The novel was published in 1945 in the United States. The German edition appeared a year later. In 1948 " Arc de Triomphe"was first filmed with Ingrid Bergman in the title role. In 1985, the novel was filmed for the second time. Main role goes to Anthony Hopkins. The 1948 film adaptation was considered more successful.
The novel takes place in France on the eve of World War II. Ravik, a German surgeon and veteran of the First World War, lives in Paris without citizenship or documents, under constant threat of deportation from the country. The surgeon operates on patients, replacing less qualified French colleagues. Ravik was forced to flee Germany because he organized the escape of two innocent people. For this, the surgeon ended up in the Gestapo, where he endured monstrous torture. The surgeon's girlfriend, Sibylla, was also arrested and later died in prison. Ravik is hiding in France. It was believed that life in this country would be much easier for emigrants.
One November night, the surgeon meets a stranger. The woman is desperate. Ravik brings her to his place. The stranger's name is Joan Madu, she is an actress by profession. Joan's lover died. The surgeon helps the woman get a death certificate, her money and belongings, and pay the bill for the room.
Ravik tells his colleague Weber that he is an illegal immigrant from Germany. He has no right not only to work, but also to simply stay in France. The surgeon lives in a hotel where registration is not required, since he cannot rent an apartment. Ravik also reports that in his homeland he held a significant position in one of the large hospitals. He hides his real name.
Joan and Ravik become lovers. The woman admits that she is very tired of the life she is forced to lead and would like to live peacefully in her own home with her loved one. The surgeon explains that this is impossible: he is in the country illegally and has no rights. Throughout the entire story, the lovers either quarrel or make up. One of the most major quarrels occurred after Ravic was arrested, expelled from the country, and then returned to Paris after three months spent in Switzerland.
On the streets of the French capital, the surgeon meets his old enemy - Gestapo man Haake. Ravik hunts for Haake for a long time until they finally meet. The fascist does not recognize the surgeon, but is very happy that he met a compatriot in a foreign country. Subsequently, Ravik managed to meet his enemy again. The surgeon offers the Gestapo man a joint visit to an elite brothel, and he himself takes him to the Bois de Boulogne, where he kills him. The surgeon then takes Haake to the Forest of Saint-Germain. Ravik disfigured the body of his enemy and destroyed documents and belongings.
At the end of the novel, Joan is shot by her next lover. The woman is mortally wounded, but removing the bullet will only hasten her death. Joan and Ravik last time They confess their love to each other, then the doctor gives her a lethal injection to save her from further suffering. During the next arrest, Ravik does not resist the police and even gives his real name.
Characteristics
The real name of the surgeon is Ludwig Fresenburg. This is a very ambiguous character, revealing himself to the reader from different sides.
On the one hand, Ravik, aka Ludwig Fresenburg, is presented as positive hero. In Nazi Germany, Ravik held a high position. To save your high position It was enough for him to simply agree with the policies of the new authorities, or at least look at their actions “through his fingers.” However, Ravik could not make a deal with his own conscience. He did not want to allow innocent people to suffer and die. The surgeon takes a risk by hiding the unfortunate ones. Ravik understands perfectly well how this could end for him, but does not back down. As a result, main character loses everything: a high position, the location of the authorities, his beloved girl and his homeland.
Having miraculously survived, Ravik begins new life in Paris. The torture that the surgeon had to endure in Germany did not harden the protagonist or change his character. Ravik still remains an honest man capable of selflessly helping those in need. Having met a stranger at night, Ravik tries to take on all her problems without expecting anything in return.
However, the author does not deny: torture, concentration camps and wanderings could not help but leave their mark. Remarque shows the German surgeon from another, less pleasant side. The reader learns that Ravik is vindictive and vindictive. Having met his old enemy in Paris, the surgeon begins to develop a murder plan. The hatred he felt for Haake did not disappear even after several years. Ravik coldly and without a shadow of pity kills the Gestapo man and mutilates his corpse. The author does not support his hero in his actions, but does not condemn him either. For a person who has lost the most precious thing, it is quite natural to feel hatred towards the one who deprived him of everything.
Joan Madu
Presumably, the author was inspired to create the image of Joan by Marlene Dietrich. Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, Remarque and Dietrich lived in Paris.
