Murr's segments are a staid, city life He has polish, civility, class There's no getting away from one's true What a fun book! There's no getting away from one's true nature. Kreisler's side of the story has a fairy-tale aspect to it with kings, queens, intrigues, sword fights, magic It's exciting and charming.
The writing technique is jarring. Just as one is consumed with one story, it stops in mid-sentence and the other's story continues. This happens throughout the book It works well in this book. The third book was, unfortunately, never written. This book ends abruptly. However, in thinking it over, it ends in a good place to leave the imagination to roam. Very enjoyable; a fun read. View 2 comments. Dec 23, E. Hoffman, the author of this odd, unfinished book, was born in and died in The link below describes those characteristics.
I am not a Literature expert of any kind, but I have been reading some E. But, again speaking as an ordinary person, I try to pick up Literary Canon versions with lots of notes, which means reading a book published by a respectable publishing company and making sure the editor has a long descriptive foreword prefacing the story.
It is not too far from our own time, so that many details are familiar. That said, I was shocked to see the protagonist is a cat. A literate cat! Murr tells the story of his birth, youth, education and maturity. At the same time, he is clearly a kitty from beginning to end of his autobiography. He lives a cat life, and he tries to hide his literacy from his master, Master Abraham. Through this mode of studying, my mind acquired that wide-ranging flexibility, that diverse and brilliant wealth of knowledge, which posterity will admire in me.
Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition. On his explorations of the roof of the house where he lives, he mets a hottie, a female with a lovely singing voice. Murr also falls in with a cat crowd of clubbers. Kreisler fixes organs, and he is a musician. His skills permit him access to various classes of society, as well as involvement in various adventures. He is of a nervous disposition, a bit of a frail personality; but this was a time period when some artists were considered to be of delicate emotional constitutions.
His acquaintances are aristocrats, some of whom go mad, common folk, religious priests, and merchants. Psychology was a new science, lately introduced to European society, and it was interesting to read a book which was one of the first to use psychological terms, not just elements, as part of a gothic story.
There is a magician Master Abraham, a character in both intermingled pages , a seeress who sees the future, automatons, possible ghosts, attempted murder, etc.
The aristocrat family is full of the arranging of marriages and other corruptions which were usual at that time and in previous centuries. As befits a novel written for the educated European reader, who were considered elites of these times, there are also tons and tons of literary and cultural references of high-culture Art books and theme paintings, especially those of German, French, Latin and some Greek studies, although satirically inserted and used.
Many historians think of as the date when our modern times began, so that places this book on the cusp between medieval world values and the beginning of the industrial ages. I also adored Murr. However, I did not enjoy reading about Kreisler; I thought his sections a chore to read through.
Other readers have felt exactly the opposite of what I felt. If you read this book, let me know which protagonist you liked best! View all 3 comments. Mar 02, J. Wilson rated it really liked it. It's always rewarding when you read a book like this - two hundred years old and full of references to bourgeois German society - and find that it is genuinely funny, that the humour transcends cultural and historical boundaries.
Here, the characteristics of the pretentious, deluded cat Murr and the intense, anti-social composer Kriesler are easily identifiable in any era. Murr engages in a sort of bildungsroman, starting off as a precocious kitten fond of half-reading classics and amusing himse It's always rewarding when you read a book like this - two hundred years old and full of references to bourgeois German society - and find that it is genuinely funny, that the humour transcends cultural and historical boundaries.
Murr engages in a sort of bildungsroman, starting off as a precocious kitten fond of half-reading classics and amusing himself with "naughty pranks" and passing through marriage, fraternity life and a dabble with high society. Kriesler wanders into the banana republic of Sieghartsof only to find himself drawn towards the haunted Princess Hedwiga and her charming friend Julia, and drawn into a gothic mystery featuring mysterious figures in the woods and sinister princes. The deliberately haphazard cutting between the stories and the surreal nature of the stories give the novel a distinctive feel; a proto-magic realism novel.
The abrupt ending, necessitated by Hoffman's death, leaves the book forever incomplete. Still, if you can countenance a lack of narrative closure, there's a lot to enjoy in this witty, inventive work. Feb 10, Katie rated it it was amazing. I am so glad I picked up this book enticed by the cover engraving of the handsome titular cat.
Murr will make you laugh out loud. Highlights were his encounters with Ponto the poodle, especially their first meeting.
The other story, about the composer Kreisler, was not as immediately accessible but soon pulled me in. It's really a pretty amazing technical feat for Hoffman to have pulled together these two stories that are so different in tone in such a way that they're pretty much equally enjo I am so glad I picked up this book enticed by the cover engraving of the handsome titular cat.
It's really a pretty amazing technical feat for Hoffman to have pulled together these two stories that are so different in tone in such a way that they're pretty much equally enjoyable and, strangely, seem to nest together. I didn't end up frustrated that it's an unfinished novel; I think that makes it more of a fun romp than a polished, tied up story would have been.
