Felidae (novel)
Felidae is a 1989 crime novel by the German-Turkish writer Akif Pirinçci in which a cat plays the role of a detective . The novel also contains borrowings from horror literature and thriller .
content
action
The cat Francis moves with his partner, the studied archaeologist Gustav Löbel, into an old building in need of renovation. Gustav is busy writing a non-fiction book about the Egyptian goddess Bast , who often appears in the shape of a cat, but mostly earns his living writing short novels for women's magazines . During a foray through the garden of the house, Francis meets the terribly disfigured Maine Coon tomcat Bluebeard and finds the body of a young cat. Bluebeard is certain that a “can opener” (human) gave little Sascha a “special valve in the neck”, and he reveals to Francis that this is already the fourth “cold sack” (corpse). Francis notes that at the time of his murder, Sascha was in the process of covering a female in heat and that the fatal injury was a bite wound that a conspecific must have added to him.
Soon after, Gustav and one of his friends, Archibald Philip Purpur, known as “Archie”, start renovating the run-down house. During the night Francis is haunted by a nightmare in which he enters a brightly lit room on the first floor of the house and is put on a collar by a man without a face. This turns out to be a bondage with which the man tries to scourge Francis. The next day Bluebeard leads Francis to another corpse, that of the old cat Deep Purple, who, like the first corpse examined by Francis, was also in the process of mating, and he too has a cat's bite wound on the neck. On the way to Purple's corpse, the two are intercepted by the "typical nasty corner men" Herrmann and Herrmann and their boss, the huge Colourpoint cat Kong. Kong advises Francis that they will soon have an "interesting face-to-face meeting". The following night, Purple Francis appears in a dream, he pulls one cub after the other out of his gaping wound on the neck and forcibly throws them against the wall. Meanwhile he talks about groundbreaking achievements in veterinary medicine . When Francis wakes up in the middle of the night, he hears strange noises from the first floor of the house. He goes upstairs and watches a cat sect under the leadership of the large, white cat Joker, who exposes himself to electric shocks and worships a mysterious "Claudandus". To be able to see better, Francis goes up one floor and watches the action through holes in the floor. He sees Kong, Herrmann and Herrmann among others, but also Bluebeard. When Joker notices him, he incites the entire sect on him. Francis flees first to the third floor, where there was an experimental laboratory, and then to the roofs of the district.
On the run, Francis rushes through a skylight into the home of the pretty Russian-blue cat Felicitas, who turns out to be blind. However, she was not blind from birth, but only lost her sight through atrocities, as she relates. Furthermore, she gives Francis useful information: She heard the death screams and also those around her. The victims were always on their way to admirers before they were joined by someone they seemed to know well. Felicitas could not understand his exact words, but his tone of voice, which was "haunting" and "pregnant with meaning", as if he wanted to convince the victims of something. When Bluebeard appears, Francis leaves Felicitas' house and confronts Felicitas about the Claudandus sect. Bluebeard dismisses this as a harmless pastime and thrill. He brings Francis to another “smart ass” in the area, the old Havana cat Pascal, who seems to live in absolute luxury and can even operate a computer. He keeps a database of all residents of the district and also of the series of murders that have cost five victims so far. Francis notices that all murder victims are European shorthair . Pascal says no, because he has not yet entered the sixth victim, about which Francis has not yet been informed. When Francis asked who it was, Pascal said Felicitas. Francis runs back to her and sees that she is indeed dead.
In the dream, Francis is plagued by an end time vision . The completely destroyed district, overgrown by seemingly endless pea plants . In a brightly lit clearing he sees the corpses of the district's cats: Bluebeard, Felicitas, Pascal, Kong, Sascha, Deep Purple and many more. Out of them rises the huge, towering Gregor Johann Mendel , whom Francis had already seen in a portrait in Pascal's house when he was talking about his “experiments on plant hybrids”. When Francis wakes up, he goes to the basement to hunt rats. There he found the diary of a certain Professor Julius Preterius, who ran a laboratory in this house in 1980, which Francis found on the third floor. In this laboratory, Preterius and his assistants Gray and Ziebold carried out experiments on cats to develop a wound adhesive. However, this preparation does not stick, and all test animals die miserably. When the increasingly mad professor's funds are canceled, he steals cats from the neighborhood in order to conduct experiments on them. An unnamed stray dog also runs into the laboratory. In a nightly action, the now completely mad Preterius cuts open the stray and tries the wound adhesive on him. As if by a miracle it works, and Preterius baptizes the stray "Claudandus" (Latin for "who must or should be closed"). But Claudandus remains the only animal on which the remedy works, and the professor takes him apart again and again, going completely crazy. The last statement in the diary is "Claudandus spoke to me!"
