Three Comrades

by Erich Maria Remarque

Book Overview

From the acclaimed author of All Quiet on the Western Front comes Three Comrades, a harrowing novel that follows a group of friends as they cope with upheaval in Germany between World Wars I and II. The year is 1928. On the outskirts of a large German city, three young men are earning a thin and precarious living. Fully armed young storm troopers swagger in the streets. Restlessness, poverty, and violence are everywhere. For these three, friendship...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0449912426
• ISBN13: 9780449912423
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Random House Trade
• Length: 496 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

All novels are similar, but each one is unique

Three Comrades was the first book by Remarque that I've read and still I think of it as of his best novel. Under the impression from this one, without any delay I read 3 or 4 of his novels in a row and got a little dissapointed, as (it was already mentioned) many of his works have a lot in common. Later on I understood that one has to make intervals reading books by one author no matter how much you liked the first or the second one. That way the reader can appriciate the original writer's style, cherish and remember it. I don't remember any other book that made greater impression on me by depicting true human feelings and emotions. Read it and you will be amazed to know that your own heart loves, misses, suffers, hates and cries together with "Three Comrades"' characters.

Words cannot do it justice.

It is a crime that Remarque is only widely known for All Quiet on the Western Front in America. Not that that's a bad book or anything; it's one of the best books of all time. I like it very much indeed. But the fact is that Remarque never wrote a bad book, and that he wrote a great many books after Western Front. All of them are worth reading. Black Obelisk, A Life for a Life, A Time to Live and a Time to Die, Shadows in Paradise...all of them. But above all, there is Three Comrades, very much my favourite book of all time. Have you read Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises? What about Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby? Those are always the books one names when talking about literature of the Lost Generation. And they're great books too. But why isn't Three Comrades ever mentioned? It is a mystery!Three Comrades takes place in Weimar Germany. We see hints of Hitler's rise to power. They help us picture said rise, even if they don't explain it. But the book isn't about politics - like The Sun Also Rises, it's about genuine people caught trying to find love, grace and dignity in a world increasingly devoid of all three. And they succeed, finding strength in love and friendship. And that's what this book is about - human friendship and human love, the two most important and beautiful aspects of life. The works of Remarque always feature an odd dichotomy - a sort of clash between a Romantic, highly idealized worldview and grim, bland, prosaic reality. It is this that makes his works so great - the promise that it's possible for the former to exist surrounded by the latter, hard though it may be. It is this that also allows Remarque to see the humanity present in any individual, no matter how debased or outcast (witness his attitude towards the prostitutes). It is this that makes Pat and Robert's romance the sweetest and most believable one in any book I've read. It is this, all in all, that made me genuinely sad, not only at the ending, but at having to leave the world and the people Remarque created. And no higher praise is possible.My words can't do it any justice, so I won't go into further detail; you'll just have to read it. Hey, Mr. Publisher: how about releasing a new edition that's priced a little lower so people will actually want to buy a great book? Is that so much to ask?

One of the most humane books you will ever read!

As good as it gets! You will never be able to forget this book, cause it makes you remember what being human is all about. Read it.

A must-read novel!

In his best (in my opinion) novel, Remarque tells an unforgettable story of love, friendship and loyalty in the chaotic post-WWI Germany. When the whole world seems to be going mad and there is nothing anymore to live for, one man realizes that love and friends are the only two things in this world worth living for, and dying for. This book is a tale of finding something so pure in the times when it seems that all the purity of this world has been wiped out from people's lives by the war, poverty, greed, jealosy, and constant nightmares. Staying true to one's feelings, not giving in and not giving up, remaining loyal at any cost and having the spirit to go on, are the main themes of this book.

Brings to life Weimar Germany.

This is perhaps the most poignant of Remarque's novels. Much like Remarque's other works, it is told from a first person point of view, adding a powerful realism and humanity to the story. Three Comrades follows the story of three World War I veterans and how they survive in Weimar Germany. Robert, Otto, and Gottfried, own an auto repair shop and constantly have to scrape about for funds to stay in business. When Robert meets a mysterious young woman the story catapults into a love story as only Remarque can tell one--with great sympathy and insight into the tragic side of human existence. Using parts of his own life as a template, Remarque masterfully tells the story of Robert and Pat causing the reader to laugh and to cry with the rise and fall of the characters' dreams. Written in 1937, this book is not only a wonderful story, but an insight into the conditions that spawned the rise of the Third Reich. If you like this novel, then definitly read the Black Obelisk.