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Description
This English version of 吾輩は猫である (Wagahai-wa neko de aru: I Am a Cat), Chapters I and II, written by Natsume Sōseki, pseudonym of Natsume Kinnosuke (1867–1916), and translated by Kan-ichi Ando (1878-1924), was published by Hattori Shoten, Tokyo, in 1906.
It begins: "I am a cat; but as yet I have no name." Its sardonic feline narrator describes his origins, his settlement in the household of a Meiji teacher-intellectual, and the goings-on and conversations among the cats and humans about the neighborhood. Of the men he concludes: "They are miserable creatures in the eyes of a cat."
Japanese novelist Natsume Sōseki studied literature in England and became professor at Tokyo Imperial University. The success of his stories, beginning with "I Am a Cat," launched a successful career that produced 22 novels, including Botchan, Kokoro, and Light and Darkness.
ISBN 978-1-60962-219-0 ebook
doi: 10.32873/unl.dc.zea.1310
133 pp.
ISBN
978-1-60962-219-0
Publication Date
12-12-2021
Publisher
Zea Books
City
Lincoln
Keywords
Japanese, cats, Meiji, Soseki, Kinnosuke
Disciplines
Fiction | Japanese Studies | Language Interpretation and Translation
Recommended Citation
Sōseki, Natsume, "I Am a Cat" (2021). Zea E-Books Collection. 112.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/zeabook/112
Included in
Fiction Commons, Japanese Studies Commons, Language Interpretation and Translation Commons
Comments
Published originally in 1906. Now in the public domain.