- The Road Back
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The Road Back 
Cover of the 1st editionAuthor(s) Erich Maria Remarque Original title Der Weg zurück Translator Arthur Wesley Wheen Country Germany Language German Genre(s) War novel Publisher Propylaen-Verlag (German)
Little, Brown & Co (English)Publication date April 1931 Published in
EnglishJune 1931 Media type Print (Hardback) ISBN N/A OCLC Number 909194 The Road Back (German: Der Weg zurück) is a novel by German author Erich Maria Remarque. The novel was first serialized in the German newspaper Vossische Zeitung between December 1930 and January 1931, and published in book form in April 1931. It details the experience of young men in Germany who have returned from the trenches of World War I and are trying to integrate back into society. Although the book follows different characters from those in All Quiet on the Western Front it can be assumed that they were in the same company, as the characters recall other characters from All Quiet on the Western Front. Tjaden is also a named character in this book, but his behaviour is dissimilar to the previous Tjaden, so he might not be the same. The book can be considered to come chronologically after All Quiet on the Western Front and before Three Comrades. Its most salient feature is the main characters' pessimism about contemporary society which, they feel, is morally bankrupt because it has allegedly caused the war and apparently does not wish to reform itself.
The book was banned during Nazi rule.
Film, TV, and theatrical adaptations
- 1937, The Road Back - motion picture directed by James Whale and starring among others, Noah Beery, Jr. and Richard Cromwell.
Works by Erich Maria Remarque Novels The Dream Room (1920) • Gam (1924) • Station at the Horizon (1928) • All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) • The Road Back (1931) • Three Comrades (1936) • Flotsam (1939) • Arch of Triumph (1945) • The Spark of Life (1952) • A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1954) • The Black Obelisk (1956) • Heaven Has No Favorites (1961) • The Night in Lisbon (1962) • The Promised Land (1970) • Shadows in Paradise (1971)
Categories:- 1931 novels
- Novels by Erich Maria Remarque
- World War I novels
- Novels first published in serial form
- Works originally published in Vossische Zeitung
- Novels set in Germany
- Novel stubs
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