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.

On all his creativity lies the tragic events of the life of the writer himself - first of all, participation in the First World War.

Remark and war

The normal course of life of young Erich interrupted the beginning of the First World War. Through the efforts of the media in the public mind, the notion of only a flared up global slaughter as a just campaign against evil has developed.

Remark was drafted 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 subsequent harsh conditions affected the fate of Remarque. To survive, he tried dozens of different professions. Work writer had even a seller of tombstones.

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

The first novel by Remarque

At what point is it worth starting to consider Remarque's works? The list opens the novel of 1920 under the title "Shelter of Dreams". Ironically, in this book there is not a word about the war. But it is filled with allusions from the work of German classics, reflections on the value of love and its true essence.

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

Critics did not appreciate the debut of the young author. He was called unnecessarily sentimental and pretentious. Because of this reaction Remarque in his mature years was embarrassed by his first job.

Lost work

Because of the failure with the first novel, Remarque never published the book "Gam" written in 1924. In this work the young author raised a gender perspective, making the main character a strong spirit woman.

The novel "Gam" is forgotten when they list the best works of Remarque. The list remains without this interesting work, which even today remains relevant and provokes discussion questions.

"Station on the horizon"

Few people even from those people who constantly read the novels of Remarque, the list of works will be replenished with this book. "Station on the horizon" - this is one of the most "antiremarkovskih" works of this German writer.

The protagonist of the novel is a typical representative of golden youth. Kai is young, handsome and like girls. He is a typical person-perekotipole: a young man does not attach himself to material conditions, nor to people, nor to things. In the depths of his soul, he still dreams of a quiet life, peace of mind. But this desire is suppressed by the daily storm of bright events.

The action of the book takes place around endless automobile races against the backdrop of the carefree life of the upper classes of society.

"On the Western Front without Change" is a 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 bibliography of the writer begins precisely with the novel "On the Western Front Without Changes", published in 1929.

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

The main characters are young men, torn from ordinary life. War does not spare them: the patriotic illusions are quickly replaced by cruel disappointment. Even those guys who were not touched by shells, the militaristic machine crippled spiritually. Many have never been able to find a place in a peaceful life.

"On the Western Front without Change" came into conflict with the jingo-patriotic works that filled the bookstores of the Weimar Republic. During the reign of the Nazis, this book was banned.

"Return"

After the stunning success of the novel "On the Western Front Without Change", Remark did not stop creating works. List of incredibly touching books about the fate of the lost generation, we continue the novel "Return".

The war is drawing to a close. The soldiers embrace excitement: they say, in Berlin there was a revolution. But the main characters do not seem to care about politics at all. They just want to get home as soon as possible. After many years spent at the front, it's difficult for young people to leave the trenches ...

The country covered with excitement does not greet the "heroes" affably. How can they now build their lives on the ruins of a destroyed empire?

Critics have met this book in different ways: they admired her humanistic pathos, others scolded for not fully disclosing the political situation in Germany. The nationalists furiously 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". People are not in vain admired: what amazingly delicate Erich Maria Remarque wrote works! We continue the list of books with this incredibly sad and touching book.

Events unfold in pre-fascist Germany. In all the ugliness before us appears 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 disinterested love.

The main characters of the book survived the war. To survive in peacetime, they open a car repair shop. Time tests their character and principles for strength.
In Germany, this book never came out. Remark began work on this work in 1933, finished writing in 1936. For the first time, "Three Comrades" saw the light in Denmark.

"Love thy Neighbour"

This concludes the "republican" works of Erich Remarque. The list will continue the book, which narrates about another, more cruel and barbarous time.

Who does not know this main postulate of our civilization: "Love your neighbor"? The Nazis put altruism in doubt, replacing it with ruthless competition in all spheres of life.

The novel "Love your neighbor" will acquaint us with the world of German immigrants forced to hide from the Nazi regime. How did their lives develop outside the long-suffering homeland? They are hungry and freezing in the streets, often without shelter. They are always haunted by thoughts of relatives who have fallen for "re-education" in concentration camps.

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

"Triumphal Arch"

Do not count the works of Erich Maria Remarque written on this subject. The list of "refugee literature" continues with the novel "Triumphal Arch".
The protagonist is an expatriate, forced to hide in Paris (where the landmark is located)

Ravik survived the imprisonment in the concentration camp - torture, beating and humiliation. Once he chose the meaning of life - to save people from disease. It is no less useful thing he believes now and the murder of the Gestapo.

«Spark of Life»

Now Remarque is interested in the events that unfolded at the very end of the war. "The spark of life" replenishes the antifascist works of Remarque, the list becomes more and more full and voluminous.

Now the focus is one of the terrible concentration camps at the end of the war. The writer himself was never in a concentration camp. All the descriptions he did from the words of eyewitnesses.

The central character was once the editor of a liberal newspaper, unwanted by the brutal Nazi dictatorship. He was tried to break, placing him in inhuman conditions and putting him on the edge of existence. The prisoner did not give up and now feels the imminent collapse of Germany's military machine.

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

"Time to live and time to die"

Remark in the novel "The time to live and the time to die" impartially analyzes the psychology of the German soldier. The army in 1943 to suffer defeat. The Germans retreat to the west. The main character perfectly understands that for him now is only "time to die." Is there a place to live in this beautiful world?

The soldier gets a 3-day vacation and visits his parents in the hope of seeing a flourishing life in the city of childhood. But reality brutally opens his eyes to obvious things. Every day the Germans, who at one time expanded their living space, suffer firing, die for the illusory ideas of Nazism. "The time to live" has not yet come.

This book enriches philosophical reasonings of Remarque's works. The list of antifascist, anti-militarist literature does not end there.

"Black obelisk"

The novel "The Black Obelisk" returns us again in the 1920s - a time of devastation and crisis for Germany. Looking back, Remarque understands that it was at this time that Nazism also arose, aggravating the suffering of his country.

The main character, trying to find his place in life, serves in the firm for the manufacture of tombstones. At the same time, he tries to find the meaning of his life in a meaningless cruel world.

«Life on loan»

Trying to diversify the themes of his works, Remarque addresses the topic of deadly diseases. As in the situation with anti-war books, the main character is put here in a border situation.
She is well aware that death is already knocking on the door. In order not to hear her approach, the heroine wants to spend the last days brightly and sated. This helps her racing driver Clarfe.

"Night in Lisbon"

Again, Remark refers to the painful topic of German emigration in the novel "The 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, for a short time. Tickets for the flight from Lisbon, he can not find. By the will of fate, he meets with a stranger who agrees to give him free two tickets for the ship. There is one condition - he must spend the whole night with a stranger and listen to his complex story.

"Shadows in Paradise"

"Shadows in Paradise" is a work about emigrants from Germany who managed to get to their paradise - America. Remark tells of their fate. For some, the United States has become a new homeland. They were greeted with joy and given a chance to build life from scratch. Other refugees were severely disillusioned with paradise, becoming only silent shadows in Eden invented by them.

"Promised land"

This is how the revised text of the novel "Shadows in Paradise" is called later. In life, this work was not published. It was called "Promised Land". Under this heading, the book was published only in 1998.

The novels "Shadows in Paradise" and "Promised Land" are not accepted to be divided. This is the same storyline. The last version was more processed by editors, many unnecessary (in their opinion) fragments were thrown out of it.