I Am a Cat (Tuttle Classics) I Am a Cat (Tuttle Classics) Paperback Kindle Audible Audiobook Hardcover Audio CD

About the Original: Soseki's "I Am a Cat"

I Am a Cat was first written in 1905-1906 by Sōseki and published in ten installments in the literary journal Hototogisu. A satirical novel about Japanese society during the Mejii period (1868-1912), the story follows a world-weary stray cat as he observes the foolishness of upper-middle-class Japanese society with wit and sardonic perspective.

While Sōseki originally intended the first chapter to stand on its own as the only short story, with pressure and encouragement he continued to release individual chapters in ten installments, eventually collected together to constitute 3 volumes of I Am a Cat.The translated edition available here includes all three volumes!

A classic of Japanese literature, I Am a Cat is one of Sōseki's best-known novels. Considered by many as the most significant writer in modern Japanese history, Sōseki's I Am a Cat is often still an assignment for Japanese schoolchildren, and is very much so still a relevant and hilarious observation of society.