Remarque triumphal arch what the work is about. Triumphal Arch

Triumphal Arch

Reprinted with permission from The Estate of the Late Paulette Remarque and Mohrbooks AG Literary Agency and Synopsis.

© The Estate of the Late Paulette Remarque, 1945

© Translation. B. Kremnev, heirs, 2012

© Translation. I. Schreiber, heirs, 2012

© Russian edition AST Publishers, 2012

The woman walked obliquely across the bridge straight to Ravik. She walked quickly, but with some unsteady step. Ravik noticed her only when she was almost there. He saw a pale face with high cheekbones and wide-set eyes. This face was numb and looked like a mask, in the dim light of a lantern it seemed lifeless, and an expression of such glassy emptiness froze in his eyes that Ravik involuntarily became alert.

The woman walked so close that she almost hit him. He reached out and grabbed her by the elbow. She staggered and probably would have fallen if he had not restrained her.

Ravik tightly squeezed the woman's hand.

- Where are you going? he asked, hesitating slightly. The woman was staring at him.

- Let go! she whispered.

Ravic didn't answer. He still held her hand tightly.

- Let me go! What is this? The woman barely moved her lips.

It seemed to Ravik that she did not even see him. She looked through him, somewhere into the void of the night. Something just interfered with her, and she repeated the same thing:

- Let me go!

He immediately realized that she was not a prostitute and not drunk. He flexed his fingers slightly. She didn't even notice it, although she could have easily escaped if she wanted to.

Ravik waited a bit.

- Where are you, really? At night, alone, in Paris? he calmly asked again and let go of her hand.

The woman remained silent, but did not move. Once she stopped, she seemed unable to go any further.

Ravik leaned against the parapet of the bridge. He felt damp and porous stone under his hands.

- Isn't it there? He pointed down, where the Seine flowed restlessly in the greyish haze, running into the shadows of the Pont de Alma.

The woman didn't answer.

“Too early,” Ravik said. “Too early and too cold. November.

He pulled out a pack of cigarettes, then fumbled in his pocket for matches. There were only two of them on the box. Leaning slightly, he covered the flames with his palms against the light wind from the river.

Ravik straightened up and showed the pack:

- Algerian. Black tobacco. It is smoked by soldiers of the Foreign Legion. Perhaps too strong for you. No others.

The woman shook her head and took a cigarette. Ravik brought her a burning match. She took a few deep puffs. Ravik threw a match over the parapet. Like a small shooting star, the match flew through the darkness and went out when it reached the water.

A taxi pulled slowly onto the bridge. The chauffeur stopped the car, looked at them, waited a little, and then moved on, up the wet, glistening Avenue George Fifth in the dark.

Suddenly, Ravik felt how tired he was. He worked all day long and when he got home he couldn't sleep. Then he went outside - he wanted to drink. And now, in the dank dampness deep night he felt irresistibly tired.

Ravic looked at the woman. Why, exactly, did he stop her? Something was wrong with her, that was clear. But what does he care? You never know, he met women with whom something happened, especially at night, especially in Paris. Now it was indifferent to him, he wanted only one thing - to sleep.

“Go home,” Ravik said. What are you doing here at this time? Also, what good, do not get into trouble.

He turned up his collar, intending to leave. The woman looked at him with uncomprehending eyes.

– Home? she repeated.

Ravic shrugged.

- Home, to your apartment, to the hotel - anywhere. Do you want to join the police?

- To the hotel! Oh my God! the woman said.

Ravik stopped. Again, there is nowhere for anyone to go, he thought. This should have been foreseen. Always the same. At night they do not know where to go, and in the morning they disappear before you have time to wake up. In the morning they somehow know where to go. Eternal cheap despair - the despair of night darkness. It comes with darkness and disappears with it. He dropped the cigarette. Isn't he fed up with all this?

"Let's go somewhere, let's drink a glass of vodka," he said.

So the easiest way is to pay and leave, and then let her take care of herself.

The woman made a wrong move and stumbled. Ravik supported her again.

- Tired? - he asked.

- Don't know. Maybe.

So much so that you can't sleep?

She nodded.

