What would the neighbors say about you if they didn't know your cat was
listening? What if it was "The Cat With No Name"? The one who claims "I
have, as a cat, attained the highest pitch of evolution imaginable. ...
My tail is filled with all sorts of wisdom and, above all, a secret art
handed down in the cat family, which teaches how to make fools of
mankind. ... I am a cat, it is true, but remember I am one who keeps in
the house of a scholar who reads the Moral Discourses of Epictetus and
bangs the precious tome upon the table. And I claim to be distinguished
from my heavy, doltish relations at large." This volume is an English
translation of Chapters III and IV of 吾輩は猫である Wagahai-wa neko de
aru, which appeared in Japanese in 1902 and eventually ran to 10
installments. In these chapters we find the household of Professor
Kushami entangled in the maneuvers of a possible engagement of Mr
Kangetsu to Miss Kaneda and reacting with disdain toward businessmen and
large noses and other unwelcome Western intrusions in Meiji Japan-all
the while peppering their conversation with allusions to European
science and literature.