In 1914 Paul Baumer and his classmates are marched to the local
recruiting office by a sentimentally patriotic form-master. On a
calm October day in 1918, only a few weeks before the Armistice,
Paul will be the last of them to be killed. In All Quiet on the
Western Front he tells their story. A few years after it was
published in 1929 the Nazis would denounce and publicly burn
Remarque's novel for insulting the heroic German army - in other
words, for 'telling it like it was' for the common soldier on the
front line where any notions of glory and national destiny were
soon blasted away by the dehumanizing horror of modern warfare.
Remarque has an extraordinary power of describing fear: the
appalling tension of being holed up in a dugout under heavy
bombardment; the animal instinct to kill or be killed which takes
over during hand-to-hand combat. He also has an eye for the grimly
comic: the consignment of coffins Paul and his friends pass as they
make their way up the line for a new offensive; the young soldiers
joyfully tucking into double rations when half their company are
unexpectedly wiped out. Remarque's elegy for a sacrificed
generation is all the more devastating for the laconic prose in
which his teenaged veteran narrates shocking experiences which for
him have become the stuff of daily life. Paul cannot imagine a life
after the war and can no longer relate to his family when he
returns home on leave. Only the camaraderie of his diminishing
circle of friends has any meaning for him. He comes especially to
depend on an older comrade, Stanislaus Katczinsky, and one of the
most poignant moments in the book is when he carries the wounded
Kat on his back under fire to the field dressing station, with
starkly tragic outcome. The saddest and most compelling war story
ever written.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