- This happens. Let's go. I will accompany you.

They went up the Avenue Marceau. The woman leaned heavily on Ravik - she leaned as if she was afraid to fall every minute.

They crossed the Petr Serbsky Avenue. Beyond the crossroads of the Rue de Chaillot, in the distance, against the backdrop of a rainy sky, the unsteady and dark bulk of the Arc de Triomphe appeared.

Ravik pointed to the illuminated narrow entrance leading to a small cellar:

- Here ... There is something here.

It was the driver's tavern. Several taxi drivers and two prostitutes sat at a table. The drivers were playing cards. Prostitutes drank absinthe. They gave the woman a quick glance and turned away indifferently. One, older, yawned loudly, the other began lazily to tint her lips. In the back of the hall, a very young waiter, with the face of an angry rat, sprinkled sawdust on stone tiles and swept the floor. Ravik chose a table at the entrance. It was more convenient that way: it would be possible to leave sooner. He didn't even take off his coat.

- What will you drink? - he asked.

- Don't know. Doesn't matter.

“Two Calvados,” Ravik said to the waiter in a vest and shirt with rolled up sleeves. “And a pack of Chesterfield cigarettes.”

We only have French.

- Well. Then a pack of Laurent, green.

- No greens. Only blue.

Ravik looked at the waiter's hand, it had a tattoo of a naked woman walking through the clouds. Catching his eye, the waiter clenched his fist and tensed his muscles. The woman moved her stomach obscenely.

- So, blue, - said Ravik.

The waiter grinned.

“Perhaps there is still a pack of greens. And he walked away, shuffling his shoes.

Ravik looked after him.

“Red slippers,” he said, “and a belly dancer!” Looks like he served in the Turkish navy.

The woman put her hands on the table. It seemed like she would never pick them up again. The hands were well-groomed, but that didn't mean anything. However, they weren't that cool. Ravik noticed that the nail on the middle finger right hand, apparently, broke and was torn off, not filed. The lacquer came off in places.

The waiter brought glasses and a pack of cigarettes.

- Laurent, green. I did find one pack though.

- That's what I thought. Have you served in the Navy?

- No. At the circus.

- Better. - Ravik gave the woman a glass. - Here, have a drink. At night, Calvados is the most suitable. Or maybe you want some coffee?

- Drink in one gulp.

The woman nodded and drank. Ravik looked at her. An extinct face, pale and almost expressionless. Full but pale lips, their outlines seemed to have faded, and only the hair of a naturally golden color was very good. She wore a beret. And from under the cloak he could see a blue English suit, made by a good tailor. But the green stone in the ring was too big not to be fake.

- Another glass? Ravic asked.

The woman nodded.

He called the waiter.

“Two more Calvados. Just bigger glasses.

- And pour more?

“So two double Calvados.

- You guessed it.

Ravik decided to quickly drink his glass and leave. He was bored and very tired. In general, he knew how to patiently endure the vicissitudes of fate: he had forty years of restless and changeable life behind him. Situations like this were not new to him. He lived in Paris for several years, suffered from insomnia and often wandered around the city at night - involuntarily he had to see everything.

Remarque's book "Arc de Triomphe" was written by the author in the middle of the last century with such force and passion that it became a timeless work. It immerses us in the infinitely multifaceted world of the living, suffering noble man who became an outcast in his homeland and lives in a foreign land the day before global war.

He and his love, his talent, his inner world, as well as the fate of millions of other decent people, are trampled home country transformed into a soulless dictatorship. A person under such conditions becomes a toy of fate, a chip in the ocean of history.

We see the same today. Is the Arc de Triomphe written in the middle of the last century outdated? Reader reviews indicate otherwise. How many modern people who knew the war in Afghanistan, Chechnya and other armed conflicts, did not die, but broke down psychologically, could not socialize? How many of them were not saved from drunkenness and the abyss of unbelief by love, as happened with Ravik. Are they not 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, the book has been admired, on the cover of which it is written: Remarque, "Arc de Triomphe". The reviews of people who met her testify that their readers not only read, but, having checked their souls on a 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, female actress Joan Madu and Marlene Dietrich.

