Title

Remarque: ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’

Authors

Files

Description

A brief commentary prepared by Patrick Thomas, PhD, Assistant Professor, English, on the following work:

Erich Maria Remarque
Im Westen nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front)
1928 and 1929; Corrected galley proofs in author’s hand (1928); first edition (1929)

Comments

Erich Maria Remarque’s most acclaimed novel is a semi-autobiographical account of soldiers’ conditions and experiences on the front lines of World War I. Centered on Paul, a vibrant, creative nineteen-year-old, the novel chronicles the war’s effects on Paul and his fellow soldiers. Remarque published the book to great acclaim in 1929, a decade after the war, with the original German title Im Westen nichts Neues, or There’s Nothing New In the West.

Hailed as a masterpiece of protest literature, the German title spells out Remarque’s stance: The war produced nothing. It is no surprise, then, that the Nazi party banned and burned Remarque’s books.

Displayed in Imprints and Impressions are the first German edition and the galley proofs with Remarque’s own corrections—previously unavailable to Remarque scholars.

Permission Statement

This item and all others in the Imprints and Impressions collection are licensed for research, educational and private use. Proper attribution must be used when downloading or reproducing this content. If you wish to use the materials for other purposes, please contact University of Dayton Libraries to obtain permission: 937-229-4221.

Streaming Media

Contents of Streaming Media

Ulrike Schellhammer, lecturer in global languages and cultures, discusses Erich Maria Remarque’s text and its place within antiwar expressionist art; she also explores the edits Remarque made to the galley proofs of his novel.