Ravik doesn’t give any credit special significance meeting an unfamiliar woman who needs his help. The surgeon helps people every day. Help to a stranger It’s completely natural for him. However, Madu gradually enters his life. The rapprochement between Joan and Ravik began with mutual sexual attraction. However, gradually the surgeon begins to understand that Joan can be not only a passionate lover, but also a sincere interlocutor. Madu, like Ravik, has neither homeland nor relatives. Joan grew up in Italy, with a Romanian father and English mother. Since childhood, Mada has been surrounded by “strangers.” Now she again finds herself among “strangers,” this time in another country.
We bring to your attention another outstanding work by Erich Maria We bring to your attention another outstanding work by Erich Maria Remarque “Shelter of Dreams”, which tells about a quiet boarding house where patients live a measured life, without delving into the problems of the world around them.
Our next article is devoted to the biography of the famous prose writer Erich Maria Remarque, a representative of the writers of the “Lost Generation”, who created many talented works that are still popular today.
The lives of both main characters have long been meaningless and have turned into a routine struggle for survival. Both lost their loved ones. Only after meeting each other do Ravik and Madu feel that their lives finally have meaning. They give themselves over completely to the new feeling. But after a short period of time, quarrels begin between the lovers. Joan is tired of uncertainty. She wants to find a stable place in this world, despite the fact that the war breaking out in Europe is pushing the world into chaos. Joan has waited too long for her happiness to wait any longer. She wants to have a family and be a legal wife with whom she can appear in society, and not a random mistress who they want to hide from prying eyes.
Main symbol novel is the Arc de Triomphe. This landmark of Paris is not as popular as the Eiffel Tower, but is also widely known. Not all readers understand why the author chose the Arc de Triomphe to give the title to the novel. She is not actor and does not play a particularly significant role in the work. However, Remarque opted for it, and not for the more familiar Eiffel Tower. He also did not use the name of one of the main characters for the title.
First of all, the author is trying to divert the public's attention from the stereotypical image of Paris. Even in the minds of those readers who have never been to the French capital, this city is associated with pleasure, unbridled fun and forbidden pleasures. These are the associations that the Eiffel Tower can evoke. The author wants to show Paris from a completely different side. On the eve of World War II, the French capital continues to be a city of dreams. But now they come to it not for pleasure, but for the sake of saving lives. Immigrants from Germany find shelter here. These were mainly Jews, as well as those who did not share the views of the fascists who came to power.
By calling his novel “Arc de Triomphe,” Remarque carefully makes it clear that, despite all the efforts of the fascists, victory will not be theirs.
The novel “Arc de Triomphe” by Erich Maria Remarque: summary
5 (100%) 1 voteThe novel tells us about a surgeon from Germany who was held by the Nazis for a long time in a prisoner of war camp, from where he successfully escapes and works illegally under a false name in France.
From the first pages of the work we see how Ravik, returning late from work, passing across the bridge, met a stranger who, it seemed to him, wanted to die. He could not allow this and invited her to sit with him and talk in one of the drinking establishments. In the light, our hero could finally see the woman. Of all her appearance, he liked her hair, which was unusually golden in color.
When they left the cafe, it turned out that the woman had nowhere to go, and Ravik decided to invite her to his hotel, where he lived. He was never able to rest, since he had to go to work again.
Ravik was considered an ideal surgeon. Long ago he escaped from a concentration camp and took refuge in Paris. Here he worked illegally at Weber Hospital. This evening was unsuccessful for the doctor; the operation went poorly and the patient died. He didn’t want to go home, but he was very interested in the woman left at home. A bad mood forced the man to buy alcohol and get drunk. He came home drunk and seduced a stranger, to which she agreed calmly.
In the morning, the woman said that she came to France with her lover and settled not far from his hotel. But suddenly her partner died, and she was left alone. Alone, without money, she was ready to take her own life, but a doctor saved her. The doctor, having listened to her whole story to the end, called his owner and he helped settle all the issues regarding payment at the woman’s hotel. And Ravik put her in another hotel, where she told him that her name was Joan Madu.
So it went day after day. Ravik was constantly at the clinic and continued to live in his hotel, where the owner was calm about the fact that undocumented refugees were staying with her. He had already been in police custody several times over this, and he didn't want to go to jail again.