This author, like no one who conveyed the spirit of the times in the middle of the last century, practically changed the consciousness of all post-war Europe with his frankness. His books were the best-selling books in the Old World for three decades.

A novel loved by many generations

It's no secret that we, according to classical philosophy, also a lost generation, because we live in an era of change. Loneliness becomes our scourge. Much around is virtual, unsteady. Simple decency takes courage. Neo-globalism destroys age-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 tells us, speaking of love, as a torch flying into the terrible abyss of the surrounding reality and illuminating all its depth.

Reading the novel "Arc de Triomphe" will help many people of current and future generations to determine their true life values. Reviews of our contemporaries, who have lost the habit of hearing the truth in the media, trusting the words strangers testify: many of them keep a novel about an emigrant doctor in their libraries, periodically re-reading it. And it is so natural for people to crave, like a sip of water in the heat, words of consolation, words of truth through suffering.

A similar review of the work "Arc de Triomphe" is not alone. An adult who has personal experience life, having read Remarque's thoughts about love, about fate, about life, he discovers that what the writer said is consonant 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 characters 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, a brilliant surgeon Ludwig Fresenburg, who fled to a neutral country from Nazi persecution. He hides under the assumed name Ravik. The qualification allows the refugee to earn a living by operating clandestinely in a French clinic. Exhausted by troubles, he lives as if by inertia. Love transforms him. However, the woman who awakened this feeling in Ravik is an actress by nature. She is windy 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 United States. The following year, German readers met him. In Russia, the book was published in the translation of Schreiber and Kremnev (1978) and in 2014 - Rudnitsky. Experts say that Remarque's works are difficult to translate. The thing is creative manner, the ultimate imagery of thought. Classic innovatively borrowed from colloquial speech expressive elements of stylistic expression.

Ravik, like Remarque, is a refugee from Nazi Germany

About himself, about his inner world, Remarque wrote the novel "Arc de Triomphe". Press reviews immediately after its publication came down to one thing: one of greatest novels XX century. Classic German descent, like his hero Ravik, hated the war. She took her mother and sister from Remarque, and her beloved girlfriend from Ravik.

A former veteran of the First World War, a future writer, miraculously survived after being wounded in battle. Doctors then determined his condition as hopeless. Saved by mother Mary. She came, took the 18-year-old hero home and went out, cured. And the next year she herself died, because she could not stand it maternal heart received shock. Future Writer after that, he changed "Paul" to "Maria" in his name in order to carry the name of his mother with him until the end of his days.

There is an analogy between the author and the hero in social status. Before the Second World War, after the publication of the novel "On Western front no 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 her anti-Hitler remarks. The older sister was sent a bill for the unfortunate 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 he would eventually suffer the fate of 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 Sybil was also arrested, who was tortured and raped, and the girl killed herself.

Atmosphere of pre-war France

Why is the novel called "Arc de Triomphe"? Reviews of the book by readers express different assumptions. What is the allegory here? Indeed, for France, this building is a symbol of victory, rejoicing. The work of Remarque is filled with tragedy.

Indeed, in the course of the novel, the arch is mentioned several times, namely in its special, plot-forming moments. Is it only in these inclusions in the outline of the narrative that the binding of the book's title to Paris is hidden?

The writer tells about the capital of France, living and having fun madly, as if by inertia. There is already a premonition of the coming war in the air, but it is customary to remain silent about this. In the course of the novel, with just a few of his strokes, the Remarque artist shows multifaceted picture surrounding life.

The secondary characters amaze with their artistic perfection. Luxurious lady Kat Hegstrom, who is being eaten from the inside by cancer. Geno's boy, who lost his leg, but rejoices because the insurance allowance will be able to open a shop and live in trade. Girls with reduced social responsibility who are afraid to go to the hospital because the money they previously earned will be used up.

Ravik at the beginning of the novel. Man without a future

How to start new life when everything inside is burned out? When you are in exile, and arbitrariness and violence are happening in your homeland?

This question is answered in the novel "Arc de Triomphe" by Remarque. Feedback from readers who accepted his revelation expresses this conceptual idea, how to "believe in yourself", to feel yourself "not a grain of history, but a person."