When Francis has finished reading the diary, Kong rushes into the cellar with Herrmann and Herrmann and a fight begins, after which Francis takes refuge outside in the thunderstorm. While on the run, he discovers the body of a pregnant Balinese woman who turns out to be Kong's lover Solitaire. A neglected Persian cat is also observed, who can hide from Kong and his sidekicks . While they are already looking for him in the other gardens, Francis follows him through a narrow passage in the ground, through a catacomb , to a temple in which hundreds of murdered cats lie. Although Francis initially suspects the Persian Isaiah as a murderer, it turns out that he only receives the dead. He is deeply religious and lived in Preterius' laboratory himself as a cub. When he escaped from there, Joker took him to the temple, where he taught him how to read and teach the Prophet. But Joker left him to spread the teaching in the district, and one day a murdered female queen came through the catacombs into the temple and Isaiah heard the voice of the prophet, who made him the guardian of the dead. Since then, corpses, some of them terribly disfigured, have come under Isaiah's care, and the Prophet kept speaking to him. Missing this lately, Isaiah broke his vow and left the catacombs to look for the dead himself. He is very concerned because he thinks his prophet has left him. Francis, who leaves Isaiah in his belief in the good prophet, leaves the catacombs and goes home. The terrible realization of the temple: not seven, but hundreds of murder victims are to be lamented.
During the night Francis has a dream in which he sees the prophet, Claudandus, who calls him to follow him on his journey to Africa. On the following morning Francis made the acquaintance of the beauty Nhozemphtekh, who does not belong to any race and claims that her race is "old and new" at the same time. Later that day, Francis sends Bluebeard to Joker's house to look for him, while he goes to Pascal himself and submits his theories to him. Bluebeard arrives with the realization that Joker has disappeared, and since he was the main suspect anyway, the assumption spreads among the group that Joker has fled. In the days that followed, they set about using the list and the statistics on the computer to find those who were previously unknown to the murderer, and in doing so they arrive at a number of around 450 murder victims. Based on the homicide rate, they also find out that the killer has been killing more cats lately than a few years ago and that the series must go back to the laboratory's closure in 1981.
At a meeting on Christmas Eve, Francis and Pascal inform the residents of the district of their assumption that Joker is the escaped murderer. His great-granddaughter Pepeline interrupts at the point where Francis explains that the prophet Claudandus died in Preterius' laboratory. She claims that her great-grandfather Joker told her that Claudandus killed Preterius, freed the test animals and survived himself. In the evening, Francis visits Joker's house on the outskirts of the district personally. He reaches the roof of the building via a tree, and through the skylight he has the opportunity to look at the shelves in the house, where he actually finds the executed joker. However, it looks like he agreed to his execution.
Francis finds Gustav at home again, working on his non-fiction book in the meanwhile completely renovated apartment. In the photograph of an ancient Egyptian painting, Francis recognizes a female who looks very similar to Nhozemphtekh. Suddenly he realizes that the cats in his territory are being bred back. According to the rules of the geneticist Gregor Mendel , the murderer breeds the cats back. For the first time, Francis Mendel's portrait was seen by Pascal, who once also mentioned the name of his master: Ziebold, Preterius' assistant.
