The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr: Together With a Fragmentary Biography of Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler on Random Sheets of Waste Paper (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Hoffmann, E.T.A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140446311 ISBN 13: 9780140446319

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 1999

Synopsis

Tomcat Murr is a loveable, self-taught animal who has written his own autobiography. But a printer's error causes his story to be accidentally mixed and spliced with a book about the composer Johannes Kreisler. As the two versions break off and alternate at dramatic moments, two wildly different characters emerge from the confusion - Murr, the confident scholar, lover, carouser and brawler, and the moody, hypochondriac genius Kreisler. In his exuberant and bizarre novel, Hoffmann brilliantly evokes the fantastic, the ridiculous and the sublime within the humdrum bustle of daily life, making The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr (1820-22) one of the funniest and strangest novels of the nineteenth century.

About this title

About the Author:

E T A Hoffmann (1776 - 1822) was born in Konigsberg and became one of the best known and influential authors of his time. He exploited the grotesque and the bizarre in a manner unmatched by any other Romantic writer.

Jeremy Adler is Professor of German at King's College London.

Anthea Bell has received many awards for her translations including the Mildred L. Batchelder Award in 1979, 1990 and 1995.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0140446311
• ISBN 13: 9780140446319
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384