Erich Maria Remarque: A l'ouest rien de nouveau. (German language, 1929, Librairie Stock)
304 pages
German language
Published Dec. 24, 1929 by Librairie Stock.
This is the testament of Paul Bäumer, who enlists with his classmates in the German army of World War I. These young men become enthusiastic soldiers, but their world of duty, culture, and progress breaks into pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches.
Through years of vivid horror, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against the hatred that meaninglessly pits young men of the same generation but different uniforms against one another... if only he can come out of the war alive.
Erich must have been to war, there is no other way he could have done such a good job describing the horrors, joys, banalities, and excitement of rest war. There is no other way he could have known how a person becomes completely changed by it, hollowed out by it, and yet must continue on. If he hasn't, he is an even better writer still.
Good lordt. What a book. I’m some ways it’s hard to believe this is 95 years old. In other ways it’s easy to believe. Nothing had changed. Humans are humans. War is horrible. Aside from the setting or technology this book could’ve been written about prehistoric tribal warfare or the seemingly inevitable WWIII.
Not sure why I haven’t heard more about this other than “there’s a movie adaptation”. This should be required reading in school.
