Translation:The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr/Editor's Preface

Editor's Preface
No other book is more needing of a preface as this, because, it is not explained in what strange way it has been assembled, than the motley mess it appears to be.

Therefore, the editor invites the kind readers to read, really, this preface.

Said editor has a friend with whom he has one heart and one soul, and whom he knows as well as himself. This friend said to him one day about thus: "Because of you, my friend, many books have been printed, and the publishers understand; you are a beacon to help locate some of these brave men who will print something on your recommendation, such as the choicest gifts written down in advance by a young author of the most brilliant talent. Take care of this man; he deserves it."

The editor promised to do his best for the literary colleague. Somewhat surprised he was now, as his friend confessed to him that the manuscript was written by a tomcat, called Murr, and his resulting views on life were contained therein; but his word was given, and since the story seemed to him quite well written, he at once ran, with the manuscript in his pocket, to Mr. Duemmler in Unter den Linden and proposed for him to be the publisher of the cat book.

Mr. Duemmler said that until now, he was not accepting authors who were cats, and knew of not one of his colleagues with one man of letters that would admit one; however he would make the attempt.

The printing began, and the first proof sheets came to to the editor. He was shocked when he saw that Murr's story would now and again break off into strange insertions belonging to another book: the Biography of Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler.

After careful inquiries and investigation, the editor finally learned the following: In writing his Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr, he unceremoniously tore pages from a printed book, which he found within his master's possession, and used the leaves, partly to document, and partly to delete. These leaves remained in the manuscript, and were, by being included in the manuscript, by mistake printed!

And sadly now, must the editor confess that that confused mixture of strange substances was caused only by his own recklessness, as he asked that a manuscript written by a cat would just go through, before it was ready to be printed; however, is yet some comfort for him at present.

For now, the reader will easily be able to tell which part is which by following the bracketed comments: W. S. (Waste Sheet) and M. cont. (Murr continues); but then, that torn book will probably not even show up in bookshops, as nobody has heard about it in the least. The friends of Kapellmeister will at least be happy to know that, through the literary vandalism of the tomcat and through some news about the very strange circumstances, through his art, he does not seem to be an uninteresting man.

The editor wishes to sincerely apologize.

It is true, finally, that authors owe their wildest thoughts, the most extraordinary expressions, to their kind typesetters, through whose impulses they become the principal sponsors of ideas from so-called typographical errors. For example, the editor spoke, in the second part of his "Night Pieces" (Pag. 326), of spacious groves that float in a garden. The typesetter was not genial enough, for he set the word groves to be instead graves. Likewise, in the story "Das Fräulein von Scuderi", the typesetter cleverly said that the lady, instead of in her black silk coat, was in her black silk coal, etc.

To each his own! Neither the tomcat Murr, nor the unknown biographer of Kapellmeister Kreisler will adorn themselves with borrowed plumes, and the editor thus strongly invites the kind reader, before he reads this little book, to organize subsequent amendments by these two authors he does not think better or worse of than they deserve.

Incidentally, only the editor noticed the lowering of the discretion of the benevolent readers.

(A series of misprints follows.)

Finally, may the editor assure that he has met the tomcat Murr personally, and knows him to be learned and a mild character of pleasant manners. A striking picture of him appears on the cover of this book.

Berlin, November 1819

E. T. A. Hoffmann

1 E. T. A. Hoffmann

2 First published in paperback by Gleditsch, 1820.