The Complete Maus

The Complete Maus is the single-volume edition of Art Spiegelman's Holocaust graphic novel, gathering both Maus I: My Father Bleeds History (1986) and Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began (1991). Framed as a son interviewing his aging father, it recounts Vladek Spiegelman's experiences as a Polish Jew who survived Nazi-occupied Europe and, ultimately, Auschwitz. Spiegelman renders the story with animal metaphors, drawing Jews as mice, Germans as cats, and Poles as pigs.

The book is a tale within a tale: alongside Vladek's harrowing wartime account runs the present-day story of Art coming to terms with his difficult relationship with his father and with the weight of his family's history, including the loss of his mother Anja. Its central themes are memory, survival, survivor's guilt, and the trauma passed between generations.

Originally serialized in Raw, the magazine Spiegelman co-edited with Françoise Mouly beginning in 1980, Maus became the first graphic novel to receive a Pulitzer Prize, awarded a Special Award in Letters in 1992. It is widely regarded as a landmark that elevated the cultural standing of comics and remains one of the most acclaimed narratives about the Holocaust.