What is the meaning of the novel Arc de Triomphe. Analysis of the novel "Arc de Triomphe"

“Arc de Triomphe”, an arch from the word “triumph”, winners must pass through it. Napoleon, for whom this arch was built in Paris, passed through it, only forward with his feet - the irony of fate, the grin of death...
- you have a photo of the Arc de Triomphe -
- ok, but I'm going to Berlin first -
In general, you can wait for a while from this friend of mine, the search engine helped me much more quickly, you know what “researcher’s itching” is?, only here and now - there’s no other way.
The main question for me was: “why did Remarque call his work “Arc de Triomphe?” novels, whoever read the litter...
Remarque is living human emotions, simple and therefore real, without any superheroes or other entourage, in my opinion he was honest with his reader, he wrote about what he probably experienced (I am aware of his biography) or almost experienced, although for You don’t have to worry about the genius that he undoubtedly was - you can feel “from a distance” and color the “picture” with your emotions and experiences.
So the year of creation, the reasons for creation, the purpose... the purpose of such structures is obvious - to show the greatness and triumph of the winner, that is, massive, grandiose and monumental, I would say indestructible, nothing should raise doubts about the invincibility of the triumphant - there is only one, he is the emperor , only he is the leader, only he is right... Such structures should suppress the common man in the street, the arch should hang and “crush” with its monolith, suppress the ability to resist, exclude compromise...
Dimensions: height 49.51 m, width 44.82 m, depth (to be honest, I couldn’t find it, but somewhere half the width), i.e. let's take 20-22 meters, located on a hill on Star Square (12 streets converge on the square) Massive? Monumental? Suppresses? 49.51x44.82x20-26.8x20x20 = about 34 thousand cubic meters, with an average stone density (let’s take sandstone) of 0.8 t/cubic meters. we get a mass of about 22 thousand tons... at an altitude of 45 meters... Yes, such a mass will overwhelm - a “chest of drawers” ​​of this size cannot but overwhelm... What other task does this building have...? Of course, to admire those who cannot be suppressed - sculptures, bas-reliefs, a multi-level attic, portraits of Napoleon's officers inside... For me, they look lonely against the backdrop of a military chopped and strictly "chest of drawers"... Ah, the French))) always try to decorate and make everything sophisticated... My opinion is that the architectural delights here are not at all admirable... Well, that’s subjective...
So to Remarque... The hero of the novel is a Surgeon, with a capital letter of this word, a professional without emotions... Or almost without emotions, a man who lives with one goal - revenge, he lost everything: homeland, family, love, he went through hell... He has nothing to lose, the only thing that can scare him (if such people can be scared at all) is that he may not have time to take revenge... Against the backdrop of Paris - a city where it is not necessary to be happy (yes, I saw a picture here), I don’t know who and how, and the hero found his happiness, as hopeless as his fate - the singer is sick... Paris is waiting for war, no one believes in the inevitable, although many are already fleeing... Due to martial law, the illumination is turned off at night and the arch appears to our hero in the dark... Hiding all its beauty in the shadows... Seeming him as a monolith that is overwhelming, ruthless, devouring hope... In my opinion, Remarque chose this name for a reason... This arch is its meaninglessness with from the point of view of a professional (the main character), dealing with the real, living, who knows the value of life, and not with surrounding wrappers, he sees the stupidity and meaninglessness of its creation - an insane amount of resources, labor of sweat and blood for the sake of passing under this pile of stone an ambitious person, a person (in In the case of Remarque, this is Hitler) who breaks other people's destinies, reeling lives into the millstones of his ambitions, redrawing borders, depriving ordinary people of ordinary happiness, not giving a damn about the lives of children, women and the elderly... Not giving a damn about the lives of his compatriots who are trying to eradicate nations, without any special for that reason... For the sake of satisfying some passions only understandable to them... The uselessness of this structure is obvious - it is just a symbol of someone’s greatness... And this majesty was carried under the arch feet first... symbolically) but now, about the name - the triumphal arch is a symbol of the collapse of a common man, a man who lost everything and found even more... Yes, hopelessly, and incredibly, but he found, he achieved this crazy, strange happiness, this all-consuming love... With the smell of Calvados.. The Arc de Triomphe is an altar on which human lives are thrown - a symbol of victory... I would knock down all the decorations and paint this arch black... Victory in war is never beautiful, victory in war is always scary... This grief, hardship, suffering, death...
But, no matter how I voice my desires... There are many triumphal arches... They were and will be... There will always be a few who will rule and sacrifice millions who will pass under these arches... So let them be carried there feet first...

