| Arch of Triumph | |
| Title Orig: | Arc de Triomphe |
| Translator: | Walter Sorell and Denver Lindley |
| Author: | Erich Maria Remarque |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | German |
| Genre: | War novel |
| Publisher: | Appleton-Century (US) |
| Pub Date: | 1945 |
| Media Type: | Print (hardcover & paperback) |
| Pages: | 455 pp |
| Oclc: | 296103 |
Arch of Triumph (German: Arc de Triomphe) is a 1945 novel by Erich Maria Remarque about stateless refugees in Paris before World War II. Written during his exile in the United States (1939–1948), it was his second worldwide bestseller, after All Quiet on the Western Front.[1]
The novel is set in Paris, in 1939. Despite having no permission to perform surgery, stateless refugee Ravic, a very accomplished German 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.
In 1948, the novel was made into a feature film starring Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer.
In 1984, it was adapted into a television film starring Anthony Hopkins and Lesley-Anne Down.[2]
In 2000, Takarazuka Revues Snow troupe staged a musical adaptation of the novel, starring Yu Todoroki as Ravic and Hitomi Tsukikage as Joan.[3] It was performed again in 2018, also by Snow troupe, and also starring Yu Todoroki as Ravic. Kiho Maaya played the part of Joan, and Futo Nozomi played the part of Boris.[4]
Remarque's earlier novel, Flotsam, 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.