1819 – ‘THE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF THE TOMCAT MURR’ BY E. T. A. HOFFMANN

Year Published : 1819

Author : E. T. A. Hoffmann

Publisher : Penguin Classics

Genre : 19th Century, German Literature, Surreal

Pages : 320

Blurb : Tomcat Murr is a loveable, self-taught animal who has written his own autobiography.  But a printer’s error causes his story to be accidentally mixed and spliced with a book about the composer Johannes Kreisler.  As the two versions break off and alternate at dramatic moments, two wildly different characters emerge from the confusion – Murr, the confident scholar, lover, carouser and brawler, and the moody, hypochondriac genius Kreisler.  In his exuberant and bizarre novel, Hoffmann brilliantly evokes the fantastic, the ridiculous and the sublime within the humdrum bustle of daily life, making The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr one of the funniest and strangest novels of the nineteenth century.

312 Book Review : In this wonderfully playful and yet highly complex novel, Hoffmann displays his talents for story telling with the endearing confidence of the eponymous Tomcat Murr.

The premise is this.  An autodidactic cat has written an autobiography of his life on the back of leaves of paper ripped from a previously written book on the famous composer and kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler.  As the editor of the novel explains, the printers neglect to notice the irregularity and print Murr’s autobiography so that it is fused with that of Kreisler.  The end result is a jumble, two stories in one, so that as Tomcat Murr’s adventures build to an exciting conclusion the story breaks off into that of Kreisler and vice versa.

It’s a novel that shouldn’t work, indeed initially it doesn’t seem to, but the convoluted and byzantine nature of the book does, somehow, begin to knit together as the author slyly slips clues  into the narrative that spark realisations and connections into the readers mind without ever giving too much away. Soon the reader becomes engrossed in the fantastic sphere of gauche intellectual cat Murr and the odd world of Kreisler, part magical toy-like princely court, part high minded theological and philosophical wrestling, part threatening and inspiring Nature.

The two interweaving halves of the novel straddle the intellectual schism of the day, the two opposing philosophical doctrines of the 19th century – the Enlightenment and Romanticism.  Murr represents the Enlightenment scholar, unworldy, naive but over confident and clear minded, who stays within his small but learned home reading and studying the intellectual tomes of his owner Master Abraham and who teaches himself to write and compose poetry, at least until he discovers and becomes distracted by street life.  Kreisler is the diametrically opposed figure, the Romantic genius, a creative titan, yet insecure, moody, directionless, an outsider, always questing for answers about life that only lead to more questions and plagued by demons of self doubt that are so severe he has virtually written himself of as a madman, someone who’s talents can never segue into normal society.

At first Tomcat Murr’s story is the most engaging, as the endearingly arrogant Murr, convinced of his own intellectual superiority, critiques both human and cat life.  Strangely, the human based story seems bizarre and far fetched in comparison, set in a fairy tale like minor German principality full of eccentric aristocrats, wise old men who meddle in magic, strange gypsies and, of course, the oddly behaved Kreisler.

Yet over the course of the novel a subtle switch in the perception of the stories occurs.  As Tomcat Murr discovers life outside his scholarly quarters and picks up the base habits of street life, forming bigotries, losing trust in his friends, aligning himself with cliques, brawling, drinking and philandering, his former charming assurance becomes debauched and repugnant.  The opposite can be said of Kreisler’s story.  Initially introduced as a rude, slightly frightening and moonstruck loon, the more we learn about  him, the more we are drawn to his complex personality and the intrigues he finds himself enveloped in. Kreisler’s story is slow burning, at times, like the man, frustratingly complicated, but ultimately more satisfying.

The contrasts between the main characters are evident.  Yet there are connections, both are linked to Master Abraham, both are estranged from their true love, both find themselves in a deadly duel, both are, ultimately, outcasts of society, belonging neither in higher society or among the common folk and both find solace and purpose in intellectual creativity. Inscrutably sybilline as life is, domineering, coercing, checking the choices of near powerless individuals, perhaps then individuality can only be understood by the universal themes that affect all of us – identity, love, struggle, the search for belonging and happiness.  Even characters as apparently opposite as Tomcat Murr and Johannes Kreisler.

