All Quiet on the Western Front

by Erich Maria Remarque
All Quiet on the Western Front
book data
12,964 ratings, 3.79 average rating, 853 reviews (more data...)
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published
March 12th 1987 (first published 1929) by Ballantine Books

binding
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

isbn
0449213943    (isbn13: 9780449213940)

description
Paul Baumer enlisted with his classmates in the German army of World War I. Youthful, enthusiastic, they become soldiers. But despite what they have l...more




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Fenixbird SandS
10/02/07
Fenixbird SandS rated it: 4 of 5 stars

bookshelves: requiredschoolreading
Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in November, 2006
recommends it for: ALL! Truths of war...
Rough translation from the German. Remarque's writing is very deep, and he gives rich characterizations. "All Quiet" made me get to know most of these soldiers rather intimately, for war if nothing else, reminds us of the very basic passion each of us feels for being granted another day or another moment alive. However, a lot the "flow" I believe was lost in this translation. [My essay is below] This book depicts the tragic waste of WWI aka The Great War...never knew anyth...more
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Paul
08/27/07
Paul rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in November, 2006
recommends it for: Anyone who has seen war firsthand
This book is short, but a must-have read for those understanding the humanity of war. While I cannot even imagine fighting deep in the trenches of WWI, braving shell shock and constant, brazen assaults on my front lines, I can sincerely identify with his feelings as a two-tour veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

All military differences aside (at least this guy knew what his enemy looked like), the deep feelings when you lose one of your own are still dead on--even after all these yea...more
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  3 comments

Rose
12/26/08
Rose added it (review of isbn 0099496941)

bookshelves: 2008
Read in December, 2008
Fantastic, and great to read a book set during the Great War from the "other side"; it only demonstrates how little difference the side they were on - supposedly the be-all and end-all of war - made to the soldiers themselves. Paul seems to see the main difference between them as one of equipment and supplies, rather than nationality, philosophy, patriotism, or any of the more abstract concepts similar to those his teacher expounded upon to encourage the class to enlist. It's humane wh...more
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Valerie
03/14/09
Valerie rated it: 3 of 5 stars

Read in March, 2009
This book is so raw and grusome that I'm sure a story like Paul's is real. I wasn't sure what to give this book because, well, it just was so hopelessly depressing. It made me so depressed that at times that I just had to put it down and breath. I don't regret reading it because I learned a lot about what war is really like but I just felt so hopeless about everything. If you are anything like me and can't handle a lot of hopelessness then have something like Winnie the Pooh on hand to cheer you...more
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  1 comment

The other John
01/23/09
The other John rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in February, 2009
recommended to The other John by: Sonlight
What can I say to do justice to this book? The cover blurb calls this "The Greatest War Novel of All Time." It's certainly the best that I've ever read. In fact, I wouldn't be at all surprised if some of the other war stories I've read haven't used All Quiet as part of their research. It's an account of World War I, as seen through the experiences of Paul Bäumer, a young German man serving in France--the "Western front" to the German army. Through his eyes we see the brutali...more
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Mikey B.
09/15/08
Mikey B. rated it: 3 of 5 stars

Read in September, 2008
Over-rated...

Although this is an intriguing book, I feel that it has been historically over-rated. It is more a series of vignettes describing in detail, events of the war (one could almost say pornographically; but this is admittedly a little harsh): there are scenes of wounded horses screaming, hospital with agonizing amputations, soldiers struggling in the mud…
All of this seems to be pure descriptive; almost like biographical journalistic anecdotes – and none are length...more
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Joy
09/11/08
Joy rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in September, 2008
recommended to Joy by: Mary
recommends it for: everyone
It says right on this cover that it's the greatest war novel of all time.
I agree even though I have not read them all.
Among the reasons why I loved the writing along with the character was the concept of food and/or the event of eating. They're getting shot at, shells are exploding, and the guy is flipping the last of his pancakes to go with the huge score of a roasted pig. They found food and said pig in an evacuated French village and set up a comfy home between bomb blasts.
...more
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Andrea M.
05/08/08
Andrea M. rated it: 5 of 5 stars

recommends it for: EVERYONE
‘The greatest war novel of all time’ is a huge understatement, possibly even an insult to Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front. It is more than just a great war novel – it is maybe truly the greatest novel ever, period. War is the obvious main theme, but it must not be read as a war novel to fully understand the powerful message hidden behind the actions of war in this novel.
Paul Baumer, the protagonist of this novel is pretty much your typical German nineteen yea...more
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Andy
05/05/08
Andy rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in May, 2008
A high school standard but I can't imagine I would have understood this fully in high school and I'm glad nobody assigned it to me then. A gruelingly painful, mournful book. The writing is resolutely unpretentious and yet incredibly effective in its descriptions both of battle and of states of mind. I'm not really sure how he pulls it off. The portrait of a man feeling irredeemably divorced from his past and his future is heartbreakingly vivid. If literature is meant to offer us experiences that...more
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Brittany
05/05/08
Brittany rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in March, 2005
recommended to Brittany by: I found it on my own.
recommends it for: everyone
This book shows you a different side of war. Instead of the books that show you have great or how noble war is this book does not. This book tries to show how teens the same age as me were more or less tricked into fighting a war they didn't even believe in. Unlike world war two, World War one did not really have a reason to begin. (basically ww1 started when countries made pacts with each other to fight with each other. This with the arms race that had been going on, as well as each country so...more
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Jd Stottlemire
02/07/08
Jd Stottlemire rated it: 5 of 5 stars