In the hospital everyone turned to Professor Durand. However, he only put sick people into hypnosis, and Ravik performed all the operations. But no one knew about it, and Durant was considered a famous surgeon. But he still did not forget his assistant and gave him a small part of his earnings. One day, while talking with his friend Boris Morozov, who worked at the Scheherazade nightclub, Ravik saw a statue of Madonna on his person. And he remembered the stranger, who was probably waiting for help from him.
When he came to the woman and saw that she was in bad mood. Then the doctor, through Morozov, helped her get a job at Scheherazade. One day, while having lunch in a cafe and watching passers-by on the street, Ravik recognizes Hitler’s executioner, who had long interrogated him and tortured a girl. Sibylla soon hanged herself in the camp. He shared his suspicions with Boris, but he said that apparently his friend had made a mistake.
Ravik and Joan begin a deep relationship. Walking under the Trimfual Arch, they realized that they were born for each other. But at times Ravik pulled away from Joan, knowing full well that this romance would not last long. She will break up with him anyway, since she is younger than him.
Besides this, he also thought about the fascist who tortured him in the Gestapo. And when they were sitting with Morozov in a street cafe, the surgeon saw Haake again. He became nervous, and the picture of the days spent in captivity and Sibylla’s exhausted face again appeared before him. After all, they fled from Germany together, but were unsuccessful; they were caught by the Nazis. He was able to withstand all the tests, but the girl died.
But the doctor drove away all these thoughts about the past and decided to go with Joan to rest Mediterranean Sea. After living in Antibes for a week, Ravik became bored, although he sometimes played in the casino. Joan liked life here. The man broke up with her and returned to Paris.
His responsiveness and Hippocratic oath as a doctor fail Ravik. He helps a woman injured when part of a building collapses. And then the police appear and check the doctor’s documents. He is arrested and deported to Switzerland.
Upon returning, Ravik learned that the Nazis were in control throughout France. From Morozov he learns that Joan is becoming an actress. Having met Joan one day, Ravik sees her with two strangers. She was cheerful and beautiful. There was a quarrel between them, but then they made up.
Ravic does not like Joan's attitude towards him, and he asks Weber to hire him again in order to forget this woman. He worked as hard as he could and tried not to think about her. But Joan reappeared on the horizon and invited him to her place. He came to her and saw that her lover was renting a good apartment for Joan. He didn’t like that the woman was playing with his feelings, and he left.
One day he sees his enemy again. Ravik can’t stand it and approaches him, calling himself by a different name. The Doctor has long outlined a plan for how he will take revenge on Haake. The Gestapo man did not recognize his former victim and was very glad to meet him, because he thought that this was his old acquaintance. Ravik makes an appointment for him in one of the brothels, but he himself brings him to the Bois de Boulogne and kills him. Finally. His tormentor is dead. But the tragic events in the life of our hero do not end there.
He learns that Joan is wounded. She was shot by a jealous lover. Ravik is sure that even if he pulls out the bullet, the woman will still die, and to ease her suffering, he gives her poison.
Having lost faith in everything, Ravik voluntarily surrenders to the police and gives his real name.
The novel teaches us to remain merciful, persistent and be able to overcome all sorts of life’s hardships, not to betray friends in difficult times and to be able to love.
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One November night in Paris, Ravik stops a woman on a bridge. The stranger is in despair. Ravik first takes her to the driver's tavern, located next to the Arc de Triomphe, and treats her to Normandy apple vodka - Calvados, then to his room at the International Hotel. The main character of the novel spends the first half of the night in the operating room with Dr. Weber and nurse Eugenie: he is trying to correct the consequences of an unsuccessful abortion in a young girl. The patient dies. On the way to the hotel, Ravik enters the Osiris brothel. There he drinks with the manager Rolanda and returns to the room.
Ravik spends the rest of the night with the woman. In the morning he learns that her lover died the day before. Together with a stranger, Ravik goes to the Verdun Hotel. He settles the issue of issuing a death certificate, helps a woman, whose name is Joan Madu, to return her things and money, pay the bill for the room, and move to another hotel - Milan.
