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  #1  
Old 18-03-22, 08:42 PM
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Default All Quiet on the Western Front

Cannot recommend this book highly enough. For those with an interest in the Great War, and who have never read it, be sure to acquire a copy.

I re-read this at the beginning of the first lockdown and it left me reeling. An incredibly powerful book, made all the more memorable by A. W. Wheen's wonderful translation (Wheen's translation is the one to read, in my opinion).

'These first minutes with the mask decide between life and death: is it air-tight? I remember the awful sights in the hospital: the gas patients who in day-long suffocation cough up their burnt lungs in clots.'

'...our bodies are a thin skin stretched painfully over repressed madness.'

'We are not youth any longer. We don't want to take the world by storm. we are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. This first bomb, the first explosion, bursts in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in things no longer, we believe in war.'


'All Quiet on the Western Front' by Erich Maria Remarque - [book] first published in Germany in 1929.
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  #2  
Old 18-03-22, 08:45 PM
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Still got my copy from about 1970.
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Old 18-03-22, 09:03 PM
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Originally Posted by leigh kitchen View Post
Still got my copy from about 1970.
Cool.

I'm currently reading Sassoon's 'Memoirs of an Infantry Offier'. It never ceases to amaze me how these men wrote so beautifully about such horrors.

JT
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Old 19-03-22, 12:05 AM
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I too obtained a second hand copy of “All Quiet on the Western Front”………………..many years ago. It is like an old friend.
It is a classic piece of writing. As you say it is a powerful book written as an anti-war message and it leaves one reeling. I could not put it down and have read it so many times now that I have lost count.
Cheers
James
PS: I would recommend the book by Henri Barbusse published in December 1916 (easily obtained in English). His description of being at the receiving end of an Artillery bombardment is utterly breathtaking.
To complete the trio the novel ‘Storm of Steel’ by Ernst Junger is a powerful piece of writing too.
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He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed. (Albert Einstein)

Last edited by Charliedog012012; 19-03-22 at 12:10 AM.
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  #5  
Old 19-03-22, 12:57 AM
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Originally Posted by Charliedog012012 View Post
I too obtained a second hand copy of “All Quiet on the Western Front”………………..many years ago. It is like an old friend.
It is a classic piece of writing. As you say it is a powerful book written as an anti-war message and it leaves one reeling. I could not put it down and have read it so many times now that I have lost count.
Cheers
James
PS: I would recommend the book by Henri Barbusse published in December 1916 (easily obtained in English). His description of being at the receiving end of an Artillery bombardment is utterly breathtaking.
To complete the trio the novel ‘Storm of Steel’ by Ernst Junger is a powerful piece of writing too.

Thanks for the recommendations, James. I know the Barbusse book to which you refer: 'Under Fire'. Not read it but will endeavour to source a copy. 'Storm of Steel' too.

Thanks again.

JT
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Old 19-03-22, 01:19 AM
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Originally Posted by leigh kitchen View Post
Still got my copy from about 1970.
I have my grandfather's copy from 1930ish.

He had flat feet so didn't serve in WW1 but must have had a reason to buy this.
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  #7  
Old 19-03-22, 01:29 AM
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I have my grandfather's copy from 1930ish.

He had flat feet so didn't serve in WW1 but must have had a reason to buy this.
Hardcover and dustjacket?

I'm a shameless bibliophile… any chance of a photo? Yep, book porn!
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Old 19-03-22, 01:29 AM
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Originally Posted by Jelly Terror View Post
Thanks for the recommendations, James. I know the Barbusse book to which you refer: 'Under Fire'. Not read it but will endeavour to source a copy. 'Storm of Steel' too.

Thanks again.

JT
I read Barbusse's book in French (thanks to Mum and Dad both having been teachers of French!). There are also (in French): "Punaises" ("Lice") by Blaise Cendras and "Les Croix de Bois" ("The Wooden Crosses") by Roland Dorgeles. I don't think I've mixed up the authors but it's possible...

Yes, French members Roland does need an accent on his name but I'm lazy to change my keyboard...
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Old 19-03-22, 01:39 AM
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Originally Posted by Jelly Terror View Post
Hardcover and dustjacket?

I'm a shameless bibliophile… any chance of a photo? Yep, book porn!
Hi JT

It's a hard cover but no dust jacket. I do have a book called "The Silent Division" by Ormond Burton. Well written and presented to one of our veteran's clubs by the author! Then maybe "borrowed" many years ago...

Interesting that the book's owner (whose son we met) served in the Artillery and clearly read the book. At one point, Burton says that the guns were lined up wheel to wheel for a bombardment. Peter's Dad added a note in the margin: "It wasn't really like this".

He would have known!

Oh and Remarque also wrote "The Road Back" but it's not quite as good.
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  #10  
Old 19-03-22, 01:52 AM
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Hi JT

It's a hard cover but no dust jacket.
Who is the publisher?
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  #11  
Old 19-03-22, 04:11 AM
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Originally Posted by Jelly Terror View Post
Cool.

I'm currently reading Sassoon's 'Memoirs of an Infantry Offier'. It never ceases to amaze me how these men wrote so beautifully about such horrors.

JT
Still got a copy from around 1980......
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  #12  
Old 19-03-22, 04:23 AM
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Originally Posted by Jelly Terror View Post
Thanks for the recommendations, James. I know the Barbusse book to which you refer: 'Under Fire'. Not read it but will endeavour to source a copy. 'Storm of Steel' too.

Thanks again.

JT
Only have a paperback of "Under Fire", and 1920s hard backs of Junkers "Storm of Steel" and "Copse 125", picked up around 1980.

I'll stop doing the "I've got that too's" now".
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Old 19-03-22, 04:28 AM
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Originally Posted by leigh kitchen View Post
Only have a paperback of "Under Fire", and 1920s hard backs of Junkers "Storm of Steel" and "Copse 125", picked up around 1980.

I'll stop doing the "I've got that too's" now".
Got a fave out of that lot?
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  #14  
Old 19-03-22, 04:46 AM
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Havn't looked at them for years, but "Storm of Steel" I think - simply because Junger's attitude to War is so different to that of Barbusse, Sassoon, Graves etc.
Doesn't mean to say I like it - it's just "different".

Last edited by leigh kitchen; 19-03-22 at 04:54 AM.
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  #15  
Old 19-03-22, 04:52 AM
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Not exactly a book of memoirs, but this arrived yesterday (the author's also published a similar book on Arnhem veterans).

http://www.greatwarportraits.com/
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