The Legacy of the Dead Isnt Called Vengeance Its Called Never Again e M Remarque
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Though I had been in Lisbon for a calendar week, I hadn't yet got used to its carefree illumination. In the countries I had come up from, the cities at night were black every bit coal mines, and a lantern in the darkness was more to be feared than the plague in the Centre Ages.
The swell tragedy of nifty love and great loss – and turning melodramatic Erich Maria Remarque makes the tale even more than tragic and sadder…
'ButHope confronting hope… The Night in Lisbon is a book of running away… It is a story of running scared…
Though I had been in Lisbon for a week, I hadn't even so got used to its carefree illumination. In the countries I had come from, the cities at night were black equally coal mines, and a lantern in the darkness was more to be feared than the plague in the Middle Ages.
The great tragedy of great love and great loss – and turning melodramatic Erich Maria Remarque makes the tale even more than tragic and sadder…
'But uncertainty has its points. If it doesn't kill you, it tin can lead to an unshakable certainty. That's a lot of big words, but they only reverberate the experience of a rolling stone.'
'Rolling rock?'
'Similar me. A man who can't stop anywhere, who can never settle downwardly. The existence of a refugee. Or a Buddhist mendicant monk. Or modern man. There are more refugees in the world than you think. A good many of them have never left home.'
When the wicked wield power the meek take no identify to hide. ...more than
"Loneliness demands a companion and does not ask who it is. If you don't know that, you may have been alone, but you were never solitary."
The story is set in Europe in or around World State of war 2 and deals with the fate of refugees fleeing Nazism.
Many people brace themselves for almost imminent sorrows. Loneliness, honey and loyalty in times of state of war, and the transience of life back-trail the reader throughout The Nighttime in Lisbon.
However, some joy tin can exist constitute even in the darkest
"Loneliness demands a companion and does not inquire who it is. If you don't know that, you may have been alone, merely y'all were never solitary."
The story is fix in Europe in or around World War Two and deals with the fate of refugees fleeing Nazism.
Many people brace themselves for well-nigh imminent sorrows. Loneliness, love and loyalty in times of war, and the transience of life accompany the reader throughout The Dark in Lisbon.
However, some joy tin be found even in the darkest of times, equally this distressing story replete with melancholic tones proves.
Remarque brings united states to the capital of Portugal. Night has fallen. Empty streets are dimly lit, and at that place is a feeling of anticipation in the air. Not a few inhabitants of the city seek to find a style of leaving it past the sea. To this terminate, they need a one-way ticket.
In one little restaurant, we tin can run into ii men discussing something that must be important to them.
Nosotros are likewise aware of the presence of a ship in a nearby harbor. It is preparing to depart to the New Globe.
Volition the main characters be able to become passengers of this transport? This question may seem crucial, only information technology is not as important equally the chat the two characters take that night.
One emigre from Nazi Germany tells his story to some other emigre he has just met.
The narrator takes united states through his turbulent relationship with his married woman, Helen.
He reflects on the concluding months they were able to spend together.
His confession feels deeply personal and perhaps should not be taken at face up value. Merely I believed everything he said.
Why should the narrator lie to the stranger if his only aim is to communicate his remembrances to another homo? By doing so, he wants to protect his story from the time and ashes of war.
Docked a so-chosen star because of the structure -- a refugee tells most of the story to another refugee (the narrator) he's just met, who he offers to help escape from Lisbon to the United States toward the beginning of WWII. For the most part I managed to distinguish between the nowadays dialogue (double quotation marks - ie, ") and past dialogue (unmarried quotation marks -- ie ') but it tripped me up more than enough. Zweig and later on Bernhard -- and surely anybody else 80–100 years agone -- relied on the same conceit of a stranger relaying an intense story, but unremarkably things aren't nearly as dramatized and scenes from the past therefore aren't nearly as immediate -- there's usually fashion more exposition, with dialogue summarized instead of rendered with traditional quotations and descriptive attributions. Otherwise, thanks in part to the reliance on past dramatized scenes replete with dialogue, the past bits seem urgent and intense but of course the action's also very much propelled by serious life/expiry significance.