History of writing

Erich Maria Remarque began writing the novel Arc de Triomphe in 1938. At the same time, work was underway on other books and their film adaptations.

At the same time, Remarque moved to New York. In America, the writer does not feel very comfortable, despite his success in society and the attention of the most beautiful and famous women. He is irritated by the ostentatious tinsel of Hollywood and the exaggerated vanity of American stars. In addition, the local community of emigrants, led by Thomas Mann, does not like him.

Work on the novel has been going on for several years. Remarque is trying to obtain US citizenship. He is received in Washington and moves in theater and film circles.

At this time, in Germany, the Nazis execute Erich's sister, Elfriede Remarque (Scholtz).

The death of his sister so shocks the writer that immediately after finishing Arc de Triomphe, he begins writing a novel about the concentration camp, which he dedicates to the memory of Elfrida.

The novel began to be published in the magazine Kolyes in 1945. Literally immediately after the release of the first issue in Germany, Remarque's stepmother passed away, committing suicide.

Soon, “The Arc de Triomphe” was published in book form, published by the New York publishing house Appleton-Century. The novel was published in German in May 1946 in Zurich. Two years later, Arc de Triomphe will be filmed, and soon after the film's release, Remarque decides to return to Europe.

Plot

The novel takes place in 1939 in Paris. At the center of the story is a talented German surgeon who fled to France from Nazism. Forced to live illegally, without the right to work and without hope for tomorrow, Dr. Ravik operates on people instead of French surgeons, hides from the police, but cannot hide from the love that suddenly appeared in his life.

This unexpected love has no future, but does that really matter? Ravic is not only 15 nominal years older than Joan, he is a lifetime older than her. The heroes quarrel and reconcile again, but fate resolves everything with a simple and strong point: a bullet from a jealous admirer ends Joan’s life.

Reviews

"Arc de Triomphe" is one of Remarque's most famous novels. The novel has a lot of fans for whom this bright book has literally become a reference book.

However, opinions are never clear-cut. Some critics noted the excessive pessimism of the work, but where would optimism come from for an illegal emigrant without a future on the eve of the great war?

The general opinion of readers and critics can be expressed in a short phrase: the novel “Arc de Triomphe” deserves to be included in the list of the best books of the twentieth century.

Quotes

“Love is not tarnished by friendship. The end is the end."

“No person can become more alien than the one you loved in the past.”

“Women should either be idolized or abandoned. Everything else is a lie."

“Whoever looks back too often can easily stumble and fall.”

“A woman grows wiser from love, but a man loses his head.”

“Repentance is the most useless thing in the world. Nothing can be returned. Nothing can be fixed. Otherwise we would all be saints. Life didn't mean to make us perfect. He who is perfect belongs in a museum.”

“Sometimes it’s easier to sleep with a man than to call him by name.”

“You can protect yourself from insult, but you cannot protect yourself from compassion.”

“There are no coincidences only in good literature, but in life they happen at every step, and, moreover, they are stupid.”

"Tolerance is the daughter of doubt."

“Cynics have the easiest character, idealists have the most intolerable character.”

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ERICH MARIA REMARQUE "THE ARCH OF TRIUMPH"

Remarque was born into a poor family in the province of Lower Saxony. His family roots were French.