The hero of Remarque secretly makes a living in France as a surgeon, which he performs brilliantly and talentedly. He is an illegal immigrant, and at any moment he can be arrested and deported back to Germany. Ravik is morally depressed, he feels like a man without a future. His free time associated with Calvados and smoky restaurants.

And over the course of the novel, this man manages to believe in himself again, to rise above the crazy world where 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 is Remarque's love

Suddenly embraces the love of the protagonist of the novel "Arc de Triomphe". Readers' comments 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 man. And this love revives his soul, incinerated by suffering and loss. Even though Joan, an actress by nature, is not faithful to him, frivolous.

Many lovers of literature agree that in order to understand many of the nuances true love you don’t have to delve into the maxims of philosophers, just read Remarque. Expensive is the thought of time, which dies continuously, and loving people continue to live forever.

Revenge of Ravvik

At the same time, the novel "Arc de Triomphe" poses difficult philosophical questions to the reader. Reviews of the book concerning them sometimes contain diametrically opposed views. Let us ask at least one of these questions: can there be a murder for good?

It would seem, no, by no means! However, let's touch the canvas of the author's narrative. The Gestapo officer Khaaki, interrogating the protagonist in the SS casemates, arrested a person completely uninvolved in this case - his bride. Taunting her, the fascist drove Sibylla to suicide. Undoubtedly, a lot of human blood was on the hands of Khaaki.

The exhausted Ravik, who illegally emigrated to France, longed for reprisals against the Gestapo executioner. And so it happened. A German intelligence officer was on a secret mission in Paris and at the same time had fun with prostitutes at his leisure. He was noticed main character novel 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 villain, he saved dozens of people from death in the future.

The book is full

Many readers had a hard time reading the novel "Arc de Triomphe". Reviews about the work of readers who have not come across serious literature until now sometimes come down to the idea that this book is special. Let us clarify this idea: the novel is so filled with various brightly presented themes, conveys them so organically and expressively that it makes the reader strain his mental strength.

Reading about the suffering of Ravik, 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 hacks of cloying positivism. The writer does not recognize halftones: "If Calvados - then double, if sadness - then sadness is in everything ...".

Indeed, often reviews of Remarque's Arc de Triomphe 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.

Incredible syllable Remarque

Unusually, even for himself, Remarque wrote the novel "Arc de Triomphe". Reviews of fans of this book mention that even the smallest ordinary details of the work are turned by the master's pen into real masterpieces. Quite unexpectedly, in the course of the main presentation, the author suddenly cites thoughts that amaze with their depth. For example, faced with philosophical quote: "Without love ... a person is a dead man on vacation" so many readers paused to comprehend this separate thought, torn off from the main context of the action.

Erich Remarque ("Arc de Triomphe") filled his novel with bright, colorful and sharp dialogues. Readers' reviews compare their accuracy according to the phrase of Daniil Kharms: "If you throw them out the window, the glass will break!". In particular, they succinctly and boldly speak about religion and faith, about a just desire not to put their thoughts on display. There are countless such dialogues in the novel. Indeed, you can sit down to read with a pen, writing out the fragments you like.

The book is the refrain of time

Not only about the fate of the German emigrant outcast wrote his novel Remarque ("Arc de Triomphe"). Reviews of the book by the press testify that the book conveyed the spirit of the era of timelessness. Formally, the action takes place in a peaceful country, but it is felt that the formidable sword of war is already hanging over this deliberately carefree Parisian life.

The writer managed to feel and convey to the readers at the same time the unsteady and fatal spirit of this time, to tell about people who "had the courage to live on the edge of the abyss."

The book by Erich Maria Remarque "Arc de Triomphe" simply cannot leave the reader indifferent. It refers to those works that, when read, will certainly affect the soul of a person. Perhaps that is why, after a while, there is a need to re-read the work.

Conclusion: why - "Arc de Triomphe"?

It is not in vain that the novel ends with a quote that “a triumphal arch hid in the darkness,” a novel. Reviews of true connoisseurs of Remarque's work contain a guess about the idea of ​​​​Remarque's work.