I don't want to give away any more than that--I recommend you just dive in and enjoy. Aug 12, David rated it really liked it Shelves: fiction , european-literature , 19th-century , fabulism , literature , germany , experimental-literature.
Always a fan of E. Hoffmann I was not disappointed by this tale of a self aware cat and his journey through life. Though not as compelling as The Tales of Hoffmann there was a lot to recommend this work of Fabulist Satire. Though considered his masterpiece, I found the Tales of Hoffmann more enjoyable -- but this is a personal choice and not meant to be read for an objective statement. Essentially, it is the story of the self-taught cat Tomcat Murr who has written is own autobiography which, Always a fan of E.
Essentially, it is the story of the self-taught cat Tomcat Murr who has written is own autobiography which, because of a printer's error, has caused his story to be spliced with the biography of the composer Johannes Kreisler -- in some ways Hoffmann's book is almost postmodern So much for postmodernism.
Murr and Kreisler are polar opposites in temperament and this allows Hoffmann to play with the fantastic, the ridiculous and the sublime at almost the same time. Much of the book is concerned with everyday life and the genius of the work comes within the format of observations and reactions to life.
This satire is one of the most engaging novels of the 19th century. Highly Recommend -- 4 out of 5 stars. Nov 17, Dan rated it it was ok. I've been wanting to read this book ever since I read a collection of ETA Hoffmann's stories 2 years ago-ish. So far it is as enjoyable as I had hoped and expected it to be. My main criticisms: The Kreisler plot is so convoluted and every time it begins to pick up, a Murr chapter breaks the momentum. Murr's plot and voice didn't do all that much for me either.
Also, Hoffmann's digressions about music and the arts and constant references to the hot composers and playwrights of his day were prety tiresome. The book interests me as a curiosity in that it represents one of the earliest forays into anthropomorphized animal writing for adults I've ever heard of. I have to give it credit for being such a surreal read, as well, although in remaining true to the tendency of dreams to have no clear beginnings, middles, or ends, its conclusion left me prety much--to use one of Hoffmann's favorite words--vexed.
May 07, Brian Baker rated it it was ok. Sometimes one good book leads to another, and as 'Tomcat Murr' is referenced in a recent favourite of mine - Andrew Crumey's 'Mobius Dick'- I thought I'd give it a go. It's a really nice idea: two manuscripts, one a satirical biography of a tortured musician and the other an autobiography of an educated cat, get accidentally spliced together at the printers so that's where Calvino got his idea from into a single book whose narratives constantly interrupt eachother.
The problem I found, howev Sometimes one good book leads to another, and as 'Tomcat Murr' is referenced in a recent favourite of mine - Andrew Crumey's 'Mobius Dick'- I thought I'd give it a go. The problem I found, however, is that the 'human' story, satirising such a distant social mileu, is as dull as most 'old' comedy is see Shakespeare , so I found myself skipping these sections as the book went on.
The toadishly boastful and self-satisfied 'Murr' sections are much better, although as Hoffman never finished the final volume, it too is ultimately unsatisfying. An extra half a star for the effort though. View 1 comment. Jun 18, Wendy rated it liked it Shelves: in-translation , books , This was an initially fun read--I love the concept of a cat's autobiography spliced with a human Kapellmeister's shuffled biography, which the cat supposedly found in the wastepaper basket and wrote on the back of.
The cat Murr, as are most cats, is very full of himself and his scholarly, poetical abilities and enjoys namedropping constantly in a hilarious manner. The Kapellmeister Kriesler, however, is supposedly a thinly disguised version of the author Hoffman himself, and his story becomes co This was an initially fun read--I love the concept of a cat's autobiography spliced with a human Kapellmeister's shuffled biography, which the cat supposedly found in the wastepaper basket and wrote on the back of.
The Kapellmeister Kriesler, however, is supposedly a thinly disguised version of the author Hoffman himself, and his story becomes convoluted in the second half and ended up being a real chore to get though. Jan 06, K8 rated it really liked it Shelves: speculative-fiction , german , fiction-for-adults.
We're left with a cliffhanger that will never be resolved although I can imagine all sorts of fan fiction possibilities. The stories of both Murr and Kreisler are fragmentary, fun, suspenseful, action-filled romps. And with all of that, they also contain fantastical and gothic elements. I will need to read this again so that I can better explain the ways this book works for me. If the phatasmagoric Kater Murr were published tomorrow as the work of a young Brooklyn hipster, it might be hailed as a tour de force of postmodern fiction.
Jan 11, Sergio rated it really liked it. Loved each and every part of this book. I will definitely recommend this book to fiction, classics lovers. Your Rating:. Your Comment:.
Hoffmann Free Download pages Author E. Hoffmann Submitted by: Jane Kivik. Read Online Download. Format ebook. ISBN Author E. Release 01 November Subjects Fiction Mystery.
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