The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr (Zhiteyskie Vozzreniya Kota Murra)

'The Worldly Opinions of the Tomcat Murr' is the final novel by the great German writer E. T. A. Hoffmann, a brilliant culmination of his creative work, blending reality and fantasy, romantic impulse and caustic satire. This astonishing work, which Hoffmann himself considered his finest, is comprised of the notes of the learned cat, the pragmatist and epicurean Murr, interspersed with pages accidentally found in the manuscript from the biography of the 'mad Kapellmeister' Kreisler, an enthusiastic dreamer, an incorrigible romantic, and Hoffmann's own alter ego. According to the author, Murr had a prototype: 'This cat of wondrous beauty and even greater intelligence, whom I raised, gave me the opportunity for the amusing mystification that permeates this, strictly speaking, very serious book.'