Thinking objectively, there is no triumph in war, only casualties. Bloodshed breaks lives and destinies of people. Therefore, in a really honest story about her, the theme of heroism is invariably overshadowed 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 into the eyes of fate and is firm in his decisions. Love transformed the German surgeon, the inner core was revived in him again. He, filled human dignity now ready to go to the test. And this is the real triumph of an unbroken, reborn man.

"A good end only happens when everything was bad before it. Much better bad end", - so says one of the heroes of the famous and especially revered in Russia German writer Erich Maria Remarque. Remarque's novels are a special look and philosophy, which many in turn "get sick", and then just as inevitably "cured". The period of searching for oneself for most readers of Remarque is replaced by a different, measured and orderly life.Is it possible to imagine Remarque's hero telling a bedtime story to his child, digging in the garden, preoccupied with an increase in salary or prospects for promotion?No - and perhaps for this we love them: they are outside the chains of everyday life and philistine routine, their values ​​are wise and uncomplicated, like life itself - bread, tobacco, a little money and always a friend nearby who you can rely on in any circumstances. Infinitely attractive in their sincere and old-fashioned quixoticism, Remarque's heroes keep loyalty to the noble moral principles and follow them in simple everyday situations: do not betray, do not lie, but respond to evil with blow for blow; they know the value of money, but they do not seek to translate everything into the language of commodity-money relations. I don’t want to put up with the idea that they have no future: Ravik will live to see the victory over the Nazis, Helen will write the most important letter in his life, Clerfe will win the next race, Lillian will once again run away from the sanatorium-monastery. And then we’ll see ...

"Arc de Triomphe" - plot

The action takes place in France in 1938-1939. 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 the threat of arrest and expulsion from the country. At home, he helped two innocent people escape, after which he survived torture by the Gestapo and the death of his girlfriend in the dungeons, he moved to France, since it is easiest for emigrants to live there.

He accidentally meets Italian actress Joan Madu begins an affair with her, the lovers either quarrel or reconcile. Ravik manages to lure into the forest and kill his main tormentor, the Gestapo Haake, promising him a visit to an elite brothel. At the end of the novel, a 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 raided the hotel where he lives.

Reviews

Triumphal Arch book reviews

Please register or login to leave a review. Registration will take no more than 15 seconds.

Anna M

It was nice to meet interesting love story!

My opinion is that the book "Arc de Triomphe" is more masculine prose, but girls should also read it) Remarque, for me personally, is one of the few authors who intelligibly presents life values, the bearer of the definition of philosophy. You can discover a lot for yourself and begin to appreciate not only love, loyalty, suffering, but also the fact that you are a person! At the moments of reading, I was overwhelmed with feelings of sadness, joy, delight, just a fountain of emotions) The book "Arc de Triomphe" literally flies before my eyes, in general, like life itself! Read, cry, learn to appreciate and love, parse into quotes, there are many such moments where you involuntarily smile!!! Happy reading!

Useful review?

/

1 / 0

Fanny

Like all books by Erich Remarque, Arc de Triomphe is very tragic and sad story. The story of the main characters cannot but excite, it is so sad, so sincere, real that it touches the heart, touches to the core, makes you think. Such a range of emotions was evoked in me by this wonderful book, which for me has become one of my favorites.

Loved the love line interesting characters whose characters are well developed. However, the story of their love is not the central event here. Rather, it was created as a background. Erich Remarque depicted a whole era - the pre-war time, when complete chaos reigned throughout the Earth, people lived in fear.

The action of the novel takes place in France in the beautiful city of Paris. But even all this beauty is overshadowed by the darkness that has engulfed the whole world.

Admire the symbolism of the book, the presence deep quotes, a beautiful syllable.

I didn't find a single flaw in this book, it's perfect from start to finish!

Useful review?

/

One of famous novels XX century was published for the first time in Last year Second World War. The writer began work on the book in the late thirties. What is the Arc de Triomphe about? A summary of the novel is set out in today's article.

about the author

The writer was born in 1898. Hometown Remarque - Osnabrück. Already in early years Erich showed a love of literature. In his youth, he was fond of the work of such writers as Thomas Mann, Stefan Zweig, Fyodor Dostoevsky. In 1904, Remarque entered a church school. Five years later - in the teacher's seminary.