1891 – ‘THE DAMNED (LA BAS)’ by JORIS KARL HUYSMAN

Year Published : 1891

Author : Joris Karl Huysmans

Nationality : French

Publisher : Penguin Classics

Genre : Gothic, Occult, French, 19th Century

Pages : 265

Blurb : “Durtal, a shy censorious man, is writing a biography of   Gilles de Rais, the monstrous fifteen-century child murderer thought to be the original for ‘Bluebeard’.  Bored and disgusted by the vulgarity of everyday life, Durtal seeks spiritual solace by immersing himself in another age.  But when he starts asking questions about Gilles’s involvement in Satanic rituals and is introduced to the exquisitely evil Madame Chantelouve, he is soon drawn into a twilight world of black magic and erotic devilry  in fin-de-siecle Paris.  Published in 1891, The Damned cemented Huysmans’s reputation as a writer at the forefront of the avant garde and as one of the most challenging and innovative figures in European literature

312 BOOK REVIEW:  Huysmans is best known in the English speaking world for his extraordinary novel ‘A rebours’ which broke virtually every novel writing convention of its day and which still vexes and delights according to taste.  In fact such are the idiosyncrasies of ‘A rebours’ that it is almost impossible to discuss Huysmans without making reference to them. 

The novel dispensed completely with story, plot and featured only one major character who mostly remained silent.  Its strength rested on incredibly in depth descriptive passages on what would otherwise be mundane objects or events.  Few authors have devoted 20 pages to describing the aroma of a perfume, the colour of a gem stone or a collection of house plants.  Even if they had, few authors could transfix the reader with swirling syntax, mind bending, almost hallucinogenic use of language and a masterly command of a vast and varied vocabulary as Huysmans does in ‘A rebours’.

However ‘The Damned’ follows the conventional model of a novel much more than ‘A rebours’.  It has spoken dialogue, a number of characters who interact with one another and a well-structured and paced plot that maintains a feeling of forward movement and momentum, something ‘A rebours’ deliberately dispensed with.  However, this being Huysmans things are not completely straight forward in terms of the books structure. 

The book is really two books in one with something of a metaphysical twist.  It is the story of an author researching satanic rituals for a book he is writing about the medieval serial killer Gilles de Rais but the book alternates between the story of the events surrounding his research and the text of the book that he himself is writing.  These dual stories lie parallel to each other and with one set in medieval France and the other in then contemporary Paris, the reader is encouraged to compare and contrast these two eras, one where faith in religion is almost unquestioned, the other wallowing in the spiritual dearth of materialist atheism.

The battle between spiritual faith and modernism is perhaps the overriding theme of the book, Huysmans himself was a conflicted Catholic who eventually and not without struggle rejected atheism, but it also raises questions concerning good and evil and the thinly delineated lines that separate them, as well as the murky regions of the human psyche were superstition, science both known and unknown and age old human irrationalities intermingle.

The sexual politics of the book are also notable and although it is difficult to determine if they are Huysmans own views, (they are mostly expressed through the relationship between Durtal, a thinly veiled autobiographical Huysmans, and Madame Chantelouve) or a knowing denouncement of the Church doctrine that considers sexually promiscuous women, especially those breaking wedding vows, and homosexuals as not just ungodly but possessed by devils and outright satanic.

Huysmans does not employ his descriptive powers as freely here as in ‘A rebours’ but there are wonderfully evocative gothic scenes as Durtal explores the ruined castle of Gilles de Rais by moon light or his mysterious and slightly surreal first encounter with the devout Carhaix in the bell tower of a church.  The scenes of sexual congress between Durtal and the amorous adultress Madame Chantelouve are erotic, indeed sinful, but are not over done or laden with cringy clinches as with much literary love making.  In fact the relationship is convincing and the Madame Chantelouve character is surprisingly well drawn when her main role is as a sexual foil to the monk like Durtal, who’s preference is to remain cloistered in his lodgings.

‘The Damned’ does not hit the heights of ‘A rebours’ at its best but neither does it hit its lows at its worst.  Although in spells it may bore some with its fascination for arcane medieval Catholicism the story unfolds nicely, firstly concerning Durtal’s relationship with Madame Chantelouve and latterly as the inevitable meeting with the fallen priest and satanic sorcerer Docre unfolds. Overall ‘The Damned’ is a good novel that probably requires to be read through two or three times to disentangle its rich and complex, oscillating belief system and rich symbolism.