Erich Maria Remarque’s landmark novel depicts the front lines of World War I with such horrific clarity, the book still stands as an incriminating indictment of warfare itself.

Nineteen-year-old Paul’s story begins in the classroom, where his schoolmaster preaches to the boys about their glorious patriotic duty to join Germany’s war effort. But the hell awaiting these naively trusting young men in the trenches of France comes with no glory, or even meaning.

As the conflict drags on, it’s not just the ever-present death and suffering that steadily destroys Paul; it’s the unnatural distance he must place between himself and his own humanity. Eschewing politics entirely, All Quiet on the Western Front levels incendiary criticisms at the authority figures who wage wars, leaving individuals like Paul to bear the unimaginable cost.