From the author of the masterpiece All Quiet on the Western Front, The Black Obelisk is a classic novel of the troubling aftermath of World War I in Germany. A hardened young veteran from the First World War, Ludwig now works for a monument company, selling stone markers to the survivors of deceased loved ones. Though ambivalent about his job, he suspects there's more to life than earning a living off other people's misfortunes. A self-professed poet, Ludwig soon senses a growing change in his fatherland, a brutality ...
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From the author of the masterpiece All Quiet on the Western Front, The Black Obelisk is a classic novel of the troubling aftermath of World War I in Germany. A hardened young veteran from the First World War, Ludwig now works for a monument company, selling stone markers to the survivors of deceased loved ones. Though ambivalent about his job, he suspects there's more to life than earning a living off other people's misfortunes. A self-professed poet, Ludwig soon senses a growing change in his fatherland, a brutality brought upon it by inflation. When he falls in love with the beautiful but troubled Isabelle, Ludwig hopes he has found a soul who will offer him salvation--who will free him from his obsession to find meaning in a war-torn world. But there comes a time in every man's life when he must choose to live--despite the prevailing thread of history horrifically repeating itself. "The world has a great writer in Erich Maria Remarque. He is a craftsman of unquestionably first rank, a man who can bend language to his will. Whether he writes of men or of inanimate nature, his touch is sensitive, firm, and sure."-- The New York Times Book Review
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Seller's Description:
Near Fine. Fiction. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Like New! Clean and tight. No creases along the spine. Appears unread. Very little shelfwear. Label on the inside of the front cover. First printing of this reissue.
Remarque probably didn't write these as a trilogy, but that is what they are. They begin with his most famous novel, "All Quiet on the Western Front," continue with "The Road Back," and conclude with this incredbilty fun and interesting book.
The first is about soldiers in World War I. The second is about those soldiers trying to adjust to civilian life after the war, and this, the third is about them between that war and the rise of Hitler. Wonderful stories, truly wonderful.
He is an excellent story-teller anyway, and this, the last in the trilogy, proves that. If you do not understand inflation, read this book. You will get an idea. If you like humor, read this book. You will love it. Oh, and even most interesting is the fact that the heroine is in an insane asylum. The way he portrays her in her different personalities is suspenseful and makes you wonder where he came up with them. I have the book in paperback, but am ordering it in hardback.
TomCZorn
Aug 26, 2010
A Warning from the Past
Read a well-written book about life in Germany in thye 1920s, when inflation was so severe that a 50,000,000 Reichsmark note was worth about 23 cents. Remarque tells, very gently, how this laid the groundwork for a dictator to impose his will on the country.