Erich Maria Remarque is one of the most famous German writers of the 20th century. Mostly he wrote novels of the war and post-war years. In total, he wrote 15 novels, two of them were published posthumously. Quotes by Erich Remarque are widely known and attract with their accuracy and simplicity. Erich Maria Remarque is a pseudonym. Present - Erich Paul Remarque (in honor of his deceased mother). The writer brought with him the concept of “lost generation” into literature. This is a group of “angry young people” who went through the horrors of the First World War (and saw the post-war world not at all as it was seen from the trenches) and wrote their first books, which so shocked the Western public. Such writers, along with Remarque, included Richard Aldington and Ernest Hemingway.

For a long time, Remarque suffered from an aneurysm and after many months of treatment, the great writer died in 1970 at the age of 72.

"Arc de Triomphe" is one of Remarque's most famous novels. Remarque wrote the novel in 1945 under the impression of his relationship with Marlene Dietrich. They had a short but very bright love with him - it was preserved in the correspondence between the writer and the actress.

Work on the novel has been going on for several years. The novel began to be published in the magazine Kolyes in 1945. Soon, a year later, the novel “Arc de Triomphe” was published in book form. The novel was translated into Russian and first published in the USSR in the journal “Foreign Literature”, 1959.

Film adaptations

Arc de Triomphe is a 1948 film starring Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer;

Arc de Triomphe is a 1985 film. Starring Anthony Hopkins and Lesley-Anne Down.

“TA” is a poignant story of love against all odds, bringing pain, but also giving endless joy.

In it, Remarque addressed the topical problem of humanity in Europe, which manifests itself or, on the contrary, disappears in people against the backdrop of war.

The setting of the novel is Paris on the eve of World War II.

The main character of the novel - a refugee from Germany, without documents, hiding from both the French and the Nazis, in the past one of the country's leading surgeons, bearing the fictitious surname Ravich (real name is Ludwig Fraunseberg, changed names many times) - is a typical example of a person with great letters. Disobedience to fascist laws led Ravich to the dungeons of the Gestapo (political police of the Third Reich), where he experienced cruel torture, the death of his beloved girl Sibylla, and deportation to a concentration camp because of the Gestapo man Haacke. Escaping the concentration camp gave him hope. He has lived in France for 5 years. “Arc de Triomphe” shows us the last year of the doctor’s peaceful, Parisian life, which began with his acquaintance with Joan Madu (an Italian actress and singer, surrounded by fans, hot-tempered, beautiful and irresistible).

All the actions of the novel take place at night or late in the evening. The gloomy streets of Paris create an atmosphere of tired loneliness and numbness.

A meeting with a desperate woman on a bridge immediately defines the main trait of the hero - his love for humanity. Despite his fatigue, disappointment, alienation from everything and everyone, and the awareness that it is impossible to help everyone, Ravich, step by step, keeps the stranger near him, helping her survive not only the most terrible night of her life, but also resolve problems - with her deceased lover, moving to another hotel, looking for a new job. In their first meeting, it is described how unhappy she was (she smoked greedily, staggered, looked through somewhere) He understands that p. 11. Joan Madu quietly enters the doctor’s life. At first, Ravich does not attach importance to the night spent with her: he does not see Joan’s face, does not remember her appearance - for him she is just a woman with whom he can satisfy his physical needs, in order to forget for a while, to get “a piece of someone else’s life”, filling his joyless the existence of “drops of alien heat.” She is a very strange, fickle, mentally unstable woman.

The love between the heroes begins with physical attraction, but is born under the influence of internal spiritual kinship. Joan, like Ravich, is rootless. She has no home, no friends, no attachments. Her life begins from the moment she falls in love. Like Ravić, Joan acutely feels her loneliness and all the meaninglessness of life filled with simple physical actions - for example (page 31 about undressing quote)

