All Quiet on the Western Front

Erich Maria Remarque

Lu par Atul Sharma

(4.9 stars; 17 reviews)

All Quiet on the Western Front is an iconic anti-war novel. A semi-autobiographical work by WWI veteran Erich Maria Remarque, it is the story Paul Bäumer and his classmates, who are inspired by a patriotic school teacher, Kantorek, to enlist in the Imperial German Army. Here, they face the extreme mental and physical trauma of the German trenches and a growing disconnect between the front and civilian life.

First published in serial form in 1928, the book and its sequel were subsequently banned in Nazi Germany. Adapted to film in 1930, 1979, and 2022, it garnered 6 Academy Awards, a Golden Globe, and an Emmy. Nevertheless, there is something both moving and disturbing in the printed work, which was translated into 29 languages, including the first English translation by A.W. Wheen. From the prologue:

This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war. - Summary by ASharma (6 hr 30 min)