''Arch of Triumph'' (german: Arc de Triomphe) is a 1945 novel by
Erich Maria Remarque
Erich Maria Remarque (, ; born Erich Paul Remark; 22 June 1898 – 25 September 1970) was a German-born novelist. His landmark novel ''All Quiet on the Western Front'' (1928), based on his experience in the Imperial German Army during World ...
about stateless refugees in Paris before
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. Written during his exile in the United States (1939–1948), it was his second worldwide bestseller, after ''
All Quiet on the Western Front''. It was made into
a feature film starring
Ingrid Bergman and
Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer (; 28 August 1899 – 26 August 1978) was a French-American actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found his success in American fi ...
in 1948 and into
a television film starring
Anthony Hopkins
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins (born 31 December 1937) is a Welsh actor, director, and producer. One of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actors, he is known for his performances on the screen and stage. Hopkins has received many accolad ...
and
Lesley-Anne Down
Lesley-Anne Down (born 17 March 1954) is a British actress, singer and former model.
She achieved fame as Georgina Worsley in the ITV drama series '' Upstairs, Downstairs'' (1973–75). She received further recognition for her performances in ...
in 1984.
BFI Screenonline: Hussein, Waris (1938- )
screenonline.org.uk. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
Plot
The novel is set in Paris, in 1939. Despite having no permission to perform surgery, stateless refugee Ravic, a very accomplished German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
surgeon, has been “ghost-operating” on patients for two years on the behalf of two less-skillful French physicians.
Unwilling to return to Nazi Germany, which has stripped him of his citizenship, and unable to exist legally anywhere else in pre-war western Europe, Ravic manages to hang on. He is one of many displaced persons, without passports or any other documents, who live under a constant threat of being captured and deported from one country to the next, and back again.
Ravic has given up on the possibility of love, but life has a curious way of taking a turn for the romantic, even during the worst of times. He cautiously befriends an actress . . . And??
Main characters
* Ravic – a refugee surgeon from Germany who has no citizenship (his real name is Ludwig Fresenburg)
* Joan Madou – actress, singer. Her father is Romanian, her mother is Italian. She spent her childhood in Italy.
* Haake – a German Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...
man who tortured Ravic and committed his beloved girl Sibylla to suicide. Killed by Ravic at the end of the novel.
* Veber – a gynecologist from the Durand Clinic, Comrade Ravic; a family man, who loves to care for his own garden.
* Durant – the famous doctor, the owner of the clinic. A good diagnostician but a poor surgeon, he hires other doctors who operate on patients instead of him.
* Kate Hegstrom – an American, Ravic's first patient, sick with cancer. Returned to the U.S. on the SS ''Normandie''.
* Boris Morosow – a tall and strong 60-year-old bearded man, an émigré from Russia; there is a porter at the ''Scheherazade'' establishment. Dreams of revenge against the communists who tortured his father.
* Aaron Goldberg – Ravich's neighbor at the 'Internationale' Hotel, hanged himself at the window
* Ruth Goldberg – the wife of Aaron Goldberg. After the death of her husband, she sold his passport to another illegal immigrant.
* Ernst Zeylenbaum – Doctor of Philology and Philosophy, an illegal migrant, lived for six years at the 'Internationale'.
* Rosenfeld – an emigrant who sells unique paintings (Van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...
, Cézanne, Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct fr ...
, Sisley
Alfred Sisley (; ; 30 October 1839 – 29 January 1899) was an Impressionist landscape painter who was born and spent most of his life in France, but retained British citizenship. He was the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedicatio ...
, Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Re ...
, Delacroix) to survive
* Jeannot – a 13-year-old boy who got into an accident. Ravic amputated his leg.
* Lucienne – unsuccessfully performed an abortion with a non-professional midwife, and then went to the clinic, where she was operated on by Ravic. After the removal of the uterus, she continued to earn by prostitution.
* Rolande – a brothel manager, acquaintance of Ravic since he comes to give examinations to the prostitutes in his capacity as doctor
Relationship to other works
Remarque's earlier novel, ''Flotsam
In maritime law, flotsam'','' jetsam'','' lagan'','' and derelict are specific kinds of shipwreck. The words have specific nautical meanings, with legal consequences in the law of admiralty and marine salvage. A shipwreck is defined as the rema ...
,'' is also about the lives of stateless individuals. The character Ravic makes brief appearances in three of Remarque's other novels: '' Shadows in Paradise'', ''The Promised Land'' and ''Game''.
References
{{Remarque
1945 German novels
Novels by Erich Maria Remarque
Novels set in Paris
Fiction set in 1939
Appleton-Century books
German novels adapted into films
German novels adapted into television shows
Works about illegal immigration
Refugees and displaced people in fiction