But now, it seems that there is hope for the best. Love. Will she save the hero from the darkness of loneliness? But it's all in vain. Ravich's soul, like gloomy Paris, became numb and frozen. These utopian relationships only bring new suffering to the heroes. Constant quarrels devastate Ravich and Joan Madu. The love plot does not develop. The author simply shows the feelings and experiences of the characters. The break in the relationship between the main characters is long and painful. Despite the decision not to share his beloved woman with another, the doctor can neither refuse her closeness nor his love, which forces him to run to Joan’s aid at any time of the day or night. But soon death approaches Ravich again. Loss of Joan. (You can tell how she dies). The death of the actress is symbolic. It coincides with the start date of the new war. The world seems cruel, mired in the darkness of madness and loneliness. Only in the face of death does Ravich realize how strong his attachment was to this woman, who was for him something much more than just love - Joan became life for the doctor. (p. 627)

At the same time, from the very beginning, Ravich knows that sooner or later his relationship with Joan will end. As long as they met as single, independent people, everything between them was simple and clear. As soon as Joan wanted stability in the form of her home and position in society, Ravik realized that she would leave him.

One of the symbolic images is rain, which is a way of life in the novel. It rains during the nights Ravić spends with Joan; During the rain, he realizes that love has brought him back to life.

As I said, all the actions of the novel take place at night or late in the evening. Another symbolic image of the novel - night - is associated with two borderline constants: love (acquaintance and meetings of the main characters take place in the dark) and key murder (Ravich kills Haake before dawn: The main character perceives this as something natural. Ravich destroys not a man, but a beast. He does not take life, but gives it to dozens, if not hundreds, of innocent people whose existence is threatened by people like Haake. Ravich kills Haake shortly before the declaration of war. The historical setting provides additional exculpatory background for the actions of the main character)

You can often hear that Erich M. Remarque's novel Arc de Triomphe is recognized as one of the most tragic works of the twentieth century. That's a moot point. After all, all the art of the crazy century, which survived two large-scale and bloody wars at once, is literally saturated with pain, a feeling of loneliness and doom.

The image of the Arc de Triomphe is symbolic. It is an expression of the freedom and independence of France and all humanity in general. Built for the ceremonial passage of Napoleon and his army through it after his campaign against Russia, it survived his inglorious return. The author is sure that the anti-fascist struggle concerns everyone, so that the universal spark of love, capable of warming people, does not go out.

The famous writer uses many phrases in his work that have become catchphrases. Among them are discussions about love, from which, according to Remarque, women become smarter, and men lose their heads, and without it everyone is just dead men on vacation. The proof of love is not explanations, but actions. About money that should not be in the hands of a wife, about the cheapness of everything that is settled with its help. The author advises to take everything lightly, because few things in the world remain important for long. Remarque also subtly noticed that the trouble and charm of a person lies in the greatness of his plans and the weakness of their implementation.

I was also delighted with some phrases, with the so-called “deliciousness” of the language. I'd love to read this, maybe it will give you some ideas. Page 47, p. 98, p. 125, Ravich’s first lesson - 138. dispute between Morozov and Ravich (the world of fakes and canned food p. 209), Contradictions of man p. 365

This book leaves a heavy “metallic” residue on my soul. The novel is filled with beautiful and long-lost phrases, the feelings of the characters are conveyed with fullness and depth. The author managed to describe them in such a way that you begin to feel like one or another character, completely merge with him, as if you were reading about yourself in a past life. But it is also frightening at the same time.. While reading, all this depresses, suppresses and upsets, but at the same time it does not allow you to tear yourself away, immerses you headlong and makes you forget about everyday troubles. But for many, I think, this kind of work can lead to depression and long, languid thoughts. Therefore, if you are in a bad mood, you are waiting for a beautiful love story and want to get inspired, then it is better to put this book aside until more appropriate times.

The book by Erich M. Remarque makes an indelible impression, leaving in the reader the desire to change the world in which there should be no place for war! Remarque wanted to show, emphasize, highlight that people do not need war, it is senseless, unnatural, inhumane, this should not happen again. remarque triumphal novel hero

Reading it (and rereading, of course) makes us a little wiser and a little brighter through sadness. And it makes you think about the fragility of the wonderful things and feelings that make our lives worth living.

But for the sake of fairness, I must note that the same image of Joan made me think a little about my behavior. The story about the wave and the cliff was especially brainwashing. It seems to me that all women suffer from this. We undermine, “saw”, and then cry when the rock crumbles into small pieces. An illustrative parable...