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Foreign how complicated nosotros can make things just to avoid showing what we feel!
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I didn't answer. I hadn't been either, but I knew that I must never acknowledge information technology. Now least of all. We were both admittedly open and defenseless. If nosotros should ever live together, nosotros could ever go back to this moment in a no Don't we always lose what nosotros think we take concur of? Practice nosotros lose it because it moves? And does it stand still only when it's gone and tin can no longer change? Is it only and then that information technology really belongs to united states?
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Strange how complicated we can make things just to avoid showing what we experience!
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I didn't answer. I hadn't been either, but I knew that I must never admit it. At present least of all. We were both absolutely open and defenseless. If nosotros should ever alive together, we could always get back to this moment in a noisy eatery in Münster for strength and reassurance. Information technology would be a mirror; we could look into it, and it would show us two images: what fate had wanted usa to be and what it had fabricated of usa.
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You think fate owes you lot something. Only the fact is that information technology doesn't owe you a matter.
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You know those hours— when hope dies—you lot've been through information technology. ...more than
The entire novel is prepare on i nighttime in Lisbon, where the most "fortunate" of exiles who could get that far were able to obtain passage on ships departing for the United States. A homo with 2 tickets on a boat that will soon depart meets another who despera
This is arguably the about suspenseful of Remarque'south novels. Information technology is the last work published earlier Remarque's death, the third that focuses on the lives of exiles from the 3rd Reich (after Liebe Deinen Nächsten [Flotsam] and Arc de Triomphe).The unabridged novel is attack ane night in Lisbon, where the about "fortunate" of exiles who could go that far were able to obtain passage on ships departing for the Usa. A human being with two tickets on a boat that will soon depart meets some other who desperately wants to, but cannot, go on the ship. The former promises to give the other his tickets if he will stay the night and listen to his story—a bittersweet, unpredictable story of love, survival and loss.
As with all of Remarque'southward novels, this is a story that shines a light on the reality of life nether Nazi rule in ways that no historian could.
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Isn't it odd how someone who passed away before I was born tin have such a hold on me all these years later?
five stars. Highly recommended.
The Night in Lisbon is in some respects, with its interest in the plight of refugees from Nazi Germany, is reminiscent of the 1945's Arch of Triumph: A Novel of a Human being Without a Land. The main character, "Schwarz," is also a man without a land. He has too spent some time in a German concentration camp, and has lived a shadow life on the borders of France and Switzerland. In an act that is as crazy as it is mettlesome, he returns to Germany to see his wife Helen (who, unknown to him, is terminally ill with cancer). Schwarz and Helen have been separated from each other for five years. This act, which involves swimming the Rhine, is a transformative one. Upwards until that fourth dimension Swartz had evidently been something of a wordy pedant, which had led, at least in part, to the separation. Though it's never said, the reader assumes that surface area of disharmonize between "Swharz" and Helen is how to respond to the regime they both detest. Helen is more than interested in action, and despises "bourgeois stagnation." (Oh, the labels they had back so.)
Schwarz finds Helen, but not without a fear filled journeying through Hitler's baroque Frg. Schwarz'due south observations run into something that is less a political movement and more than a twisted religious one from another planet.
I took the emptiest streets to the cathedral. It was not far. In Krahnstrasse a company of marching soldiers passed me. They were singing a song I did not know. On the Domplatz at that place were more soldiers. A little farther off, by the 3 crosses of the Fiddling Church, a oversupply had gathered -- ii or 3 hundred people, nigh of them in party uniform. I heard a voice and looked for the speaker; there wasn't i. Finally my optics lit on a black loudspeaker propped up on a platform. It stood there nether a low-cal, naked and alone, an automaton, screaming virtually the correct to reconquer every inch of German language soil, the Greater Germany, revenge.
