Erich Maria Remarque and A. W. Wheen - All Quiet on the Western Front: An Adapted Classic

Pros: Excellent, gripping prose will make you think
Cons: Sad ending

”When it comes to dying for your country, it’s better not to die at all.” Paul Bäumer Erich Maria Remarque used his personal experiences to write the most powerful novel on World War I, All Quiet on the Western Front. ...

Pros: Gripping account of World War I
Cons: None at all.

When Erich Maria Remarque published All Quiet on the Western Front in 1929, a novel that deta ...

Pros: Powerful prose. Captivating look at the reality of war.
Cons: None.

Pros: The ultimate anti-war novel
Cons: Some people just don't get it

I have a morbid fascination for WW1 - The Great War (there's an oxymoron for you) - particula ...

Pros: Gripping story told in prose so rich it should be treasured.
Cons: People are allowed to declare war without having read this.

Human communication is a miracle. It is perhaps the most convincing evidence that there might be a God or gods. We convey information to each other that is so rich and so complex, it makes it possible to believe that we have been touched by the divine....

Pros: A harrowing first-person view of the life of a soldier
Cons: Not a pure leisurely read

I had heard wonderful praise about this book for years. Some of my friends told me that they had read it in school; unfortunately I did not have such an assignment. When I mentioned that my favorite book was Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo, ...

Pros: exciting, interesting book
Cons: --

As All Quiet on the Western Front progresses and develops, there is one key aspect of Remarque’s writing that is fascinating to follow. At the beginning, when Kat and Paul share a goose together, in a seemingly peculiar wartime ritual, the reader may...

Pros: EVERYTHING ELSE. Life-changingly touching
Cons: not a terribly HAPPY book

This book has towered in my reading life, so much so I wonder why it has taken me so long to write about it.

It was the first book I was ever MANDATED to read ( for school, of course) that actually because a pleasure, a joy.. and a landmark...

Pros: Grea tale of war
Cons: Emotionally draining . . . but is that bad?

All Quiet on the Western Front does for the reader what no documentary, poem nor picture could do. All Quiet on the Western Front makes the reader feel one with the enemy and helps toward an understanding that these were men fighting, not numbers and...

Pros: Powerful battle scenes, accurate information on the war
Cons: None

This story, told from the point of view of a young German soldier during World War I, will give you all the horrific details about the grueling war during the early 1900's known as World War I.

This novel takes you through the life of a German...

Pros: Powerful and Easy to Read
Cons: None

This is one of my all time favourite books and one of the greatest works of Twentieth Century literature. I first read the English translation of this book in fourth grade and read the original German version when I was a senior in high school. The...

Pros: A literary masterpiece--the story of World War I.
Cons: Absolutely none.

Usually, I would not have chosen a book such as this to curl up with on a rainy morning. That I did happen to run across it by mistake was a stroke of luck--the cover was torn and dirty and the title stood boldly out: All Quiet on the Western...

Pros: Gripping characterization, classic example of post WWI literature.
Cons: Confusing names (minor gripe)

One of the books that many students are asked or assigned to read is All Quiet On the Western Front. This is a great book written in the aftermath of the First World War. Unlike other books of the period this does not denounce the war from an ivory tower...

Pros: Simple and timeless story.
Cons: Perceived (incorrectly) to be only a war story.

When I first read this book in high school, I was stunned by the fact that it concerned the average normal, patriotic boys and men fighting for their country -- except they were the so called "enemy". They believed that "God was on their...

Pros: Dynamic characters, interesting story, offers a great amount of insight dealing with the issues of war
Cons: there were a few times when my interest began to drift (very few)

In this epic war novel Remarque submerges the reader into the life of a young German soldier in the first world war. Every page brings new insight into the brutality and futility of war through the many dynamic characters that often contemplate these...