Once upon a time there was a wave that loved a cliff, somewhere in the sea, say, in the Bay of Capri. She showered him with foam and splashes, kissed him day and night, and wrapped her white arms around him. She sighed and cried and begged: “Come to me, O rock!” She loved him, doused him with foam and slowly undermined him. And then one fine day the cliff, already completely undermined, swayed and collapsed into her arms.

And suddenly the cliff was gone. No one to play with, no one to love, no one to mourn. The cliff sank in the wave. Now it was just a stone fragment on the bottom of the sea. The wave was disappointed, it seemed to her that she had been deceived, and soon she found herself another cliff.

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"Triumphal Arch"- a novel by German writer Erich Maria Remarque, first published in the United States in 1945; the German edition was published in 1946. There were many assumptions that the prototype of the main character Joan was Marlene Dietrich, with whom Remarque spent time in Paris before the outbreak of World War II.

Plot

The action takes place in France in 1938-39. Ravik, a World War I veteran, is a stateless German surgeon who lives in Paris and operates on patients instead of less qualified French surgeons. He is one of many emigrants without passports or any other documents, constantly under threat of arrest and deportation from the country. At home, he helped two innocent people escape, after which he survived torture in the Gestapo and the death of his girlfriend in dungeons; he moved to France, since it is easiest for emigrants to live there.

He accidentally meets the Italian actress Joan Madu and begins an affair with her; the lovers either quarrel or make up. Ravik manages to lure into the forest and kill his main tormentor, Gestapo man Haake, promising him a visit to an elite brothel. At the end of the novel, war begins, Joan is mortally wounded by a bullet from a jealous actor, Ravik refuses to hide under the guise of a Russian emigrant and calmly surrenders to the police, who staged a raid in the hotel where he lives.

Film adaptations

• Arc de Triomphe is a 1948 film starring Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer;
• "Arc de Triomphe" - 1985 film. Starring Anthony Hopkins and Lesley-Anne Down.

Selected Quotes

• Whatever happens to you, don’t take anything to heart. Few things in the world remain important for long.
• It's easier to sleep with a man than to call him by name.
• What can one person give to another except a drop of warmth? And what could be more than this?
• Without love, a person is nothing more than a dead man on vacation, a few dates, a name that doesn’t say anything.
• A woman becomes wiser from love, but a man loses his head.
• Love is not tarnished by friendship. The end is the end.
• No person can become more of a stranger than someone you loved in the past.
• The easiest character among cynics is the most intolerable among idealists.
• Only those who have lost everything worth living for are free.
• It's strange that a person can die... when he loves...
• Love does not tolerate explanations. She needs actions.
• A man is not a man if his wife manages the money.
• Anything that can be settled with money is cheap.
• You will say that it was I who abandoned you. And you will give many arguments... And you yourself will believe in them... And you will be right before the most ancient court of the world - nature.
• Nothing awaits a person anywhere; one must always bring everything with oneself.
• A lonely person cannot be abandoned. Oh this pitiful human need for a grain of warmth. And is there really anything other than loneliness?
• Loneliness is the eternal refrain of life. It is no worse or better than much else. They just talk about him too much. A person is always and never alone.
• Man is great in his plans, but weak in their implementation. This is his problem, and his charm.
• Anyone who looks back too often can easily trip and fall.
• Words spoken in the dark, how can they be true? Real words require bright light.
• Morality is an invention of the weak, a plaintive moan of losers.
• Waiting eats away at the soul.
• At night a person is always different than during the day.
• How pitiful truths become when you speak them out loud.
• Love is not the right word. It says too little. It is like a drop in a river, a leaf on a tree. All this is much more...
• A strange feeling of emptiness caused by every “after”.
• The only thing that is cheap is what you wear without feeling confident.
• And here is love. An eternal miracle. It not only illuminates the gray sky of everyday life with a rainbow of dreams, it can also surround a pile of crap with a romantic aura... A miracle and a monstrous mockery.
• If you want to do something, never ask about the consequences. Otherwise you won't be able to do anything.
• Happiness begins with you and ends with you.
• One of the two always leaves the other. The whole question is who will get ahead of whom.
• Those who are truly missing remain silent.
• The desire to contradict indicates a limited spirit.
• Only small things explain everything; significant actions explain nothing.
• The most incredible things almost always turn out to be the most logical.
• Only the simplest things do not disappoint. Happiness comes somehow very simply and is always much easier than you think.
• But man lives on nonsense, and not on the stale bread of facts.
• Longing for the person who has left us or has left us, as it were, decorates with a halo the one who comes later. And after loss, the new appears in a kind of romantic light. The old, sincere self-deception.
• Crime is a normal reaction of normal people to abnormal living conditions.