recommends it for: anyone
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Bettie (Goodreads Reader!)
11/10/08
Bettie (Goodreads Reader!) rated it: 3 of 5 stars

bookshelves: classic, historical-fiction
ETA - just sniffed out the film - 1930 and all that! Banned Books
Because All Quiet on the Western Front offered a gruesome portrayal of a war lost by the Germans, it infuriated Adolph Hitler, who ordered the book banned and destroyed throughout Germany. Many critics, however, consider it the best antiwar novel ever written.


The French banned it until 1962 - that must have something to do with Vichy and De Gaulle (the gall of it)


---

It's about time I...more
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Angela
01/08/08
Angela rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in November, 1993
recommended to Angela by: it's in the canon
recommends it for: everyone
No one who hasn't experienced war can know war... However, in our society, soldiers self-select (volunteer) so that those who experience war from America tend toward an idealism that approves of war as a general-use tool. This book depicts war in all its horror; it gives a compelling case for how senseless wars, and even strategic wars, are inherently and wholly destructive. War should only be engaged in when it will demonstrably prevent more loss of life than it will create.

Besid...more
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Sherie_segler
02/28/09
Sherie_segler rated it: 5 of 5 stars

No person should enlist in any armed service without being required to read this book and make a report. No officer in any branch of the military should command people without having read this book. It is a powerful book from the insight of one who has fought and fallen, risen up and fought again. Remarque tells the story from the perspective of a school boy, Paul, who enlists at the hectoring of his schoolmaster. He finds himself with his comrades fighting for the Kaiser and not truly unders...more
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Rhonda
02/11/09
Rhonda rated it: 3 of 5 stars

I had forgotten that I had read this and other things from Remarque in college for some sort of history class. At the time, I wasn't all that sure about it. I didn't like books about war and it came as no great revelation that the effects of war are devastating for those who took part and survived just as they are for those who wait at home.
The story is essentially about a young man filled with the bravado of war and duty and country. His name is Baumer and the significance of his name,...more
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Hasan Jian
11/23/08
Hasan Jian rated it: 5 of 5 stars

bookshelves: currently-reading
Book Title: All Quiet on the Western Front
Author: Erich Maria Remarque
Page: 20
Question # : 2

I started reading this story expecting a great sorrow and sadness because some people who read the story told me a little about it. The story did not remind me of another one or a movie, but I actually started reading two novels about war at the same time so I started comparing them. The other story I started reading is Saving Private Ryan. Let me also say that this story r...more
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Brianna
07/03/09
Brianna rated it: 1 of 5 stars

bookshelves: currently-reading
Read in July, 2009
I have to read All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque for my summer homework. I'm hate most ALL war novels, so I don't know if this one is one of the worse ones, but I can't stand it. And I don't understand it that much either- and I'm only on the second page! But with a book like this, you can pretty much tell it's going to be bad from the first little bit. Check out the first paragraph:

We are at rest five miles behind the front. Yesterday we were relieved, and now
...more
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Scott Seeger
06/19/09
Scott Seeger added it

Read in January, 2009
This is a classic from German author R.M. Remarque written in 1928/29 in German. It is considered by many to be the best anti-war novel ever written, and during its time, no other book was published in greater numbers (according to the publishing house) than the Bible. It was also made into an Academy Award winning movie (Best Picture) in 1929. First and foremost as a German teacher and scholar I have found it curious how many secondary school students are obsessed with the Nazis without having...more
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Bill
06/18/09
Bill rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in June, 2009
This book will stay with you long after you have read it. We are reminded of the humanity of the combatants and helps us see through the brainwashing that makes us believe that the enemy is a monster. Remarque wrote about a German soldiers during WW1 and for perhaps the first time put a human face on the enemy. As Albert says about the young men who were in the trenches. "The war has ruined us for everything."

The description of the scene in the trench when Paul has to stab ...more
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Gary_l
05/03/09
Gary_l rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in April, 2009
recommends it for: everyone
All Quiet on the Western Front isn’t normally the kind of book that I would read, but that’s the whole point of my ISP; I wanted to explore into a different genre, a genre that I knew very little about. All Quiet on the Western Front is a powerful and unforgettable book about the tragic day to day life of a young German soldier during WWI. The story is told entirely in first-person through the eyes of Paul Baumer, who is at first swept up in a patriotic war frenzy and later o...more
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All Quiet on the Western Front (Paperback)
All Quiet on the Western Front (Paperback)
All Quiet on the Western Front (Paperback)
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quotes from this book

"For us lads of eighteen they ought to have been mediators and guides to the world of maturity, the world of work, of duty, of culture, of progress -- to the future." More quotes...


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