Remarque, in numerous passages (some of the best I've read in fiction), effectively evokes the claustrophobic and fear drenched atmosphere of Hitler's new Germany. Simply there isn't much relief beyond Frg's borders, since the darkness is spreading and the clock is ticking toward state of war. "Schwarz" (we never learn his real name) and Helen escape Deutschland, and alive the day to day life of refugees, finding shelter where e'er they can. At one point they accept upwards residence in an abandoned castle. It's kind of weird, and very reminiscent of Doctor Zhivago's ice palace scene, only also strangely beautiful, providing some necessary relief from the days of dread. Information technology shouldn't work, but it does. Eventually Helen and Schwarz are captured by the French police, and sent to separate refugee camps. What follows is their eventual reuniting, Helen'due south progressing sickness, the state of war, a bad Nazi brother, and the Foreign Legion. Sad and romantic stuff, and I loved every page of it. Remarque may be a romantic, but he too poses the Large Question of beingness. It may be inexact, but he reminds me a lot of Camus. They take similar Human hearts. I've left out, up to this point, the framing device of the novel, which involves a desperate refugee who encounters Schwarz in Lisbon. The frame is basically this refugee listening to Schwarz tell his tale. Information technology'southward well washed, since this graphic symbol (a stand-in for every desperate person trying to escape the Nazis) interjects just enough during Schwarz's story, and thoughtfully enough, to exist as a real person and non just a plot device. Highly recommended.
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Most hitting is the realization that the refugee's tragic reality has never changed to this twenty-four hours: When we came, the world's supply of compassion had long been used upwardly. Nosotros were nuisances, termites, hardly anyone had a proficient discussion for u.s.. We accept no correct to work, no right to exist and we still have no papers.
Despite the handicap Remarque imposed upon himself (that of telling the story equally a monologue related to some other person) information technology is gripping and drenched with an immediacy of fourth dimension and place, almost cinematic in its power. Even the fact that we are told at the showtime that Helen has died and Schwartz is a man who has lost all hope, does not reduce the emotional bear on of his story.
There are so many strikingly incisive passages that I could quote; but that would brand for an overly long review and could not exercise the book justice. Instead, I urge everyone to read this novel, set in 1939-40, starting time published in 1961, and as timely as if information technology had been written yesterday. ...more
A man trying to escape the horrors of war meets past gamble another man one night in Lisbon. An offer, spend a night hearing a tale and he will get 2 tickets on a ship sailing for America.
What a tale. Intense, dark and very moody. It reads like a spy story just information technology's not a spy story. It reads like a war story but it's more than than that. A beloved story that is all too human. Fate and a whole lot of luck. A story worth reading. A skilful follow-upwardly to Confessions.
A special thanks to Susana who rec
Remarkable.A human being trying to escape the horrors of war meets by chance another man one night in Lisbon. An offer, spend a night hearing a tale and he will get two tickets on a ship sailing for America.
What a tale. Intense, dark and very moody. It reads similar a spy story but information technology'southward not a spy story. Information technology reads like a war story but it's more than that. A love story that is all too human. Fate and a whole lot of luck. A story worth reading. A adept follow-upwards to Confessions.
A special thanks to Susana who recommended it.
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I'thou part of the 1992 generation. The history taught in my schoolhouse years was fairly poor and completely unappealing to teenagers, in general. I had absolutely no interest in the dynamics of war and I didn't care about the reasons behind whatsoever irrational decision of those insane leaders, at that fourth dimension.
But this story right here, even though technically fiction (and a romantic novel) has taught me more than about t
Admittedly astonishing novel! I think this is my starting time book past Remarque and I'thou in love with him.I'm part of the 1992 generation. The history taught in my schoolhouse years was fairly poor and completely unappealing to teenagers, in general. I had absolutely no involvement in the dynamics of war and I didn't care most the reasons behind any irrational decision of those insane leaders, at that time.
But this story correct here, even though technically fiction (and a romantic novel) has taught me more than almost the intricacies of state of war and the life of a refugee, than any history book read in school. I become goosebumps every time I recollect of Schwarz and Helen'due south story.
Highly recommend this book!
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The reader never even finds out the real name of the primary characters, which is advisable because they are refugees and as such don't have names the way the residue of us accept for granted. Schwarz is the name in a passport inherited from a dying refugee. He meets a stranger, another refugee, and tells him he can have Schwarz'southward two passages on a ship for the United states if he will sit with Schwarz all nighttime. During that nighttime Schwarz tells the stranger his story. Schwarz is afraid information technology volition become distorted in his mind because information technology is and so important to him. He believes that merely by telling someone with some distance the story, and Schwarz'south married woman Helen, will live.