• In the novel, the main character describes how he saw the constellation Orion in the summer as a child.

“As a boy, one night I slept in a meadow. It was summer, not a cloud in the sky. Before falling asleep, I looked at Orion, it hung far on the horizon, above the forest. Then in the middle of the night I woke up and suddenly I saw Orion right above me. I remember this for the rest of my life."

Orion is considered the autumn-winter constellation in the Northern Hemisphere. However, it can really be observed from mid-August.

• The main character of the novel is mentioned several times and plays the role of an episodic character on the pages of another Remarque novel, Shadows in Paradise.

According to the plot of the novel, Ravik managed to escape from the French internment camp before the occupation of France and emigrated to the United States. He settled in Philadelphia, established contacts with local German emigrants, and hoped to continue his medical practice after passing the state exam. A few years later he passed the exam and continued to practice medicine in New York.

Notes

see also

Categories:

• Literary works in alphabetical order
• Books in alphabetical order
• Literature of Germany
• Novels of 1945
• Novels of Erich Maria Remarque

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

• Cats (genus)
• The Adventures of Captain Vrungel

See what "Arc de Triomphe (novel)" is in other dictionaries:

Arc de Triomphe (disambiguation)- Arc de Triomphe: The Arc de Triomphe is a memorial structure. Examples of such structures: Arc de Triomphe in Moscow. Red Gate in Moscow. Narva Gate in St. Petersburg. Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Arch on Place Carrousel in Paris... Wikipedia

Arc de Triomphe (Paris)- This term has other meanings, see Arc de Triomphe (meanings). Not to be confused with the triumphal arch on Place Carrousel Coordinates: 48°52′26″ N. w. 2°17′41″ E. d... Wikipedia

Arch and tomb of Galerius- Attraction Arch and Tomb of Galerius ... Wikipedia

Return (novel)- This term has other meanings, see Return. Return of Der Weg zurück Genre: novel

One of the most famous novels of the 20th century was first published in the last year of World War II. The writer began working on the book in the late thirties. What is Arc de Triomphe about? A summary of the novel is presented in today's article.

about the author

The writer was born in 1898. Remarque's hometown is Osnabrück. Already in his early years, Erich showed a love for literature. In his youth, he was interested in the works of such writers as Thomas Mann, Stefan Zweig, Fyodor Dostoevsky. In 1904, Remarque entered a church school. Five years later - to the teachers' seminary.

In 1925, the writer married Jutta Zambona, who became the prototype for the main character of the novel “Three Comrades.” The girl suffered from consumption for many years. This marriage lasted about four years. True, Remarque later married Jutta again. But this was already a fictitious marriage, which allowed the woman to leave Germany.

Remarque's works are permeated with hatred of fascists. In the early thirties, the writer was forced to leave his homeland and go to Switzerland. In Germany, his books were not only banned, but also publicly burned. The Nazis accompanied the execution of Remarque’s literary works with the slogan “No to the scribblers who betrayed the war heroes!”

In 1939, the writer left for the USA. He managed to obtain citizenship only eight years later. In the early fifties, he began an affair with the famous actress Paulette Goddard. In 1957, Remarque filed for a divorce from Jutta and married Charlie Chaplin's ex-wife. He spent the rest of his life in Switzerland, where he left in 1958. One of the most famous prose writers of the 20th century, a representative of the literature of the lost generation, passed away in 1970 in the Swiss city of Locarno.