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

Remarque's works are permeated with hatred for the Nazis. 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 publicly burned. execution over literary works The Nazis accompanied the remark with the slogan “No to the hacks who betrayed the heroes of the war!”.

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 famous actress Paulette Goddard. In 1957, Remarque filed for divorce from Jutta and married ex-wife Charlie Chaplin. He spent the rest of his life in Switzerland, where he left in 1958. One of famous prose writers 20th century, representative of literature lost generation died in 1970 in the Swiss city of Locarno.

From the history of writing

In the late thirties, Remarque found it increasingly difficult 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. So famous actress Remarque began an affair. It is Dietrich who is the prototype of the main female image in the novel. Knowing only summary"Arc de Triomphe", the actress became angry. She did not 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: a summary of the chapters

Remarque's hero knew firsthand what fascism was. The reader will learn about what Ravik experienced in Germany from his memoirs. Key events from the biography of a surgeon of German origin are mentioned in the summary of the Arc de Triomphe. Remarque created several storylines in his book. Which of them is the main one is debatable. The summary of the book "Arc de Triomphe" is outlined below according to the plan:

• 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 a document, lives in France. With enough professional skills and many years of experience, he works, replacing less qualified French doctors. Pο by fate, he had to set up native edges. He believed that in France it would be easier for him, and life would improve.

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

Ravik's past

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

The book of the German writer can be disassembled into quotes. The summary of the "Arc de Triomphe" does not allow us to appreciate the skill of the author. 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 such an impression is created only on the first pages of the novel "Arc de Triomphe". A note in a summary to read means to evaluate only the writer's ability to create twisted, fascinating stories. After all, the works of this author are filled with subtle psychologism, laconic philosophical sayings.

Joan

In France, on an autumn night, the hero meets a woman who is in deep despair. They go to a place where they drink Calvados, then spend the night together. And only in the morning he learns that her name is Jean Madou, and her position is rather difficult.

She is an unemployed actress. The man with whom she came to Paris died last night. The hero helps her organize the funeral.

Ravik and Morozov

In the summary of the 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 almost the main one in the novel. Everything that happens to Ravik, one way or another, is 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 is a friend of Ravik. This is quite a colorful character. For the sake of witty dialogues between Morozov and Ravik, one should not limit oneself to a summary of the “Arc de Triomphe” by E.M. Remark.

The fate of an emigrant

In a conversation with his colleague Ravik, it is revealed: he is an escaped emigrant and has no right to work and live in France. He has to live in a hotel where they do not require documents and registration, and most importantly - to hide his real name.

Indifference, the constant tightening of living conditions, attempts to track down and expel from the country - these are just a few touches on the picture of society's attitude towards illegal immigrants.

Arrest

The hero starts a love affair with Joan. He helped her with her work. Significant changes have taken place in the appearance of Joan: now she is not a faceless, desperate woman, but rather a bright, attractive person.

Joan οchen hοfeet normal, human οtnοshens, in which you don't need to hide and pοstοyannο be in fear. On this soil between the lovers pοstοyannο there are quarrels. The real conflict among the heroes arises after that, as the surgeon is arrested and deported to Switzerland. He stays there οkοlο three months and again returns to France, where he soon parted with Jean. During this time, the woman managed to find another. As it turns out, she can't wait.

chance meeting

Ravik meets in France Haake, a Gestaf officer. On a happy occasion, he does not recognize the former prisoner, on the contrary, he rejoices that he finds a compatriot in the Parisian capital. The surgeon invites Haake to visit the famous brothel, but by deceit he takes him to Bulοnsky forest. Having committed the murders, he will take out the deformed corpse to the Saint-Germain forest.

Revenge

This storyline Remarque devoted only a few pages. Ravik accidentally sees on a Parisian street a man who is guilty of the death of his beloved girlfriend. It was Haake 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 starts spying on his enemy. He is in an overexcited state. The doctor did not think that he would ever be lucky and meet this man. But in his mind, he destroyed it more than once. Ravik kills a Gestapo officer. But this crime does not bring him a sense of relief.

