque has written quite the most extraordinary book I have ever read...poetic and lyrical prose...un-putdown-able and I highly recommend it'.

About the Author
Erich Maria Remarque was born in 1899. He fought and was injured in the trenches in the First World War when he was eighteen years old. He was exiled and his works were burnt by the Nazis. He lived in America and Switzerland and married and divorced his first wife twice before marrying the celebrated Hollywood actress Paulette Goddard. He published several novels after All Quiet on the Western Front, the most famous of which is The Road Back. He died in 1970. Brian Murdoch was born in 1944. He is Professor of German at Stirling University.

Customer Reviews

So sad, so poignant
This book is so moving and yet, despite the horrors endured on the frontline during WW1, a sense of humour (however grim) is retained throughout, almost to the last few paragraphs. The story is written in the first person narrative, by a young German soldier, Paul Bauer. He is only eighteen when he is pressured by his family, friends and society in general, to enlist and fight at the front. He enters the army, along with 6 other lads he was at school with, each one filled with fresh, lively, optimistic and patriotic thoughts, but within a few months they are all as old men, in mind if not completely in body. Paul and his friends witness such horrors and endure such severe hardship and suffering, that they are unable to even speak about it to anyone but each other. This is a very moving and poignant novel, and the reader is made even more aware of its poignancy in knowing that its author is writing from experience, having suffered greatly as a young man on the frontline, whilst fighting for the Fatherland.

only non-football book i couldnt put down
This is one of the best books I have ever read. I had to try and find a novel to do for my english higher and after strugling to find something I could get really into, I came across this. I had done WWI in history and had some background knowlodge however this book gave me atotally new perspective to the war after learning the suffering not just the allies but the germans also suffered. Paul Baumer shows the trajedy and mind numbing monotony of trench warfare, as this war turned in to a mechanised killing machine through the use of poison gas, machine guns etc. Before I read this novel I thought war was just a necessity needed to take out tyrants however now I have seen the horrors a front line soldier has to endure. Remarque brilliantly shows a generation destroyed in the trenches. This novel is simply a must read.

Brilliant and thought provoking
When I read this brilliant book I felt so many emotions, but I suppose the underlying emotion was sadness. In many ways all schoolboys should be made to read this book, for it depicts war as it is, without all the glamour and hero worship that some books and films portray. I thought birdsong was a great book showing how people change from a traumatic experience, such as World War 1. But all quiet on the western front leaves it for dead in this area in my opinion. I will never forget this incredible educational and wonderful book. I am so glad it was written from the German perspective, because it shows us that underneath all our exterior frames we are the same; we have the same fears and dreams. My last words about this book are read it if you dare the experience will live with you forever.