From Wikipedia: I Am a Cat (a e (c)a Zci"a a CaCi Wagahai wa neko de aru) is a satirical novel written in 1905-1906 by Natsume Soseki, about Japanese society during the Meiji Period; particularly, the uneasy mix of Western culture and Japanese traditions, and the aping of Western customs. Soseki's original title, Wagahai wa neko de aru, uses very high register phrases more appropriate to a nobleman, conveying 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, Soseki 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 Soseki to serialize the work, which evolved stylistically as the installments progressed. Nearly all of the stories can stand alone as a discrete work.