A Wild Ride Through the Night is a novel by the German Author/ Cartoonist Walter Moers

Walter Moers

Walter Moers is one of the best-known and commercially most successful German comic creators and authors.-Life and work:...

. It was first published in German in 2001 and is the story of Gustave Doré, a young boy who goes on a death defying adventure to defy Death. The story is based on 12 engraving

Engraving

Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...

s by Gustave Doré

Gustave Doré

Paul Gustave Doré was a French artist, engraver, illustrator and sculptor. Doré worked primarily with wood engraving and steel engraving.-Biography:...

.

This book was actually written by Moers prior to his stories about Zamonia, but was not published in the UK until 2004 and the US until 2008. It was translated into English from German by John Brownjohn.

The story itself is not set in Zamonia, as most of Moers’ other novels are.

Illustrations used are taken from "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1797–98 and was published in 1798 in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads. Modern editions use a later revised version printed in 1817 that featured a gloss...

", Orlando Furioso

Orlando Furioso

Orlando Furioso is an Italian epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto which has exerted a wide influence on later culture. The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was not published in its complete form until 1532...

, "The Raven

The Raven

"The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in January 1845. It is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow descent into madness...

", Don Quixote, Legend of Croquemitane, Gargantua and Pantagruel

Gargantua and Pantagruel

The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel is a connected series of five novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais. It is the story of two giants, a father and his son and their adventures, written in an amusing, extravagant, satirical vein...

, Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...

, and the Bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

.

Blind Guardian

Blind Guardian

Blind Guardian is a German power metal band formed in the mid-1980s in Krefeld, West Germany. They are often credited as one of the seminal and most influential bands in the power metal and speed metal subgenres...

's song, from the album A Twist in the Myth

A Twist in the Myth

A Twist in the Myth is the eighth studio album by the German power metal band Blind Guardian. It was originally set to be released on September 5, 2006 in Europe , but Nuclear Blast changed the release date to September 1, 2006.The album was released in several different formats: a normal version,...

, "This Will Never End", is based on this book.

Plot Summary

The story begins with 12-year-old Gustave, captain of the Aventure as he attempts to escape the deadly Siamese Twins Tornado. When the storm finally catches up with his crew, everyone is killed except Gustave, who meets Death, and his crazy sister Dementia. After the wicked siblings play dice for Gustave's soul, Death gives him six seemingly impossible tasks in order to stay alive. In one night, he must face six giants, rescue a damsel in distress from the clutches of a dragon, make himself conspicuous amidst a forest of evil spirits,encounter the Most Monstrous of all Monsters, and even meet himself. Can Gustave's wit and creativity win him his own soul? Or will he become a servant of Death, just like the rest of us?