Product Description

In a world between legend and dream, in a time between childhood and adulthood, Walter Moers describes the exhilarating and comic adventures of 12-year-old Gustave, a boy who aspires one day to be a great artist. But before he can achieve this, Gustave must first tackle Mysterious Giants and a Siamese Twins Tornado; he also finds himself encountering the Greatest Monster of All, freeing a maiden from the claws of a dragon, riding through a forest full of ghosts, navigating a Galactic Gully and meeting a dream princess, a talking horse, scantily-clad Amazons and even his own self. Having made a wager with death for nothing less than his life and his soul, he must travel from the earth to the moon and back in a single night. Using twenty-one drawings from the work of Gustave Dore, the most successful illustrator of the 19th century, Walter Moers has created a wondrous and utterly delightful tale.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #179643 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-06
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: German
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

From the Publisher
By the author of the internationally bestselling The 131/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear

About the Author
Walter Moers was born in 1957 and is a writer, cartoonist, painter and sculptor. He has refused to be photographed ever since his comic strips The Little Asshole and Adolf were published, the latter leading him to be declared persona non grata by the political right in Germany. The 13-1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear was published to superb reviews and has sold 250,000 hardback copies in Germany. Walter Moers lives in Hamburg.

Customer Reviews

As intriguing as blue bear but with twice the pace...
Last year I picked up a rather strange looking book from my local bookshop. "the 13 1/2 lives of captain bluebear" Fascinated by the illustrations and bizzare blurb I took a leap of faith and bought it. And brilliant it was too! after I had finished (and at the pace I was reading it, I only took 2 days.) I craved more. I searched high and low and found that walter moers is quite an illusive author. So when browsing the bookshelves looking for a new fix (sorry major book junkie speaking here!) I come across a new book by this mystic German author, yet again intrigued I forced my friend to buy it for my birthday on the spot! And yet again I was not dissapointed; siamese twin tornadoes, scientific giants, death and his sister are only a few of the things in store for you, coupled with Dore's fantastical illustrations make for a wonderful read. Short and snappy yet compulsive and imaginative 'A Wild ride through the night' is absolutley brill!

Death and dementia

Most illustrations are built around the prose of a book. Trust Walter Moers to do the exact opposite.

In fact, Moers structures the entire story of "A Wild Ride Through the Night" around the classic, exquisite woodcuts of the late Gustave Doré (who also happens to be the book's protagonist). Most such stories would be clunky, but Moers' happily eccentric, mildly silly story fits the illustrations as if they were made for each other.

The twelve-year-old Gustave Doré barely survives a Siamese Twins Tornado, only to find himself facing Death and his sister Dementia, who decide to play dice for first dibs on Gustave. Desperate, he manages to secure a deal with Death -- if he can fulfill a series of seemingly impossible tasks, he can go ahead and live his life for a long time yet. Until 1883, anyway.

But Gustave is in for a rough ride, as a gryphon takes him to the island of (naked) damsels to slay a dragon, followed by a talking horse named Pancho Sansa who takes him to even worse places. Dealing with forest demons, drowning, dream crones, a valley full of monsters, giants, and other such creatures is only the beginning -- he must also go to Death's own house, which happens to not be on Earth.

Walter Moers specializes in the weirdest brand of fantasy out there, with endless wacky creatures and twisting storylines -- think Norman Juster on crack. "A Wild Ride Through The Night" is perhaps the simplest of these books, since it merely follows the increasingly bizarre adventures of Gustave, which get stranger and stranger as the book winds on.

Presumably these adventures are supposed to have inspired the woodcuts, which are sprinkled throughout the book -- naked girls attacked by dragons, the Grim Reaper watching a crazy-looking woman, a yawning monster attacking a knight, a falling winged figure (presumably Lucifer), a chariot with winged horses flying toward the moon, and so on.

Surprisingly they also nicely fit Moers' quirky, oddball prose ("Goethe!" "You mean... you're Goethe?" "No, the quotation from from Goethe. I'm Death...") which is sprinkled with some beautifully evocative moments ("... the entire plain looked as if it had been dusted with silver"). And he comes up with some kooky twists on the usual heroic obstacles -- such as figuring out anagrammatic giant names, or having a chat with demons about immortality.

Gustave himself is a likable little hero with a perfectly reasonable goal -- stay alive, and don't end up with his soul thrown into the sun (now I've given away one of the great mysteries of the universe!). The supporting characters provide plenty of quirk -- particularly the determinedly deadly Death ("Ever heard of an admirable Japanese custom called seppuku?") and the sarcastic horse Pancho.

"A Wild Ride Through the Night" is not as complex or long as Walter Moers' other books, but it's still a hilarious quirky, inventive little book -- and it's based on woodcuts.

mad as a bucket of spiders
Not as good as 13.5 lives of captain bluebear but still a wickedly funny read... if you like surreal and humourous insights into the human imagination this ones for you!