The Life Views of Cat Murra

«The Life Views of Cat Murra» — the last novel of the great German writer E. T. A. Hoffmann, a brilliant culmination of his work, which united reality and fantasy, romantic impulse and sharp satire. This amazing work, which Hoffmann... himself considered the best of his novels, presents the notes of a learned cat, a pragmatist and epicurean named Murra, occasionally interspersed with accidentally inserted pages from the biography of the «mad kapellmeister» Kreislers, an enthusiastic dreamer, an incurable romantic, and Hoffmann's alter ego. According to the author, Murra had a prototype: «This is a cat of wondrous beauty and even greater intellect, which I raised; it was he who gave me the idea for that amusing mystification that permeates this, in fact, quite serious book.»