So Francis goes to Pascal to confront him. This reveals himself to him as Claudandus, who killed Preterius after the endless torments. He was accepted by Ziebold and learned about Mendel's inheritance rules through the library. Out of his excessive hatred of humans, he decided, with the help of Joker, to breed a super-breed, an undomesticated "Felidae". If any of the district residents would not stick to his plans, he would have to kill them and trust Isaiah. However, he now has colon cancer and was no longer able to drag the bodies to the temple. In Francis he believed he had found a worthy successor and left the trail on himself. In the meantime, Francis finds a secret file called "Preterius" on the computer that lists all murder cases in detail. Francis wants to delete them, but Pascal attacks him and knocks the computer screen off the table. The device implodes and a jet flame sets the curtains on fire. Francis kills Pascal in the burning room and is seriously injured. He decides to keep the resolution of the case to himself so that Pascal will be fondly remembered. Later, Francis and Bluebeard can lure Isaiah out of the temple and place him at a pub.
shape
The book begins with a full title page . The dedication reads:
“For Uschi and Rolf, the best!
And Cujo and Pünktchen, the hottest! "
Cujo is Akif Pirinçci's tomcat . The following excerpt from the Book of Genesis follows the dedication :
“God made the game of the field according to its species, the cattle according to its species, and all the worms on the ground according to its species. And god saw, that it was good."
This is followed by a text passage from the end of the novel as an introduction and the plot begins on page eleven. There are always numbers in the running text that refer to an appendix that is filled with a total of 13 scientific notes about cats , which add additional words to the respective text passage. The ten-page appendix begins on page 278.
main characters
Cats
Francis
The tomcat, who acts as a detective, is new to the district and quickly makes friends with Bluebeard and Pascal.
Bluebeard
Bluebeard is a horribly disfigured Maine Coon cat who lived in Professor Preterius 'laboratory as a child and becomes Francis' closest ally in the series of murders. He is a member of the Claudandus sect, which he describes as a pastime and insignificant thrill.
Pascal
Pascal (actually Claudandus ) is a brown Havana tomcat and the killer in the story. After he was mistreated by Professor Preterius, he killed him and freed the other cats. He changed his name and let Joker spread the "doctrine of Claudandus", while he himself got to know Gregor Mendel's genetics through his new master, Preterius' assistant Ziebold, and it became his obsession, a perfect undomesticated cat breed, his perfect Felidae to create. For this he went over corpses.
Felicitas
Felicitas is a Russian blue from Francis 'district who lost her sight as a boy in Preterius' laboratory. She later makes the acquaintance of Francis and gives him important information about the Claudandus sect and the series of murders. That is why she is later murdered by Pascal.
Isaiah
Isaiah is a Persian who lives in the catacombs below the district and takes in and looks after the murdered cats. That is why he describes himself as the "guardian of the dead" who supposedly heard the voice of the prophet Claudandus.
Nhozemphtekh
Nhozemphtekh belongs to the "old-new" breed that emerged from Pascal's breeding programs. She finally lures Francis on the trail of Pascal, which is why he sent her to him.
Kong
The color point cat Kong is the top dog in Francis' territory and, with his two sidekicks Herrmann and Herrmann, is one of the "typical nasty corner men". He is extremely averse to Francis, at least until his pregnant Solitaire is murdered. He is a member of the Claudandus sect.
Herrmann and Herrmann
Herrmann and Herrmann are Kong's sidekicks . They are oriental shorthair , castrated and members of the Claudandus sect.
joker
Joker is the religious leader of the Claudandus sect and Pascal's only ally in his plan to backbred the perfect breed of cats. He spreads the "teaching of Claudandus", who was mistreated and allegedly killed by the people. The latter is wrong as Claudandus only changed his name to Pascal. Joker later sacrifices himself.
Bastet (Pascal's ideal of the Felidae)
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People
Gustav Löbel
Gustav is Francis' simple-minded master who earns his daily bread by writing kitsch novels in women's magazines . However, he is a learned archaeologist and is currently working on a non-fiction book about Bast .
Archie
Archibald "Archie" Philip Purpur is an acquaintance of Gustav and helps him with his renovation work. Meanwhile, he learns to love the old building and at the end of the book decides to move into the first floor.
Julius Preterius
Professor Julius Preterius carried out cruel experiments on cats in the old building in which Gustav's apartment is located in order to develop an infallible wound adhesive. However, all attempts failed. Preterius went mad and eventually killed by the most tortured animal, Claudandus.