We know from the get-go that Helen is expressionless, and somehow Remarque is still able to brand her story viscerally real and incredibly deplorable. Their story is almost Nazi brutality, but at a very personal level. It also brings out the stupidity that accompanies brutality more effectively than most works practise. The Nazis accept the reputation of incredible efficiency, which is to some extent earned, but I don't think as much as they get credit for. Brutality is more often accompanied by stupidity than higher level thinking. And if you lot arrest enough people randomly it tin await like efficiency if yous really find a few people plotting confronting you lot. Not to mention that if y'all make the constabulary vague enough, there will be plenty of people breaking it. A lesson for modern times.
The Night in Lisbon is also about spousal relationship and what is and isn't of import in the grand scheme of things. Schwarz and Helen had a very mediocre relationship and wedlock before the state of war. The state of war and circumstances of Helen's death give information technology a depth and pregnant that information technology never would have achieved in normal times. Is this a happy ending? No, simply they managed to get something positive out of life in desperate times.
At the terminate, we discover out what happens to everyone, kind of. No one lives happier ever afterward as far as nosotros know. I won't tell you any more that, merely exercise propose you read and find out for yourself. This is one of the best books I've ever read. Only don't expect to be whistling when you finish it.
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Remarque wrote the volume some 30 years after his classic All Tranquility on the Western Front was published, and it flounders a bit at the beginning, but once I became accepted to its style--it's basically a monolo
Donald Trump should read this volume. A story of Jewish refugees from Frg seeking safe haven in Gestapo-overrun Europe before WWII, information technology'southward all about papers, papers, papers. If yous don't have them, your life is worthless and y'all'll be shipped back where you came from, to face certain death.Remarque wrote the book some 30 years after his classic All Quiet on the Western Front end was published, and it flounders a chip at the beginning, but one time I became accustomed to its manner--it'due south basically a monologue told by one refugee to another during one long night in Lisbon as they wait for a ship to have them to America--it gained momentum apace. For the terminal 50 pages, I couldn't put it down.
In one passage nigh an 11-year-old refugee fleeing deportation dorsum to Germany, ane can only think of those children in America bearing the awful name "anchor babies," and what might become of them, should the crazed Trump be elected. "All he had learned in the course of his short life was to distrust everybody and everything," Remarque writes. "When the guardians of National Socialist culture bashed in his grandfather's skull, he had been three years erstwhile; he had been 7 when his father was hanged and 9 when his female parent was gassed--a true child of the twentieth century."
This powerful volume reminds us once again of the onetime proverb about history, and makes united states of america wonder: What will be the story of the 21st century's children?
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I had forgotten how amazing this writer'south writing is. So poetic! This book is a masterpiece. A archetype nonetheless.
5+ stars
Where do memories live? What happens to them after we die? Exercise they continue floating as little pieces of our soul or are they cached forth with our torso nether the ground? What does one practice if he has lost everything simply wants his story to live fifty-fifty beyond his life? He shares. The Dark in Lisbon by Erich Maria Remarque is a novel about sharing. Sharing at the edge of death, at the peak of WWII, at a moment when you only desire to feel the
The Night in Lisbon: http://readwithstyle.wordpress.com/xx...Where do memories live? What happens to them afterward we dice? Practise they go along floating as little pieces of our soul or are they cached along with our body nether the ground? What does one practise if he has lost everything but wants his story to live even beyond his life? He shares. The Nighttime in Lisbon by Erich Maria Remarque is a novel well-nigh sharing. Sharing at the edge of decease, at the summit of WWII, at a moment when y'all just want to feel the presence of another human being amongst the beasts of the war. Two strangers run into and spent a whole night that brings them closer together than if they had spent their whole lives next to each other.
