Customer Reviews

All Quiet on the Western Front: The Illustrated Edition

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I first read this book when I was 15 years old and had the opportunity again to read it recently (the illustrated edition). Although fictional, it is a classic account of the devastation and tragedy of World War I. It changed my whole outlook about war, and it succeeds again after all these years.

Arguably the best anti-war novel of all time, it is told from the perspective of a young German soldier (Paul Baumer) who tells of his adventures with his classmates, their enlistment and experiences in the war. He describes how only in such terrible hardship and mind boggling terror can one attain real genuine comradeship. The book no doubt was excerpted from some of the war experiences of Remarque, who was drafted in 1916, wounded in 1917 and then saw no further action. Obviously appalled by the enormous loss of life and devastation, "Im Westen nichts Neues" was published in Germany in 1929--and became an instant best seller. Devoid of all romanticism, he describes in graphic and burning prose the tragedy of war where the individual could not surmount but be battered and eventually destroyed by blind and illogical hatred not of his own making. No wonder that Remarque became a 'persona non grata' in the Third Reich, for the Nazis, true sons of the war were angered by Remarque's pacifism and anti-militarism, eventually stripping him of German citizenship.

A book destined to be a classic, for sheer fascination it rivals the most thrilling modern novel, for it is readable, interesting, and easy to understand. And these are the very qualities which characterize classical books: simplicity, interest and readability.

The first time I read this book it was for a school assignment. Now I must have read it about a hundred times. It is an anti-war novel. Always in school, at least in American, we are always taught that the Germans are the "bad guys" and they are the ones to blame. However, this book is from a German soldier's point of view. The more I read the more I began to sympathize and the more I realized that they were in the exact same boat as our doughboys. It touches on points based on politics and humanities. This book does have a lot of action in it and it is not for the squirmish. The illustrated edition is particularly interesting because of the photographs of the soldiers. (It really got me in the mood.) Thank you for reading my review. :-)

I've just finished reading All Quiet On The Western Front. A book has never made me cry. But as i continued reading, getting deeper and deeper into the mind and soul of the narrator, deeper into the head of Paul Baumer, i felt his pain, his despair, his desperate attempt at clinging to a past that he has lost, his innocence, his youth... I saw the war through his eyes, felt his agony, his longing for an end to a war that knows no end. And i cried for Paul Baumer, a man of 20 who entered the war as a naive, almost 17 year old boy. By the time he was 20, he's seen and experienced things that would cause some to go mad... This incredible story of what's left of life in a mad struggle between life and death, as tolld by the Paul Baumer, touched and captivated me in ways i've never imagined. Remarque has created a masterpiece, and even though the characters are supposedly fictionary, it is a fact that there were millions of young men out there, just like Paul and his comrades, real people, soldiers that have gone through the same ordeals, same fears, same horrors, that makes the characters so real. This is the remarcable story of (as Remarque describes) "A Generation That Was Destroyed By The War"

This book puts a face on the enemy soldier. He is no longer just a rifle, a bayonet, a grenade, but a living breathing human being. The book is told from the perspective of a World War I German Soldier, and while you are reading it you can not help thinking how much he sounds just like any other 20 year old boy regardless of whether he is a German, American, French, Russian, or British soldier. As an American male, Germany was our enemy and was always looked upon as being evil. You are not supposed to think of these people as human beings. It would make fighting them that much harder to learn that their foot soldiers really were not much different than ours. The fact that they had mothers, fathers, and loved ones at home praying for their safety, just as ours did, is moving.

The book does not bother going into details of the cause of the war, which is good, but just focuses on the foot soldier who is actually fighting it. The book is fictitious, but it gives surprisingly accurate descriptions of the war, and gives you a good perspective of what they went through. This illustrated edition is great and helped clarify in my mind actually what was described in the book.

You can also see hints of the feeling of the country preceding World War II. At the end of World War I, Germany was defeated, but their foot soldiers felt that they were not out classed, but only out manned. Also most of the fighting was done in other countries, so Germans were not subjected to images of giant craters which had ripped apart most of the landscape. Those at home in Germany suffered, but their elders were disillusioned regarding the superiority of their military might, and the consequences war was costing them.

The prospective on the war propaganda is magnificent. Scenes of teachers instilling in their students the image that war is glorious and prompting them to rush out and enlist, only to find that war is hell, and death is all that awaits most of them is very powerful. Older gentleman in town arguing over how the war should be won, without any real concept of the consequences are great. Realistic problems which these youths suffered upon returning home from the war are also raised. It is mentioned of how this generation of Germans would have trouble fitting back into society because war was all they knew reminds me of our American soldiers returning from Vietnam. Both were at war for long periods of time and returned home from a losing war.

I picked this book up because I saw it mentioned on a list of "The One Hundred Greatest Books Ever Written". After reading it, I believe they were justified in including it on that list.

P.S. The movie was just as good.

Erich Maria Remarque`s book "All Quiet on the Western Front". Gives a very vivid account of the Great War through the eyes of the German soldier. I found the book very compatable to Robert Graves "Goodbye to all that". Remarque describes the school education in Germany at the time as Graves does the English. This gives a very good impression of what life was like at that time and what young men expected from the war and what was expected of them. The comradeship and loyalty men had to each other is well accounted for and Remarque said in a ZDF interview in the 60`s that many ex soldiers and relatives of soldiers wrote and thanked him for writing the book. He described for the veterans what they were unable to put into words themselves. To try and get some understanding of their trauma they gave the book to their loved ones. There are very few accounts of the Great War from the German side and "All Quiet on the Western Front" helps to fill a large gap in anyones knowledge of the conflict. Of course first and foremost it is an anti war book it shows the sensless loss and futillity of the war of attrition that was fought on both sides. The American film of the novel is more effective in the german sycronised version. This is not so much a war book as a book about humanity.

I read this when I was 15 in sophomore english class... I then bought the book myself and read it at least once or twice a year. The message is heart breaking, true, and clear. The style of writing is beautiful. This was the only book I actually read in my sophomore class... for the rest I just skimmed. I was planning on skimming, but The first chapter caught my eye. Definitely worth the price, such a beautiful book.

All Quiet on the Western Front is a captivating story about a young German solider in World War I. The author, Erich Maria Remarque, tells us of the horror and violence Paul Baumer and his comrades face during their combat in the trenches. These soldiers are forever torn away from their youth. All Quiet on the Western Front is one of the greatest war books around. I give it my highest recommendation.

"All Quiet on the Western Front" is the greatest anti-war novel ever published. Written in first person narrative, Erich Maria Remarque explores the horrors of the "War to end all Wars". Through the eyes of Paul Baumer, a German soldier, we see the true realities of war. Instead of the romanticized view of war with great cavalry charges and soldiers dying dignified and with honour we see soldiers, barely out of their teens, becoming cannon fodder to machine guns. Your mate with whom you may be talking to just a few minutes ago becomes body parts strewn all over the landscape when a shell lands. Remarque shows that war cannot be understood unless experienced first hand. He shows the obliviousness of the civilians back at home of the impact and devastation of war. Death is the certainty of being at the front. Remarque shows this by having Paul Baumer's companions die one by one. In just one day, his regiment is cut down by half. "Lady Luck" plays a huge part on survival. Remarque wrote, " This book is intended neither as an accusation nor as a confession...". However it is clear that the book was intended to show that war is not the great adventure as thought by some, but a truly bloody and horrifying affair.

This book makes you think about how hard war is and what tradies can come of it. This is a must read if you like action, suspence and perpare to be blow away.

THIS BOOK WAS KINDA BORING. IT NEEDED TO GET TO THE POINT QUICKER.