From the history of writing

At the end of the thirties, it became increasingly difficult for Remarque to work in Germany. His books did not correspond to the official ideology. In addition, he changed the German spelling of his last name to French, which could not but cause a negative reaction from the authorities.

In 1939, the writer met Marlene Dietrich. Remarque began an affair with the famous actress. It is Dietrich who is the prototype of the main female character in the novel. Having learned only a brief summary of the Arc de Triomphe, the actress became angry. She didn’t like at all that the heroine of Remarque’s work was just an ordinary restaurant singer. Marlene Dietrich by that time was already a world-class star.

“Arc de Triomphe” Remarque: summary by chapter

Remarque's hero knew firsthand what fascism was. The reader learns about what Ravik experienced in Germany from memories. Key events from the biography of the surgeon of German origin are mentioned in the summary of “Arc de Triomphe”. Remarque created several storylines in his book. Which of them is the main one is a moot point. A summary of the book “Arc de Triomphe” is outlined below:

• Ravik's past.
• Joan.
• Ravik and Morozov.
• The fate of an emigrant.
• Arrest.
• Revenge.
• Death of Joan.
• War.

The action of the novel takes place at the beginning of the war in France. The main character is the escaped German surgeon Ravik, who secretly, without documents, lives in France. Possessing sufficient professional skills and many years of experience, he works replacing less qualified French doctors. By the will of fate, he had to leave his native land. He believed that in France it would be easier for him, and life would get better.

There were many refugees from Germany in Paris during these years. They left their homeland, tortured by the fascist regime and persecution. Many failed to avoid arrest after the start of the war. However, neither the summary of the novel “Triumphal Bright” nor the literary source will give an idea of ​​what happened to Ravik in the forties.

Ravik's past

Living in his homeland, he contributed to the escape of his friends, thereby saving them from execution. Ravik himself spent several weeks in the Gestapo. His lover was arrested along with him. Sibylla died. Ravik will never forgive the Gestapo for this death.

The book of the German writer can be disassembled into quotes. The summary of “Arc de Triomphe” does not allow us to appreciate the author’s skill. The plot of the novel is tragic, but its characters do not utter pathetic words. Ravik is cold and reserved. He seems to lack the ability to experience. But this impression is created only on the first pages of the novel “Arc de Triomphe”. To read a remark in a summary means to evaluate only the writer’s ability to create twisted, fascinating plots. After all, the works of this author are filled with subtle psychologism and laconic philosophical sayings.

Joan

In France, on an autumn night, the hero meets a woman in deep despair. They go to a place where they drink Calvados, then spend the night together. And only in the morning he finds out that her name is Joan Madu, and her situation is quite difficult.

She is an unemployed actress. Last evening, the man with whom I came to Paris died. The hero helps her organize the funeral.

Ravik and Morozov

In the summary of “Arc de Triomphe” by Erich Maria Remarque, it should be noted that the hero of this book is a refugee. It is worth saying that the emigrant theme is perhaps the main one in the novel. Everything that happens to Ravik is, in one way or another, connected with his past. The narrator told not only about the fate of the main character, but also about the fate of other emigrants. For example, Morozov, Ravik’s friend. This is quite a colorful character. Just for the sake of the witty dialogues between Morozov and Ravik, you should not limit yourself to a summary of “Arc de Triomphe” by E.M. Remark.

The fate of an emigrant

In a conversation with his colleague, Ravik reveals: he is an escaped emigrant and has no right to work and live in France. He has to live in a hotel, where documents and registration are not required, and most importantly, he has to hide his real name.

Indifference, constant tightening of living conditions, attempts to track down and expel them from the country are just individual strokes to the picture of society’s attitude towards illegal immigrants.

Arrest

The hero begins a love affair with Joan. He helped her with her work. Significant changes have occurred in Joan's appearance: now she is not a faceless, desperate woman, but a rather bright, attractive person.

