The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale

by Art Spiegelman

Overview

The definitive edition of the graphic novel acclaimed as “the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust” (Wall Street Journal) and “the first masterpiece in comic book history” (The New Yorker) • PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • One of Variety’s “Banned and Challenged Books Everyone Should Read”

A brutally moving work of art—widely hailed as the greatest graphic novel ever written—Maus recounts the chilling experiences of the author’s father during the Holocaust, with Jews drawn as wide-eyed mice and Nazis as menacing cats. 

Maus is a haunting tale within a tale, weaving the author’s account of his tortured relationship with his aging father into an astonishing retelling of one of history's most unspeakable tragedies. It is an unforgettable story of survival and a disarming look at the legacy of trauma.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780679406419
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/19/1996
Series:	Pantheon Graphic Library
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	296
Sales rank:	7,038
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	15 - 18 Years

About the Author

ART SPIEGELMAN is one of the world’s most admired and beloved comic artists, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning Holocaust narrative, Maus. Born in Stockholm in 1948, Spiegelman began studying cartooning in high school and drawing professionally at age sixteen. He studied art and philosophy at Harpur College before joining the underground comics movement in the 1960s. Spiegelman taught history and the aesthetics of comics at the School of Visual Arts in New York from 1979 to 1986, and in 1980 he founded RAW, the acclaimed avant-garde comics magazine, with his wife, Françoise Mouly. Honors Spiegelman has received include induction into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame and the Art Director’s Club Hall of Fame. In 2005, he was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. He was made an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2007, and in 2011 he was awarded the Grand Prix at the Angoulême International Comics Festival. In 2015, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 2018 he became the first comic artist to receive the Edward MacDowell Medal. His art has been exhibited at museums throughout the world, including the Pompidou Center in Paris, the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Jewish Museum in New York City, and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.

Editorial Reviews

A loving documentary and brutal fable, a mix of compassion and stoicism [that] sums up the experience of the Holocaust with as much power and as little pretension as any other work I can think of.”
–The New Republic

“A quiet triumph, moving and simple– impossible to describe accurately, and impossible to achieve in any medium but comics.”
–The Washington Post

“Spiegelman has turned the exuberant fantasy of comics inside out by giving us the most incredible fantasy in comics’ history: something that actually occurred…. The central relationship is not that of cat and mouse, but that of Art and Vladek. Maus is terrifying not for its brutality, but for its tenderness and guilt.”
–The New Yorker

“All too infrequently, a book comes along that’s as daring as it is acclaimed. Art Spiegelman’s Maus is just such a book.”
–Esquire

“An epic story told in tiny pictures.”
–The New York Times

“A remarkable work, awesome in its conception and execution… at one and the same time a novel, a documentary, a memoir, and a comic book. Brilliant, just brilliant.”
–Jules Feffer

From the Publisher

03/29/2024

Gr 8 Up—Still the only graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Prize, this tells the story of author Spiegelman's father and his experience as a Polish Jew in World War II. Framing the story with scenes of Spiegelman talking with his father, Vladek, in the present and flashing back to the 1940s, Spiegelman renders the horrors of the Holocaust in stark black and white art with Jews depicted as mice and Nazis as cats. His drawings are deceptively simple, and yet he conveys wide-ranging emotions of fear, anger, relief, and joy through the tilt and curve of an eyebrow and the hunch of shoulders. Cartoons do not diminish the emotional effect here; rather the anthropomorphizing allows Spiegelman to depict some of the most harrowing aspects of Vladek's story in detail and asks readers to hold both the reality of the Holocaust and its inconceivability at the same time. Even with so many WWII books available, Maus stands out. The graphic novel format and allegorical treatment guarantee that this book will not stay on the shelf. VERDICT A must-read for students interested in learning more about WWII.—Heather Lassley & Evelyn Pollins

School Library Journal

The most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust.

Wall Street Journal

The power of Spiegelman's story lies in the fine detail of the story and the fact that it is related in comic-strip form.

San Francisco Examiner

Spiegelman's startling comic about the Holocaust, which revolves around his survivor father's experiences, won a 1992 Pulitzer Prize. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly