Remarque's works: list in order

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Erich Maria Remarque is one of the most widely read authors of the "lost generation" in the post-Soviet space. He is put on a par with Hemingway and Aldington.

All his work is traced by the tragic events of the life of the writer himself - first of all, participation in the First World War.

Remarque and war

The beginning of the First World War interrupted the normal course of young Erich's life. Through the efforts of the media in the public mind, there was an idea that the world massacre had just flared up as a just campaign against evil.

Remarque was called to the front in 1916. In 1917, the future writer was seriously injured. He spent the rest of the war in the hospital.

The defeat of Germany and the harsh conditions that followed affected the fate of Remarque. To survive, he tried dozens of different professions. The writer even had to work as a seller of tombstones.

Remarque's first novel was published in 1920. It's onlythe source from which all subsequent works of Remarque originate. The list of them is very numerous. Erich Maria became known in Germany as a melancholy painter, depicting the war in truthful and gloomy colors.

Remarque's first novel

From what moment should you start counting Remarque's works? The list opens with a 1920 novel titled The Shelter of Dreams. Oddly enough, there is not a word about the war in this book. But it is filled with allusions from the work of German classics, reflections on the value of love and its true essence.

The backdrop for the development of the plot is the house of a provincial artist, where young people find shelter. They are naive and pure in their simplicity. The writer talks about the first love experiences, betrayals and quarrels.

The critics did not appreciate the debut of the young author. He was called overly sentimental and pretentious. Because of this reaction, Remarque was shy about his first job in his mature years.

Lost work

Due to failure with the first novel, Remarque never published the book "Gam" written in 1924. In this work, the young author raised gender issues, making the main character a strong-willed woman.

The novel "Gam" is forgotten when listing the best works of Remarque. The list remains without this interesting work, which remains relevant and controversial today.

Station on the horizon

Few people, even from those people who constantly read Remarque's novels, will add this book to the list of works. Station on the Horizon is one of the most"anti-Remarque" works of this German writer.

The protagonist of the novel is a typical representative of golden youth. Kai is young, handsome and girls like him. He is a typical perekatipole man: the young man is not attached to material conditions, to people, or to things. In the depths of his soul, he still dreams of a quiet life, peace of mind. But that desire is quelled by the daily storm of bright events.

The book is set around endless car racing against the backdrop of the carefree life of the upper classes.

All Quiet on the Western Front - Requiem for a Lost Generation

Remarque is not known for books about aristocrats. The list of books, works about the tragedy of the lost generation in the writer's bibliography begins with the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, published in 1929.

The author himself in the preface indicates that this book will not be either an accusation or a confession - this is the fate of the entire “lost generation”, expressed in one novel.

The main characters are young men torn from ordinary life. The war does not spare them: patriotic illusions are quickly replaced by cruel disappointment. Even those guys who were not touched by the shells were crippled spiritually by the militaristic machine. Many have not been able to find a place in civilian life.

"All Quiet on the Western Front" came into conflict with the jingoistic works that filled the bookstores of the Weimar Republic. During the Nazi rule, this book was banned.

Return

After a resounding successnovel "All Quiet on the Western Front" did not stop creating Remarque works. We will continue the list of incredibly touching books about the fate of the lost generation with the novel "Return".

The war is coming to an end. The soldiers are seized with unrest: they say there has been a revolution in Berlin. But the main characters don't seem to care about politics at all. They just want to get home as soon as possible. After years spent at the front, it is difficult for young people to leave the trenches…

The turmoil-ridden country does not welcome "heroes" kindly. How can they now build their lives on the ruins of a ruined empire?

Criticists met this book in different ways: they admired its humanistic pathos, others scolded for insufficient disclosure of the political situation in Germany. The nationalists, however, vehemently disliked this work, seeing in it an evil pamphlet on heroic soldiers.

Three Comrades

The acquaintance of our readers with this writer often begins with the novel "Three Comrades". It is not in vain that people admire: what surprisingly subtle works Erich Maria Remarque wrote! We continue the list of books with this incredibly sad and touching book.

Events unfold in pre-fascist Germany. In all its ugliness, we see a society in deep crisis. But even in such darkness there is a place for real feelings - the selfless friendship of friends-front-line soldiers and selfless love.

The main characters of the book survived the war. To survive in peacetime, they open a car repair shop. Time tests their characterand principles for durability. This book was never published in Germany. Remarque began work on this work in 1933, finished writing in 1936. For the first time "Three Comrades" saw the light in Denmark.

