Ravic is a German-speaking Czech refugee living in pre-World War 2 Paris who works as a surgeon. He meets his future lover on a cold night after her previous lover dies. The novel explores Ravic's gloomy life as a refugee in the shadowy underbelly of Paris. Through dark humor and vignettes of peripheral characters, the book illustrates the politics and attitudes of the time, including the difficulties refugees faced with constant threats of deportation. Ultimately, the plot serves to immerse the reader in Ravic's daily political struggles as a man without a country during this era.

1. Slideshow Review
Arch of Triumph
Erich Maria Remarque
A new format of book review for the time-poor but literalily curious

2. 2
In a nutshell…
My one liner:
My one liner: A sculptured
glimpse into the resigned gloom
of Pre-WWII Europe brought to
life through the travails of a
Parisian refugee inhabiting a
twighlight world
About the book:
• Written in 1945
• The author Erich Maria Remarque
was “of his generation” of authors
whose lives crossed both world
wars
• Much of his fiction (including this
novel) had a political dimension
that reflected the politics of the
time
• Probably his most famous novel was
All Quiet on Western Front, set
during World War I

3. 3
The Protagonist: Ravic
• Ravic is a German-speaking
Czech refugee in Paris
• He is surgeon who completes
operations for incompetent
French doctors who pay him a
small cut of their fee
• “Don’t you know that
refugees are always as stones
between stones? To their
native country they are
traitors. And abroad they are
still citizens of their native
country”
The tone is set in the opening scenes:
• Ravic meets his lover-to-be on the
streets in the shadows of the Pont
de l’Alma in Paris on a cold
November night
• She appears to be in some distress,
and we find out that it is because
her (now former) lover has just
collapsed and died in his hotel room
• The seedy underbelly of pre-war
Parisian life is the setting and theme
for the novel

4. 4
Remarque’s character construction is remarkable
Using broad brushtrokes for the
peripheral characters:
• Veber is one of Ravic’s more
trusted French surgeon clients:
• “It was Veber’s invitation. That
tinge of pity in it. To grant
someone an evening with a
family. The French rarely invite
foreigners to their homes; they
prefer to take them to
restaurants. He had not yet
been to Veber’s. It was well
meant but hard to bear. One
could defend oneself against
insults; not against pity”
Or the young lad Jeannot who plays a
kind of jester role in the novel:
• “The leg has been amputated,”
Ravic said. “Above the knee or
below the knee?” “Ten centimeters
above it. Your knee was crushed and
could not be saved.” “Good,”
Jeannot said. “That makes about
fifteen per cent more from the
insurance company. Very good. An
artificial leg is an artificial leg,
whether above or below the knee.
But fifteen per cent more is
something you can put into your
pocket every month.”

5. 5
Dark Humour…
…Suffuses the novel often as a means of illustrating the politics and
attitudes of the era
• A method perhaps oddly reminiscent of the sardonic, mocking style of
Molière:
• “Veber,” he said, “you are a magnificent example of the convenient
thinking of our time. In one breath you are sorry because I work illegally
here—and at the same time you ask me why I don’t rent a nice
apartment—”

6. 6
Is the plot incidental to all of this ?
…In a way, it is. But it is a good one, nevertheless
• A love story. Two, in fact
• A holiday to the South of France to get away from it all
• A deportation
• A opportunistic exacting of revenge to right an old wrong

7. 7
Also some Historical Lessons for Today
• Perhaps those who eagerly
call for breaking up the
current European political
construct should reflect on
how recent it is that is was so
hard just to move from one
European country to another
• Also a timely reminder that
complex challenges await our
current crop of leaders
“To Italy? The Gestapo would wait for
me there at the frontier. To Spain? The
Falangists are waiting there.” “To
Switzerland.” “Switzerland is too small. I
have been in Switzerland three times.
Each time the police caught me after a
week and sent me back to France.”
“England. From Belgium as a
stowaway.” “Impossible. They catch you
in the harbor and send you back to
Belgium. And Belgium is no country for
refugees.”

8. 8
Conclusion: Essentially a Political Novel
• Ultimately, you cannot escape
the fact that this is a political
novel
• Immersing you at each turn of
the page, every location,
every interlocution, in the
reality of what it was like to
live at the time, and why
“Suddenly Ravic had the feeling that all
the misery of the world was locked into
this ill-lighted basement room. The
sickly electric bulbs hung yellow and
withered on the walls and made
everything seem even more
disconsolate. The silence, the
whispering, the searching of papers
which had already been turned over a
hundred times, the re-counting of them,
the silent waiting, the helpless
expectation of the end, the little
spasmodic acts of courage, life a
thousand times humiliated and now
pushed into a corner, terrified because it
could not go on any farther.”

9. Thank you
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