Joan's death

At the end of the novel, the hero was waiting for the next shock. Joan is shot by the next suitor. The surgeon is trying to get a bullet, but this only aggravates her condition. They understand that death is near, and confess their love to each other. After that, Ravik injects Jean with a lethal injection in order to alleviate her dying suffering.

Having lost everything, he does not resist the police. At the next detention 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 the "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 was before past life. Remarque demonstrates to the reader a unique ability to focus on the main thing, to gather his will into a fist. The fact that Ravik has been dreaming of revenge for many years already becomes known to the reader from a conversation with Morozov. When reading the first chapters, one gets the impression that the hero of Rermarck 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 a femme fatale? People like Joan are both goddesses and harlots. They live in greedy pursuit of sense gratification. Happiness with them is illusory, but emotions over the edge.

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 be healed. The love story of Zhοan and Ravik is described so vividly, colorfully that their feelings in the literal sense can be understood and almost experienced when reading.

However, at the moment of meeting with a woman who becomes the closest person for Ravik in cold but beautiful Paris, no miracle happens, the hard wheel of life does not stop its rotation. Lovers do not harbor hopes and illusions, and oddly enough, this deprives them of the inevitable herb of mutual bidding - love is initially afflicted with the speech of hopelessness, and nοchοy calvadοs (the favorite drink of Remarque's heroes) with cheap cigarettes does not soften this οt taste. In addition, in the life of Ravik, a new, absorbing and burning passion appears - a rοkοvaya meeting with the former Gestapo tormentor sets in motion with all the other gears of the mental mechanism.

Incredible humοr Remarque, not stοlkο mocking, sοlkο deep and wise, pοzοlοll the book to disperse into many οzhestvο pοshaking quotes. From his deepest understanding of the mechanisms that move human souls, becomes a little sad. "Arc de Triomphe" is a multifaceted book, populated by 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, brighter through the boundless sadness of the protagonist.

On a November night in Paris, Ravik stops a woman on a bridge. The stranger is desperate. Ravik first leads her to a chauffeur's tavern, located next to the Arc de Triomphe, and treats her to Normandy apple vodka - Calvados, then to his room at the Internacional Hotel. The protagonist 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 on a young girl. The patient is dying. 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 had died the day before. Together with a stranger, Ravik goes to the Verden Hotel. He settles the issue with the issuance of a death certificate, helps a woman named Joan Madu to return her things and money, pay the bill for the room, move to another hotel - Milan.

On one of the working days, Ravik tells Weber about his situation: he is an illegal immigrant who fled from Nazi Germany. In France, he is forbidden not only to work, but also to live, since he does not have a visa. Ravik cannot rent an apartment. He lives in the "Internacional", as it does not require registration. In Germany, the hero was the chief surgeon of a large hospital. The name Ravik is fictitious, taken by him for the third time in order to avoid re-arrest when he is discovered by the French authorities.

On Thursday, Ravik examines the girls in brothel"Osiris" for the presence of venereal diseases. In the evening he plays chess with Boris Morozov, a Russian émigré at the Scheherazade nightclub, in the dining room of the Internacional, quarrels with Spanish officers, and receives a wooden figurine of the Madonna from Joan.

Ravik visits Joan and invites her to dinner at Bel Auror. Over coffee at the Colosseum, a woman talks about herself: she is an actress, grew up in Italy, her father was a Romanian, her mother was an Englishwoman. Ravik invites her to talk to Morozov about work. The heroes drink all evening. Ravik spends the night in Joan's room.

Hat saleswoman Lucienne Martinet, saved by Ravik from the consequences of an unsuccessful abortion, is not too happy that she escaped death. She thinks 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, just like him, is waiting for the time when he can return to his country and pay off his father's killers.

Kat Hagstrom is coming to Paris. Two years ago, Ravik removed her appendix, having performed his first successful operation in the French capital. Two weeks ago, Kat divorced her husband, who became an Austrian fascist.

The hostess of the "Enternacional" is preparing for new guests - the 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 wonderful and exciting performance.