One working day, Ravik tells Weber about his situation: he is an illegal immigrant who fled Nazi Germany. In France, he is prohibited not only from working, but also from living, since he does not have a visa. Ravik cannot rent an apartment. He lives in Internationale because it does not require registration. In Germany, the hero was the chief surgeon of a large hospital. The name Ravik is a fictitious name, taken by him for the third time in order to avoid repeated arrest when discovered by the French authorities.
On Thursday, Ravik examines the girls at the Osiris brothel to see if they have sexually transmitted diseases. In the evening, he plays chess with a Russian emigrant - the doorman of the Scheherazade nightclub, Boris Morozov in the dining room of the International, quarrels with Spanish officers, and receives a wooden statuette of Madonna from Joan.
Ravik visits Joan and invites her to dinner at Belle Auror. Over coffee at the Colosseum, the woman talks about herself: she is an actress, grew up in Italy, her father was Romanian, her mother was English. Ravik invites her to talk to Morozov about work. The heroes drink all evening. Ravik spends the night in Joan’s room.
Hat seller Lucienne Martinet, saved by Ravik from the consequences of a botched abortion, is not too happy that she escaped death. She is thinking about how she can pay for the operation and the time spent in the clinic.
Sitting in a bistro, Ravik notices Haake on the street, the Gestapo man who killed Sibylla. In a conversation with Morozov, the hero learns that the Russian, like him, is waiting for the time when he can return to his country and settle accounts with his father’s murderers.
Kat Hagstrom comes to Paris. Two years ago, Ravik removed her appendix, performing his first successful operation in the French capital. Two weeks ago, Kat divorced her husband, who became an Austrian fascist.
The owner of the International is preparing for new guests - Spanish Republicans: she changes the portraits of Nazi leaders to communists - Lenin, Trotsky and others. In the evening, Ravik has dinner at Scheherazade with Kat and sees Joan's beautiful and moving performance.
During the operation to remove the fetus, it turns out that Kat has cancer. Depressed, Ravik goes to Scheherazade, where he meets Joan. They go to a tavern near the Arc de Triomphe, after which they go to Ravik and spend the night together.
The Doctor visits Lucienne. The girl's boyfriend, Bobo, behaves extremely provocatively. In the evening, Joan confesses to Ravik that she has been “living” all day today. The heroes spend their second night together.
Ravic fails to tell Kat about cancer. The woman herself doesn’t ask him anything: she believes the doctor and thinks that everything is fine with her.
Midwife Madame Boucher - plump woman in a kimono - refuses to give 300 francs for Lucienne’s unsuccessful abortion. She sees that Ravik is an emigrant and invites him to work together. At night, the doctor realizes how Joan is “waiting” for him - with love. He leaves the hotel and returns only in the morning.
A boy, Jeannot, is brought to the clinic with his leg crushed by a car. Kat shares her dreams for the future with Ravik: she wants to have an old-fashioned family and children. At night, Joan confesses her love to the doctor and says that she is happy with him.
Jeannot's leg is taken away above the knee. He is glad that the insurance company will now pay him a lifetime pension. In the evening, Ravik has dinner with Morozov and again sees Haake on the street. At night, the doctor remembers how the Gestapo man tortured him, trying to find out where two people wanted by the Nazis fled, how he was then sent to a concentration camp, and then to a hospital, from which he later escaped. Ravik wanders the streets, looking for Haake, then goes to Scheherazade and confesses his love to Joan.
The main character visits patients - Kat, Jeannot, examines prostitutes in Osiris. At night, Joan says that she is tired and wants a quiet life in her home. Ravik tells her about his illegal situation and promises to go to the resort together. At the next operation, which he performs instead of Durand, the doctor bargains for two thousand francs for the work versus the usual two hundred. Ravik operates on Leval, the main person in charge of emigrant affairs. At night, Ravik has a nightmare. Waking up, the doctor remembers the horrors of the Gestapo. Until the morning he talks with Joan and drinks Calvados.
In February 1939, Ravik and Joan travel to the French Riviera. They sunbathe, play in the casino, go to restaurants. Joan goes on a motorboat ride with new friends. Ravik thinks that she has already begun to quietly move away from him.