Ziebold
Ziebold was an assistant in Preterius' horror laboratory and left him quite late. But when he was contacted by Preterius' wife Rosalie, he returned to the place of horror and discovered there the dead Julius Preterius and the half-dead cat Claudandus, whom he took.
The figure of the monk, who became known as the authoritative theoretician of heredity through his Mendelian rules , is taken up with regard to the breeding of a perfect breed.
Emergence
The writer Akif Pirinçci , who lives in the southern part of Bonn, was in deep financial problems at the end of the 1980s. Although he had already won a writers' competition of the Bavarian radio at the age of 14 , his first novel, Tears are always the end, was not a great success. He hoped to inspire the readers with an unusual crime novel, and initially thought of an investigator from the homeless community . When this idea was discarded, the sight of his own tomcat made him think of asking cats to solve a riddle. He chose Bonn's winding backyard gardens as the backdrop. He still had difficulties in finding a publisher, and even when Goldmann Verlag took up his manuscript, he only printed the very small edition of only 7,000 copies, but Felidae soon blossomed into an absolute surprise hit.
Reviews
“Felidae was a surprise hit and has so far resulted in three sequels; Although some story aspects disappoint experienced crime fans, and in some conversations I had the feeling that I could predict the next exchange of words, author Akif Pirinçci succeeds in creating an interesting and imaginative portrait of a world from the point of view of cats, which is used for entertainment as well as Serve a mirror image of our society. The crime thriller only gets going after the first 100 pages, but then the author keeps the pace constant until the surprising finale. Thanks to the detailed descriptions and the exciting implementation, the world of cat detective Francis comes to life in the mind of the reader, and one really wishes that he would further develop the strengths of his book, which is without a doubt recommendable and worth reading, for the follow-up novel Francis (1993); In any case, not much was missing for a higher rating. "
"A book for animal crime fans, which you can tell its age, but which still gives some exciting reading hours."
filming
In 1994 Felidae was made into a cartoon of the same name , for which Pirinçci wrote the screenplay together with Martin Kluger . Under the direction of Michael Schaack , Ulrich Tukur (Francis), Mario Adorf (Blaubart), Klaus Maria Brandauer (Pascal) and Helge Schneider (Isaiah) gave the cats their voices. Akif Pirinçci said he was 80% satisfied with the result.
| In the novel | In the movie |
|---|---|
| Francis reads the book on ancient Felidae alone. | Francis and Bluebeard read the book together. |
| Francis is informed about the machinations of Prof. Preterius through a diary. | Francis accidentally starts up a TV and a video diary tells him about the lab. |
| Bluebeard is a secondary person. | Bluebeard appears far more often, so that the viewer is informed of Francis' stories about his thoughts. |
| Francis sees Felicitas' "can opener". | Felicitas' master does not appear, Francis and Felicitas are alone. |
| Francis visits Isaiah the guardian of the dead alone. | Francis and Bluebeard visit Isaiah together. |
| Francis slits Claudandus's throat. | Francis slits Claudandus's stomach. |
More Felidae novels
The success of the unusual novel with the cat detective Francis led to several sequels.
- Francis. Felidae II. Goldmann, 1993, ISBN 3-442-43372-X
- Cave canem. A Felidae novel. Goldmann, 1999, ISBN 3-442-44991-X
- The duel. Felidae novel. Fischer, 2002, ISBN 3-596-15992-X
- Salve Roma. A Felidae novel. Heyne, 2004, ISBN 3-453-35092-8
- Outrage. A Felidae novel. 2009, ISBN 3-453-00620-8
- Felipolis. A Felidae novel. 2010, ISBN 978-3-453-29097-6
- Godlike. A Felidae novel. 2012, ISBN 978-3-453-26846-3
expenditure
- Akif Pirinçci: Felidae. Goldmann, 1994, ISBN 3-442-42886-6
- Felidae / Francis. Anthology. Goldmann, 2003, ISBN 3-442-13410-2
- Felidae. Cat comic. Goldmann, 1994, ISBN 3-442-30621-3
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c "Felidae" - an extraordinary cat thriller on planet-wissen.de
- ↑ Review on treffpunkt-kritik.de ( memento of the original from November 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Review on das-buecherei.blogspot.de
