I Am a Cat.

Sōseki phrased his work's title, Wagahai wa neko de aru, in very formal language incongruous with its meaning.[citation needed] Written with a majestic plural,[citation needed] it conveys a grandiloquence and self-importance intended to sound ironic, since the speaker is a house cat.

The book was first published in ten installments in the literary journal Hototogisu. At first, Sōseki intended only to write the short story that constitutes the first chapter of I Am a Cat. However, Takahama Kyoshi, one of the editors of Hototogisu, persuaded Sōseki to serialize the work, which evolved stylistically as the installments progressed. Nearly all of the stories can stand alone as a discrete work. The serial was eventually compiled into a book edition of three volumes.[when?][by whom?] 1911 marked the first year the complete work was published in a single volume.[by whom?]

In the mid-1970s, the prolific screenwriter Toshio Yasumi adapted Sōseki's novel into a screenplay. Kon Ichikawa directed the film, which premiered in Japanese cinemas in 1975.

Publisher:     Tuttle Publishing

ISBN 978-0-8048-3265-6