A week after returning from the sea, Ravik witnesses the tragic fall of a worker from the scaffolding. He ascertains his death and helps the injured woman, who was caught by a falling beam. The police arriving at the scene arrest Ravik.
After three months spent in Switzerland, Ravik returns to Paris. Morozov tells the doctor that Joan left Scheherazade five weeks ago. Ravik is looking for a woman in Milan, but does not find him. He asks Weber to give in to him simple operation to remove appendicitis and only after that he feels as if he has returned home.
Ravik meets Joan at Cloche d'Or. The separation only strengthened his love for this woman. Joan is furious that Ravik did not bother to find her during his two weeks in Paris. Nevertheless, she comes to his room, and the heroes spend the night together. In the morning, Joan says that she does not trust Morozov. At night, Ravik waits in vain for her at the Internationale, playing chess with Boris. Joan appears only two days later. She calls Ravik at the clinic and asks him to come.
In Joan's apartment, Ravik says that he is not going to share her with another man. In the evening, a woman comes to his room and asks permission to stay. Ravic loves her too much to allow this.
Kat Hagstrom returns from Italy. She tells the doctor about the unprecedented belligerence that has awakened in the Italians. Kat knows she's sick.
At the Triumph cafe, Ravik meets Lucienne. The girl became a prostitute. She offers herself to Ravik, for free. From the cafe the doctor goes to the Louvre, then, without realizing it, to Joan. Under her windows, Ravik understands that together with love he has found life.
At the restaurant, the doctor runs into Haake. The latter does not recognize Ravik: he sees him as a compatriot with whom he can talk. The doctor fails to kill Haake, as he and his friends leave for Berlin. The Gestapo man promises to return in two weeks.
Duran asks Ravik to correct the consequences of the unsuccessful operation. The doctor agrees to operate only after Durand admits his mistake.
Kat asks Ravik to accompany her on a trip to the Montforts' costume ball. At night, Joan comes to the doctor and arranges a scene of jealousy for him. Ravik does not have the strength to let go of the woman he loves.
The Montforts' ball is ruined by rain. Ravik and Kat are driving around wet Paris. The Doctor can't concentrate on developing a plan to kill Haake.
Joan calls Ravik at four in the morning and begs him to save her. Arriving at his beloved, the doctor realizes that she again tried to play on his feelings. Ravik asks Joan to leave him alone. He says that there was love between them, and therefore there will be no more friendship.
Rolanda leaves Osiris to get married and open her own cafe with the money she received after the death of her aunt.
While waiting for a call from Haake, Ravik begins to get nervous. The doctor understands that until he gets rid of the Gestapo, he cannot operate on patients. Morozov helps Ravik guard Haake's call and gets him a car to kill. The doctor meets a Gestapo man by chance - in Osiris. He invites him to go to an elite brothel, takes him to the Bois de Boulogne and kills him. Ravik takes the body of the Gestapo man to the Saint-Germain forest. There he buries the corpse in a hole, having previously undressed and disfigured Haake’s face. The doctor hides the murdered person’s belongings in the ground several kilometers from the body. Ravik burns the Gestapo documents and brand marks from his clothes.
Erich Maria Remarque's novel Arc de Triomphe is known throughout the world. The writer manages to incredibly realistically describe war, love, and the experiences of the characters and touch the hearts of readers. The book was written in the mid-20th century and is included in the list best books, required reading.
The writer takes us to pre-war times. The main character is a German, surgeon Ravik. He helped his friends, survived torture and the death of his beloved woman. He managed to escape to France, where he lives without documents, constantly fearing being caught. Ravik lives in a hotel for refugees, but despite his hard life, he helps people. In secret from the law, he performs operations on people and replaces French surgeons. He surprises with his talent and efficiency.
In France he meets Joan. She is an Italian actress who also has her own story. Ravic and Joan are very different, but they want to be together. The couple constantly quarrels and makes up, they are looking for ways to mutual understanding. Their relationship is depicted frankly, without being too fairytale-like, but these people inspire each other, forcing each other to change. Ravik wants to take revenge on the person who tortured him; in his soul there is a place not only for love, but also for hatred.