Who are these men? Refugees from WWII. They are unique yet they are like the millions other refugees trying to escape from the long hands of Gestapo. Do we know their names? I am non sure they even know their nascency names. They have inverse personalities, passports, names, and faces so many times that at present they just know they exist. And nosotros don't even demand to know who they are. Lets just call them Talker and Listener. Where are they? They are in Lisbon, ii men, who at some point in their lives dreamt of boarding a ship to the land of dreams – America. What are they talking almost? Life, love, war, betrayal, hope, deceit, expiry. Why is this novel important? Because it tells the life story of an ordinary human being, one of the many enemies of the Reich, who had to flee Europe at the edge of the war. It could have been anyone of these poor souls, who attempted to oppose Hitler and his ground forces of blind believers. And yeah, it happens over a night.
Read more than: http://readwithstyle.wordpress.com/xx...
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Unfortunately, I found the volume but too "European" for me - too much sitting ar
This was i of Remarque's last books, published in 1962 a total 33 years subsequently his nigh famous piece of work, All Quiet on the Western Front. Unlike Quiet, it is non truly a war story but more a merely-before-the-state of war story, telling the tales of several "good Germans" (and likely Jews, although he never specifically says) trying to escape first Germany and then Europe altogether as the Nazi poison spread across the continent.Unfortunately, I found the book just too "European" for me - also much sitting around discussing the meaning of life over coffee or cognac, compared to as well footling real action or plot. However, I did notice an eerie similarity between the early pages of the volume and our own current, increasingly nationalistic situation,* particularly in this description of a crowd listening to a propaganda oral communication, (although clarion from speakers rather than delivered from the White Firm balustrade):
"The faces of the listeners were concentrated and transfigured. They believed what the automaton was screaming at them; in a strange state of hypnosis, they applauded this disembodied vox as if information technology were a human beingness. The scene struck me equally typical of the sinister, demonic mob spirit of our times, of all the frightened, hysterical crowds who follow slogans. It makes no departure whether the slogans come from the correct or the left, as long as they relieve the masses of the hard work of thinking and the need to take responsibleness..."
(* Hopefully by the time most future readers find this review, it volition exist post-Nov 2020, and and then whole Era of Trump volition exist a afar and fading nightmare.)
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The story is not very exciting simply in the way it has been gear up and narrated information technology it makes for a gripping read. Set up in the time of Nazis and Gestapo - and in the fourth dimension of German occupation of France this tells the story of the hunted and also gives glimpses of how life was in the time of war.
The narrator is looking to find a manner to get to America with his family -
I constitute this book in a most unexpected identify In Bengaluru. Was pleasantly surprised to find it - and even more when I started to read it.The story is not very heady merely in the way information technology has been set and narrated it it makes for a gripping read. Set in the time of Nazis and Gestapo - and in the time of German occupation of French republic this tells the story of the hunted and also gives glimpses of how life was in the fourth dimension of war.
The narrator is looking to observe a way to become to America with his family - and has about no coin. His desperation is seen from the fact that in the weeks preceding he takes a decision to run a risk in a casino to make enough to finance his and his family to America. And loses all of it.
At this fourth dimension he is offered a visa ( passport with a stamp that can exist forged to change the name) and a ticket to America. The narrator cannot believe this and is surprised to learn from Mr Schwarz ( the magnanimous) that he but wants someone to spend a night with him in Lisbon.
We learn subsequently that he only wanted someone to hear his story - possibly as closure for all that he (Schwarz) and his wife Helen get through before the climactic end. This is really the story of the book.
I liked the way the story was crafted and each emotion articulated. Despite the fact that I may never feel whatsoever of the events that happened at that time I could relate to his thoughts and reactions so described.
Highly recommended. My opinion is biased as I am becoming a sucker for historical fiction.
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A simple premise: two High german refugees meet by chance in wartime Lisbon. One offers the other his boat tickets to America if he'll spend ane nighttime listening to his benefactor's story of exile throughout Europe. He tells a compelling stor
I had simply ever read All Repose on the Western Front, twice in translation, once in the original German. It wasn't until I read The Night in Lisbon (in translation, as my High german has deteriorated from disuse) that I understood what a truly great author Remarque was.A simple premise: two German refugees run into past chance in wartime Lisbon. One offers the other his boat tickets to America if he'll spend one night listening to his benefactor's story of exile throughout Europe. He tells a compelling story of exile non simply in a political sense, but in a moral and personal degree, even while the crimes which sent the characters fleeing are never touched on.
