Kater Murr

I’ve been listening to the one CD of Schumann I have, Artur Rubenstein performing the Kreisleriana and the Fantasia Op. 17. Maybe this means it’s time to reread E.T.A. Hoffmann’s wild circa 1820 novel The Life and Opinions of Kater Murr, which was the inspiration for the Kreisleriana.

From the opening bits:

Well the editor promised to do his best for his literary colleague. It did rather surprise him when his friend confessed that the manuscript was the work of a tomcat called Murr, and contained an account of the cat’s life and opinions; however, he had given his word, and since the style of the opening struck him as quite good he went straight off, with the manuscript in his pocket to Herr Dümmler in Unter den Linden and offered him the right to publish the tomcat’s book.

Herr Dümmler said that although he had never numbered a cat among his authors before, nor did he know that any of his esteemed colleagues had taken on a man of that stamp, he was willing to make the attempt.

So printing began, and the editor saw the first clean proofs. Imagine his alarm, however, when he discovered that now and then Murr’s story breaks off, and there are interpolations of a different nature, which belong to another book, containing the biography of Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler!

E.T.A. Hoffmann did actually have a cat named Murr.