This book will leave a strong impression and you will remember it long after reading it. It cannot be called a sweet fairy tale; it depicts the reality of life, the present, with its pain and truth. The writer manages to clearly convey the feelings of the characters, love and suffering, the atmosphere of the pre-war period, when fear seemed to be in the air. Using examples from the lives of heroes, the writer says that the pain does not go away completely even after time. It may subside a little, but if you disturb the old wounds, then everything will return again. And yet, you need to continue to live and do something, you need to not give up and help other people.
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Remarque's book “The Arc de Triomphe” was written by the author in the middle of the last century with such strength and passion that it became a timeless work. It immerses us in the infinitely multifaceted world of a living, suffering noble man who has become an outcast in his homeland and lives in a foreign land on the eve of a global war.
He and his love, his talent, his inner world, like the fates of millions of other decent people, have been trampled upon home country, transformed into a soulless dictatorship. Under such conditions, a person becomes a plaything of fate, a splinter in the ocean of history.
We see something similar today. Is the Arc de Triomphe, written in the middle of the last century, outdated? Reader reviews indicate the opposite. How many modern people who experienced the war in Afghanistan, Chechnya and other armed conflicts, did not die, but broke down psychologically and were unable to socialize? How many of them were not saved from drunkenness and the abyss of unbelief by love, as happened with Ravik. Aren't these our contemporaries?
Remarque, author of the book
How to characterize this novel? An extremely honest work about yourself, about your inner world, “a piece of smoking conscience.” For several generations now people have been admiring a book whose cover says: Remarque, “Arc de Triomphe.” Reviews from people who met her indicate that their readers not only read, but, having tested their souls with the tuning fork, believed every line of this work.
After all, the creator of the novel wrote as if he felt and perceived what was happening with all his being. This is not how graphomaniacs from literature write, boasting of a perfect but soulless style and flaunting sugary-juicy artistic descriptions. The writer was extremely frank; he revealed his soul to the reader. The parallels are obvious: the outcast Ravik and the outcast Remarque, the female actress Joan Madu and Marlene Dietrich.
This author, like no one else, conveyed the spirit of the time in the middle of the last century, with his frankness he practically changed the consciousness of the entire post-war Europe. His books were the best-selling books in the Old World for three decades.
A novel loved by many generations
It is no secret that, according to classical philosophy, we also lost generation, because we live in an era of change. Loneliness becomes our scourge. Much around is virtual, unsteady. Simple decency requires courage. Neo-globalism is destroying centuries-old foundations. Exposure to social cliches leads to the fact that extremely disoriented people cease to understand not only common sense in politics. Many, the worst thing, stop believing in love, replacing it with all sorts of surrogates.
What can help us get out of such an absurd state? Remarque gives us a hint, speaking of love as a torch flying into a terrible abyss surrounding reality and illuminating its entire depth.
Reading the novel “Arc de Triomphe” will help many people of present and future generations to determine their real life values. Feedback from our contemporaries, who are no longer accustomed to hearing the truth in the media and trusting words strangers testify: many of them keep the novel about an emigrant doctor in their libraries, re-reading it periodically. And it is so natural for people to thirst, like a sip of water in the heat, for words of consolation, words of hard-won truth.
Such a review of the work “Arc de Triomphe” is not alone. An adult who has his own personal experience life, having read Remarque's thoughts about love, about fate, about life, he discovers that what the writer said is in tune with the movements of his soul.
The plot and features of the translation of the novel
The plot in literature means the actual actions that the heroes of the work carry out. For the novel “Arc de Triomphe,” it is expressed in the author’s description of the stay in Paris of an illegal German emigrant, the brilliant surgeon Ludwig Fresenburg, who fled to a neutral country from persecution by the Nazis. He is hiding under the false name Ravik. The qualification allows the refugee to earn a living by secretly operating in a French clinic. Exhausted by troubles, he lives as if by inertia. Love transforms him. However, the woman who awakened this feeling in Ravika is an actress by nature. She is flighty in relationships and not created for family comfort.
Popular in the Old and New Worlds, Remarque's novel was first published in 1945 in the USA. The following year, German readers met him. In Russia, the book was published in translation by Schreiber and Kremnev (1978) and in 2014 by Rudnitsky. Experts say that Remarque's works are difficult to translate. The point is in a creative manner, extreme imagery of thoughts. The classic borrowed innovatively from colloquial speech expressive elements of stylistic expression.