The novel's theme is summarized nearly the finish:
And what practise we actually possess? Why exercise we brand so much fuss most things which at best are merely lent us for a lilliputian while; and why all this talk near degrees of possession, when the illusory word "possess" means merely to encompass the air?
Identity, nationality, domicile, beloved, and lovers, even our name: tin any of these really be claimed as ours, especially in circumstances where abandoning or obfuscating any one of them can make the divergence between expiry and survival? Can a new proper noun and passport pass on non but the identity but the soul of its prior owner? And if ane is submerged in a world where ane really possesses nothing, how can you e'er hope to re-accommodate to a world in which the give-and-take "possess" has meaning?
It isn't all philosophizing. In that location is enough of butchery and backbone and some truly nail-bitter scenes. Only it's the language which shines, filtered through the brilliance of Ralph Manheim, my favorite translator of post-war German language fiction. If you lot're in the mood for an heady, shocking, endlessly thought-provoking and securely felt novel in which you'll want to lap upward every word, I tin't recommend this book enough. Brilliant!
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Remarque, all-time known for the seminal Globe State of war I novel All Serenity on the Western Front (read it if yous haven't) turns his narrative powers loose on the pre-state of war tension of 1939 and 1940 (in Europe-China and Japan were already at state of war) and the travails of refugees escaping the Nazis.
It's all very topical, given the bureaucratic nightmares modern immigran
A fantastic volume--gripping drama, a superb love story, a tight narrative, and all the harrowing escapes and true cat-and-mouse mystery you could ask for.Remarque, best known for the seminal Earth War I novel All Repose on the Western Front (read it if you oasis't) turns his narrative powers loose on the pre-war tension of 1939 and 1940 (in Europe-China and Japan were already at state of war) and the travails of refugees escaping the Nazis.
It's all very topical, given the bureaucratic nightmares modernistic immigrants from war zones are encountering as they risk their lives to reach Europe and the U.s.a. in 2016, and this look dorsum at another era shows how little things accept changed. Governments are no more likely to arrange those without exhaustive documentation today than they were back then, for the verbal aforementioned reasons. You aren't a person without papers, but nobody'due south going to give you lot papers, either the "proficient" nations or the "bad" ones, if you try to do things the "right" manner. The protagonist (y'all never know his existent name) notes that the only fourth dimension he'due south able to get what he wants is when he kills someone or travels in the guise of a killer (the Gestapo).
It's a short but powerful read, up there with Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon, Elie Wiesel's Night, and of class, All Quiet on the Western Front. In that location's no cease to the horrors humans are willing to inflict on each other, in that era or this.
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Remarque'south biography is essentially marked and his writing fundamentally influenced by German history of the twentieth century: Childhood and youth in regal Osnabrück, World War I, the Weimar Republic, and nearly of all his exile in Switzerland
Erich Maria Remarque (pen name of Erich Paul Remark) is one of the best known and most widely read authors of German literature in the twentieth century.Remarque's biography is substantially marked and his writing fundamentally influenced by German history of the twentieth century: Childhood and youth in imperial Osnabrück, World War I, the Weimar Commonwealth, and near of all his exile in Switzerland and the U.s.a.. With the novel All Quiet On the Western Front end, first published in 1929, Remarque attained world-wide recognition standing today.
Examples of his other novels also internationally published are: The Road Back (1931), Iii Comrades (1936, 38), Arch of Triumph (1945), The Black Obelisk (1956), and Night in Lisbon (1962).
Remarque'south novels have been translated in more than than fifty languages; globally the total edition comes up to several million copies.
The consummate works of Remarque are both highly interrelated with his Osnabrück background and speaking thematically of a critical examination of German history, whereby the preservation of homo dignity and humanity in times of oppression, terror and war always was at the forefront of his literary creation.
AKA:
Έριχ Μαρία Ρεμάρκ (Greek)
Эрих Мария Ремарк (Russian)
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