At 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 “lived” all day today. The heroes spend the second night together.

Ravik fails to tell Kat about the cancer. The woman herself does not ask him anything: she believes the doctor and thinks that everything is in order with her.

Midwife Madame Boucher - fat woman in a kimono - refuses to give 300 francs for Lucienne's unsuccessful abortion. She sees that Ravik is an immigrant and invites him to work together. At night, the doctor understands 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 a leg crushed by a car. Kat shares her dreams about 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 takes away a leg above the knee. He is glad that now the insurance company will pay him a lifetime pension. In the evening, Ravik has dinner with Morozov and again sees Khaake on the street. At night, the doctor recalls how the Gestapo tortured him, trying to find out where the two people wanted by the Nazis fled, how he was then sent to a concentration camp, and then to a hospital, from which he subsequently fled. Ravik wanders the streets looking for Khaake, then goes to Scheherazade and confesses his love to Joan.

The protagonist visits patients - Kate, Jeannot, examines prostitutes in Osiris. At night, Joan says that she is tired and wants quiet life in my house. Ravik tells her about his illegal position and promises to go to the resort together. On the next operation, which he does instead of Duran, the doctor bargains two thousand francs for work against the usual two hundred. Ravik operates on Leval, the main person in charge of emigrants. At night, Ravik has a nightmare. Waking up, the doctor recalls the horrors of the Gestapo. Until morning, he talks with Joan and drinks Calvados.

In February 1939, Ravik and Joan went to the French Riviera. They sunbathe, play in the casino, go to restaurants. Joan rides on a motorboat with new friends. Ravik thinks that she has already begun to imperceptibly move away from him.

A week after returning from the sea, Ravik witnesses the tragic fall of a worker from scaffolding. He certifies his death and helps the injured woman, who was caught by a fallen beam. The police arrived at the scene and arrested 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 it. He asks Weber to let him have a simple appendectomy, and only then does he feel like he's back home.

Ravik meets Joan at Cloche d'Or. The separation only increased his love for this woman. Joan is furious that Ravik, in two weeks in Paris, did not bother to find her. Nevertheless, she comes to his room, and the heroes spend the night together. In the morning, Joan says that he does not trust Morozov. At night, Ravik waits in vain for her at the Internacional, playing chess with Boris. Joan is announced only two days later. She calls Ravik at the clinic and asks him to come.

In the apartment of Joan Ravik says that he is not going to share it with another man. In the evening, a woman comes to his room and asks permission to stay. Ravik loves her too much to allow it.

Kat Hagstrom returns from Italy. She tells the doctor about the unprecedented militancy that has awakened in the Italians. Kat knows she's sick.

In 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 realizes that together with love he has found life.

At the restaurant, the doctor runs into Haacke. The latter does not recognize Ravik: he sees in him a compatriot with whom he can talk. The doctor fails to kill Haacke, as he leaves for Berlin with his friends. The Gestapo promises to return in two weeks.

Duran asks Ravik to correct the consequences of an unsuccessful operation. The doctor agrees to operate only after Duran admits his mistake.

Kat asks Ravik to accompany her on a trip to a costume ball at the Montforts. At night, Joan comes to the doctor and arranges a scene of jealousy for him. Ravik does not have enough strength to let go of his beloved woman.

The ball at the Montforts is spoiled by rain. Ravik and Kat drive a car through wet Paris. The Doctor can't concentrate on devising a plan to kill Haake.

Joan calls Ravik at four in the morning and begs 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 inherited after the death of her aunt.

While waiting for a call from Haake, Ravik becomes nervous. The doctor understands that until he gets rid of the Gestapo, he cannot operate on patients. Morozov helps Ravik guard the call to Haake and gets him a car to kill. The doctor meets the Gestapo by chance - in Osiris. He invites him to go to an elite brothel, brings him to the Bois de Boulogne and kills him. The body of the Gestapo Ravik takes to the Saint-Germain Forest. There he buries the corpse in a pit, after undressing and disfiguring Haake's face. The doctor hides the belongings of the murdered man in the ground a few kilometers from the body. Ravik burns the documents of the Gestapo and company signs from clothes.