Ravik, like Remarque, is a refugee from Nazi Germany
Remarque wrote the novel “Arc de Triomphe” about himself, about his inner world. Press reviews immediately after its publication boiled down to one thing: one of the greatest novels XX century. Classic German origin, like his hero Ravik, hated war. She took her mother and sister from Remarque, and her beloved girl from Ravik.
A former front-line soldier of the First World War, a future writer, miraculously survived after being wounded in battle. Doctors then determined his condition as hopeless. Mom Maria saved me. She arrived, took the 18-year-old hero home and went out and cured him. And the next year she died, because the mother’s heart could not withstand the shock she received. The future writer then changed his name from “Paul” to “Maria” in order to carry his mother’s name with him until the end of his days.
There is an analogy between the author and the hero and in social status. Before World War II, after the publication of the novel “On Western Front without change,” Remarque was a famous and recognizable European writer. According to the novel, his hero Ravik also succeeded; he was considered one of the leading surgeons in Germany.
Under the fascist regime, the writer was subjected to real persecution; his younger sister Elfriede Scholz was guillotined for anti-Hitler statements. The elder sister was sent a bill for the unfortunate woman’s stay in prison with a demand to urgently pay... At the same time, it was said that her brother Henri had disappeared for the time being, but that he would ultimately suffer the same fate as Elfrida.
According to the plot of the novel, Ravik saved two compatriots doomed to death, for which he was locked up in the dungeons of the Gestapo. To break the detainee, his fiancee Sibylla was also arrested, who was tortured and raped, and the girl committed suicide.
The atmosphere of pre-war France
Why is the novel called “Arc de Triomphe”? Reviews of the book from readers express different assumptions. What is the allegory here? After all, for France this building is a symbol of victory and rejoicing. Remarque's work is filled with tragedy.
Indeed, during the course of the novel, the arc is mentioned several times, namely at its special, plot-shaping moments. Is it only in these inclusions in the outline of the narrative that the link between the book’s title and Paris is hidden?
The writer talks about the capital of France, living and having fun madly, as if by inertia. There is already a premonition of a coming war in the air, but it is customary to remain silent about this. As the novel progresses, with just a few strokes, the artist-Remarque shows a multifaceted picture of the surrounding life.
The secondary characters are striking in their artistic perfection. Luxurious lady Kat Hegstrom, who is being eaten up from the inside by cancer. The boy Geno, who lost his leg, but is rejoicing because with the insurance benefits he can open a shop and live by trading. Girls with reduced social responsibility who are afraid of going to the hospital because the money they previously earned will be spent.
Ravik at the beginning of the novel. A man without a future
How to start a new life when everything inside is burned out? When you are in exile, and in your homeland there is tyranny and violence?
This question is answered in the novel “Arc de Triomphe” by Remarque. Reviews from readers who accepted his revelation express this conceptual idea of how to “believe in yourself,” to feel like “not a grain of sand in history, but a person.”
Remarque's hero secretly makes a living in France as a surgeon, which he performs brilliantly and talentedly. He is an illegal immigrant and could be arrested and deported back to Germany at any time. Ravik is depressed morally, he feels like a man without a future. His free time associated with Calvados and smoky restaurants.
And throughout the novel this man manages to believe in himself again, to rise above the crazy world in which he lives. Based on the difficult experience of his life, Remarque crystallized and formulated the conclusion that Man stronger than Fate. Having entered into battle with her, he is able to change her, often even when he is one step away from despair.
Parallel: Ravik’s love - Remarque’s love
The main character of the novel “Arc de Triomphe” suddenly embraces love. Reviews from readers about the feelings of Ravik and Joan are consonant with the author's: the suffering, persecuted doctor finally found his refuge, his home in an agitated loving heart another person. And this love revives his soul, incinerated by suffering and loss. Even though Joan, an actress by nature, is not faithful to him and is frivolous.
Many literature lovers agree that to understand many nuances true love You don’t have to go deep into the maxims of philosophers; just read Remarque. The thought of time, which is constantly dying, is worth a lot, and loving people continue to live forever.