Love thy neighbor

This ended the "republican" works of Erich Remarque. The list will continue with a book that tells about another, more cruel and barbaric time.

Who does not know this main postulate of our civilization: "Love your neighbor"? The Nazis questioned altruism, replacing it with cutthroat competition in every area of life.

The novel "Love thy neighbor" will introduce us to the world of German emigrants forced to hide from the Nazi regime. How did their life develop outside the long-suffering homeland? They starve and freeze on the streets, often left homeless. They are forever haunted by thoughts of loved ones who ended up in concentration camps for "re-education".

"Is it possible to remain a highly moral person in such conditions?" - Remarque poses such a question. Each reader finds the answer for himself.

Arc de Triomphe

Do not count the works written on this topic by Erich Maria Remarque. The list of “refugee literature” continues with the novel Arc de Triomphe. The protagonist is an emigrant forced to hide in Paris (where the attraction indicated in the title is located)

Ravik survived imprisonment in a concentration camp - torture, beatings and humiliation. Once he chose the meaning of life for himself - to save people from diseases. He now considers the murder of a Gestapo man no less useful.

Sparklife

Now Remarque is interested in the events that unfolded at the very end of the war. "Spark of Life" replenishes Remarque's anti-fascist works, the list is becoming more and more full and voluminous.

Now the focus is on one of the dreaded concentration camps at the end of the war. The writer himself has never been in a concentration camp. He made all the descriptions from the words of eyewitnesses.

The central character was once the editor of a liberal newspaper, objectionable to the brutal Nazi dictatorship. They tried to break him, placing him in inhuman conditions and putting him on the brink of existence. The prisoner did not give up and now feels the imminent collapse of the German war machine.

Remarque said that he created this work in memory of his sister, who was beheaded by the Nazis in 1943.

A time to live and a time to die

Remarque in the novel "A Time to Live and a Time to Die" dispassionately analyzes the psychology of a German soldier. Army in 1943 to suffer defeat. The Germans retreat to the west. The protagonist is well aware that for him now is only "time to die." Is there a place to live in this beautiful world?

Soldier receives a 3-day vacation and visits his parents in the hope of seeing at least in the city of childhood a flourishing life. But reality cruelly opens his eyes to the obvious. Every day the Germans, who once expanded their living space, endure shelling and die for the illusory ideas of Nazism. The "time to live" has not yet arrived.

This book enriches Remarque's works with philosophical reasoning. List of anti-fascist, anti-militaristthe literature does not end there.

Black Obelisk

The novel "The Black Obelisk" takes us back to the 20s - a time of devastation and crisis for Germany. Looking back, Remarque realizes that it was at this time that Nazism was born, which aggravated the suffering of his country.

The main character, trying to find his place in life, serves in a tombstone company. At the same time, he is trying to find the meaning of his life in a senselessly cruel world.

Life on loan

Trying to diversify the themes of his works, Remarque turns to the theme of deadly diseases. As in the situation with anti-war books, the main character is placed here in a borderline situation. She is well aware that death is already knocking at the door. In order not to hear her approach, the heroine wants to spend her last days bright and rich. Clairefe, a racing driver, helps her with this.

Night in Lisbon

Again Remarque turns to the painful topic of German emigration in the novel Night in Lisbon.

The main character has been wandering around Europe for five years now. Finally, luck smiled at him and he found his beloved wife. But it seems not for long. He still cannot find tickets for a flight from Lisbon. By the will of fate, he meets a stranger who agrees to give him two tickets for a steamboat for free. There is one condition - he must spend the whole night with a stranger and listen to his complicated story.

Shadows in Paradise

“Shadows in Paradise” is a work about emigrants from Germany who managed to get to their paradise - America. Remarquetalks about their fate. For some, the United States has become a new home. They were greeted joyfully and given a chance to build a life from scratch. Other refugees became bitterly disillusioned with paradise, becoming only silent shadows in their own Eden.

Promised Land

This is the name of the later revised text of the novel "Shadows in Paradise". During his lifetime, this work was not published. It was called the Promised Land. Under this title, the book was published only in 1998.

The novels "Shadows in Paradise" and "Promised Land" are not usually separated. It's the same storyline. The latest version was processed more by the editors, many unnecessary (in their opinion) fragments were thrown out of it.