Classics (old & new) about cats

I love books (duh). I love cats. So obviously I love books about cats - not picture books, but classic literature which feature cats.

I became aware of this whilst reading Murakami's Kafka on the shore, which has a character who talks to cats. We all do, but in this novel the cats talk back.

I got, as a Christmas gift, E.T.A. Hoffmanns Tomcat Murr, a fictional autobiography of a cat. I'm hoping to finish my other books soon so I can start reading it, it sounds fabulous.

What cat-centered classics did you like?

The first book that comes to my mind is I am a Cat by Soseki which is told from the cat's point of view. I think it was first published as a series of newspaper articles so I recall it being a disjointed read but enjoyable as you could just read a chapter at a time.

Cats appear in many ofMurakami's novels - in The Wind Up Bird Chronicle the main character's cat has disappeared.

The Master and Margarita! Behemoth is my favorite fiction character of all time.

Beware the Cat has a claim to be one of the first English novels, and is very entertaining.

I second Socialpage's recommendation of I Am a Cat. The narrator cat is often quite saucy and wry in his observations of the humans around him. I found it very enjoyable.

>5 bookwoman247:

I just read I Am A Cat recently and I'd advise not trying to read it all in one go. I was quite sick of it by volume 3 and think I would have enjoyed it more if I'd left a week or perhaps read another book between each volume (either that or volume 3 just isn't as good as the first 2?).

For the first volume alone though it is a worthy read, particularly if you have any interest in Japan/the meiji era.

I liked Wind-Up Bird Chronicle too, but the cat is not very central to the story (it just sorta kicks off the story).