Number of Pages: 200 pages
In 1914 a class of idealistic German schoolboys are goaded by their teacher to join the Army and fight in the "Glorious War". After ten weeks of brutal basic training, and faced with the horrific realities of trench warfare, their youthful innocence and idealism is soon stripped away.
This is one of the classic war novels. It's seen through the eyes of teenage soldier Paul Baumer who, by the time we meet him is already a hardened soldier. It moves from accounts of life in the trenches swimming in filth and swarming with rats and lice, and existing on a practically starvation level diet, to graphic and chilling accounts of battles, to lyrical descriptions of Baumer's impressions and emotions and dreams beyond just survival. The book is more than just a parade of horrors though, it also describes the friendship and camaraderie among the soldiers, who do what they can to make life just a little more bearable for themselves, making the most of their time away from the trenches. It also comments on the psychological effects of the war. At one point Baumer goes home on leave, and finds himself completely cut off from his old life and his family, because they have no idea what he has been through and he can't connect with them at all. The incidents in the novel are described purely as Baumer experiences them and there is no context of the war as a whole, in fact the soldiers rarely discuss the war itself. They don't even seem to care much about whether their side wins or loses, they just want it to be over.
It's a powerful and moving war novel.
The book was banned by the Nazis and copies were publicly burned, which is yet another good reason to read it.
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