Ravvik's Revenge
At the same time, the novel “Arc de Triomphe” poses difficult philosophical questions to the reader. Reviews of the book that concern them sometimes contain diametrically opposed views. Let's ask ourselves at least one of these questions: can there be a murder for good?
It would seem, no, under no circumstances! However, let’s touch on the outline of the author’s narrative. Gestapo man Haaki, interrogating the main character in the SS dungeons, arrested a person completely uninvolved in this case - his fiancée. By tormenting her, the fascist drove Sibylla to suicide. Undoubtedly, a lot of human blood was on Haaki's hands.
Exhausted Ravik, who illegally emigrated to France, longed for reprisals against the Gestapo executioner. And now it has happened. An officer of the German intelligence service carried out a secret mission in Paris and at the same time had fun with prostitutes. The main character of the novel noticed him and put his plan into action. At the same time, the avenger feels that he has performed a sacred act, realizing that by killing the scoundrel, he saved dozens of people from death in the future.
The book is intense
Many readers found reading the novel “Arc de Triomphe” difficult. Reviews of the work from readers who have not previously encountered serious literature sometimes boil down to the idea that this book is special. Let us clarify this idea: the novel is so filled with various vividly presented themes, conveys them so organically and expressively that it forces the reader to strain his mental strength.
Reading about Ravik’s suffering, it is impossible to be in a complacent mood. In Remarque’s lines there is only truth salty with tears, there is not a single gram of the notorious and now glorified by neoliberal scribblers cloying positivism. The writer does not recognize halftones: “If it’s Calvados, then it’s double, if it’s sadness, then it’s sadness in everything...”
Indeed, reviews of Remarque’s Arc de Triomphe often indicate that most readers were able to read the book not immediately, but gradually, chapter by chapter. And this is the right way. After all, just understanding Remarque’s quotes about love takes time. And here for a thinking person there is no place for speed reading.
Remarque's incredible syllable
It was unusual even for himself to write the novel “Arc de Triomphe” by Remarque. Reviews from fans of this book mention that even small, everyday details of the work are transformed by the master’s pen into real masterpieces. Quite unexpectedly, in the course of the main presentation, the author suddenly brings forth thoughts that are striking in their depth. For example, when faced with the philosophical quote: “Without love... a person is a dead man on vacation,” many readers paused to comprehend this separate thought, divorced from the main context of the action.
Erich Remarque (“Arc de Triomphe”) filled his novel with bright, colorful and sharp dialogues. Reviews from readers compare their accuracy according to the phrase of Daniil Kharms: “If you throw them at a window, the glass will break!” In particular, they succinctly and clearly speak about religion and faith, about the just desire not to show off one’s thoughts. There are countless such dialogues in the novel. Indeed, you can sit down to read with a pen, writing down the fragments you like.
The book is a refrain of time
Remarque wrote his novel (“Arc de Triomphe”) not only about the fate of the German outcast emigrant. Reviews of the book in the press indicate that the book conveyed the spirit of a timeless era. Formally, the action takes place in a peaceful country, but it is felt that the formidable sword of war is already hovering over this deliberately carefree Parisian life.
The writer managed to feel and convey to readers both the unsteady and fatal spirit of this time, to talk about people who “had the courage to live on the edge of the abyss.”
The book Arc de Triomphe by Erich Maria Remarque simply cannot leave the reader indifferent. It belongs to those works that, when read, certainly touch the human soul. Perhaps that is why, after a while, there is a need to re-read the work.
Conclusion: why - “Arc de Triomphe”?
It’s not for nothing that the novel ends with a quote that “hidden in the darkness is a triumphal arch.” Reviews from true connoisseurs of Remarque's work contain a guess about the idea of Remarque's work.
Thinking objectively, there is no triumph in war, there are only victims. Bloodshed destroys people's lives and destinies. Therefore, in a truly honest narrative about her, the theme of heroism is invariably eclipsed by the theme of suffering. The arch hiding in the darkness symbolizes the approach of trouble, a global war.
However, the horror of her does not fetter Ravik; he boldly looks fate in the eye and is firm in his decisions. Love transformed the German surgeon; his inner core was again revived. He, full of human dignity, is now ready to go to the test. And this is the real triumph of an unbroken, reborn man.