I Am a Cat

I Am a Cat

Infobox Book |
name = I Am a Cat
title_orig = 吾輩は猫である (Wagahai wa neko de aru)
translator = Aiko Ito and Graeme Wilson


image_caption =
author = Natsume Sōseki
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = Japan
language = Japanese
series =
genre = Comedy novel
publisher = Tuttle Publishing
release_date = 1905-1906
english_release_date = 2002
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages =
isbn = ISBN 0-8048-3265-X
preceded_by =
followed_by = nihongo|"I Am a Cat"|吾輩は猫である|Wagahai wa neko de aru is a comical novel written in 1905-1906 by the Japanese author Natsume Sōseki.

Background

"I Am a Cat" is a satire on Japanese society during the Meiji Period. Among its major themes are the period's uneasy mix of new Western ideas and Japanese traditions, and the aping of Western customs. The novel is striking for its modernity.

The book first appeared as a set of ten installments in the literary journal "Hototogisu". Sōseki had originally only intended to write the short story that forms the first chapter of "I Am a Cat". He was persuaded to contribute further installments by Takahama Kyoshi, one of the editors of "Hototogisu". The episodic nature in which it was written may account for the stylistic incongruities between the earlier and later chapters.

Note that the title of the novel suffers in translation. In the original, it derives much of its humor from the fact that it uses pompous, formal wording wholly inappropriate to a house cat – the idiom used is that of a member of a high-born family; a more literal translation would read "We are a Cat", using the English royal plural form.

The novel was adapted into a film by Kon Ichikawa in 1975.

Plot summary

In "I Am a Cat", a supercilious feline narrator describes the lives of a set of middle class Japanese. Amongst these are Mr. Sneaze [This is the spelling used in the translation by Aiko Ito and Graeme Wilson.] (literally translated from Chinno Kushami, 珍野苦沙弥, in the original Japanese) and family (the cat's owners), Sneaze's garrulous and irritating friend Waverhouse (Meitei, 迷亭), and the young scholar Avalon Coldmoon (Mizushima Kangetsu, 水島寒月) with his will-he-won't-he courtship of the businessman's spoilt daughter, Opula Goldfield (Kaneda Tomiko, 金田富子). After two years chronicling the foibles of these foolish humans and the general superiority of cats, the nameless protagonist gets drunk and drowns in a water barrel.

Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000148/files/789_14547.html Full Japanese text] .


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