Joan really wants normal, human relationships, in which there is no need to hide and constantly be in fear. On this basis, quarrels constantly occur between lovers. The real conflict among the heroes arises after the surgeon is arrested and sent to Switzerland. He stays there for about three months and returns to France again, where he soon breaks up with Joan. During this time, the woman managed to find someone else. As it turns out, she doesn’t know how to wait.

Chance meeting

Ravik meets Haake, a Gestapo employee, in France. By a happy accident, he does not recognize the former prisoner; on the contrary, he is glad that he finds a compatriot in the Parisian capital. The surgeon invites Haake to visit the famous brothel, but tricks him into taking him to the Bois de Boulogne. Having committed the murder, he takes the disfigured corpse to the Saint-Germain forest.

Revenge

Remarque devoted only a few pages to this storyline. Ravik, quite by chance, sees a man on a Parisian street who is responsible for the death of his beloved girl. It was Haacke who interrogated Sibylla. It was he who drove her to suicide. The girl hanged herself in her cell after another conversation with the investigator.

Ravik begins spying on his enemy. He is in an overexcited state. The doctor never thought that he would ever be lucky enough to meet this man. But in his thoughts he destroyed it more than once. Ravic kills a Gestapo officer. But this crime does not bring him any sense of relief.

Death of Joan

At the end of the novel, another shock awaited the hero. Another boyfriend shoots Joan. The surgeon tries to get the bullet out, but this only worsens her condition. They both understand that death is near and confess their love to each other. After which Ravik administers a lethal injection to Joan in order to ease her dying suffering.

Having lost everything, he does not resist the police. At the next arrest, he gives his name. France is occupied. Ravik understands what awaits him in Paris, captured by the Nazis. But he is no longer afraid of anything. Fear is inherent in those who have something to lose. This is the summary of “Arc de Triomphe” by Erich Remarque - a book about love, revenge, loneliness.

Main character

Ravik is a doctor, a professional in his field, who has no ambitions, no interests, no personal gain. All this happened before, in a past life. Remarque demonstrates to the reader a unique ability to focus on the main thing, to gather his will into a fist. The reader learns that Ravik has been dreaming of revenge for many years from a conversation with Morozov. When reading the first chapters, one gets the impression that Rermark’s hero is a devastated, indifferent person, incapable of feelings. But no, he knows how to love and hate.

Beloved woman

Ravik is obsessed with his love. But his relationship with Joan is doomed from the start. Could he be happy with the femme fatale? People like Joan are both goddesses and harlots. They live in greedy pursuit of sensual pleasures. Happiness with them is illusory, but emotions are overflowing.

The prototype of Joan, as already mentioned, is the film star Marlene Dietrich, and Ravika is Remarque himself. The painful love of the writer and actress lasted fifteen years. With his novel Arc de Triomphe, Remarque wanted to heal. The love story of Joan and Ravik is described so vividly and colorfully that their feelings can literally be understood and almost experienced while reading.

However, at the moment of meeting a woman who becomes the closest person to Ravik in cold but beautiful Paris, no miracle happens, the hard wheel of life does not stop its rotation. Lovers do not harbor hopes or illusions, and strangely enough, this deprives them of the inevitable poison of mutual grievances - love is initially affected by the bitterness of hopelessness, and nightly Calvados (the favorite drink of Remarque’s heroes) with cheap cigarettes does not particularly soften this taste. In addition, a new passion appears in Ravik’s life, consuming and burning him - a fateful meeting with a former Gestapo tormentor sets in motion completely different gears of the mental mechanism.

Remarque's incredible humor, not so much mocking as deep and wise, allowed the book to be filled with many amazing quotes. His deepest understanding of the mechanisms that move human souls makes one feel a little sad. “Arc de Triomphe” is a multifaceted book, populated with bright, unique images. All these amazingly convincing characters will live forever, thanks to the genius of the writer. Reading Remarque's novel makes readers wiser and brighter through the boundless sadness of the protagonist.