Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front
In This Book
⢠Learn about the Life and Background of the Author
⢠Preview an Introduction to the Novel
⢠Explore themes, character development, and recurring images in the Critical Commentaries
⢠Examine in-depth Character Analyses
⢠Acquire an understanding of the novel with Critical Essays
⢠Reinforce what you learn with CliffsNotes Review
⢠Find additional information to further your study in CliffsNotes Resource Center and online at www.cliffsnotes.com
About the Author
Susan Van Kirk holds a B.A. from Knox College and an M.Ed. from the University of Illinois. She has taught English for 30 years in Monmouth, Illinois.
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CliffsNotes⢠All Quiet on the Western Front
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Wiley Publishing, Inc.
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www.wiley.com
Copyright Š 2000 Wiley Publishing, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Library of Congress Control Number: 00-107806
ISBN: 978-0-7645-8671-2
Printed in the United States of America
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Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Hoboken, NJ
Published simultaneously in Canada
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This CliffsNotes study guide on Remarqueâs All Quiet on the Western Front supplements the original literary work, giving you background information about the author, an introduction to the work, a graphical character map, critical commentaries, expanded glossaries, and a comprehensive index, all for you to use as an educational tool that will allow you to better understand All Quiet on the Western Front. This study guide was written with the assumption that you have read All Quiet on the Western Front. Reading a literary work doesnât mean that you immediately grasp the major themes and devices used by the author; this study guide will help supplement your reading to be sure you get all you can from Remarqueâs All Quiet on the Western Front. CliffsNotes Review tests your comprehension of the original text and reinforces learning with questions and answers, practice projects, and more. For further information on Erich Maria Remarque and All Quiet on the Western Front, check out the CliffsNotes Resource Center.
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Life and Background of the Author
The following abbreviated biography of Erich Maria Remarque is provided so that you might become more familiar with his life and the historical times that possibly influenced his writing. Read this Life and Background of the Author section and recall it when reading Remarqueâs All Quiet on the Western Front, thinking of any thematic relationship between Remarqueâs work and his life.
To the biographer and student of literature, Erich Maria Remarque, who has been called the ârecording angel of the Great War,â was an enigma, a man rife with contradictions and contrasts. He admired stylish women, Impressionist art, an antique Lancia convertible and a racy Bugatti, and Chinese art from the Tang dynasty and was obsessed with pacifism, free speech, and privacy. Following the overnight success of his landmark war protest novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque was able to indulge numerous sensualistic tastes and escape the mundane hometown that he so vividly describes in his prose. Expunging his middle nameâPaulâand replacing it with Maria, his motherâs name, he immortalized the name Paul in Paul Bäumer, the speaker of his novel, who lives out the neorealistic horrors of trench warfareâchlorine gas, bayonets, tanks, flamethrowers, mangled messenger dogs and horses, hunger, dysentery, lice, longing, confusion, and despair.
A member in good standing of Gertrude Steinâs âlost generation...