Mr. Mistoffelees Mr. Mistoffelees Mr. Mistoffelees is a character in T. S. Eliot's poetry book "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" and its stage adaptation, Andrew Lloyd Webber's popular musical "Cats". He is an important primary character, and one of the most popular of the show. He is also sometimes named Quaxo. Mistoffelees' name derives from the demon Mephistopheles. However, the character is not sinister as the name implies, and instead is described by Eliot as being "the original conjuring cat", who is "always deceiving you into believing that he's only hunting for mice" — a mysterious quiet and small black feline
The King of the Cats 1929 short story "The King of the Cats" based around this folk story was selected by The Library of America for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of "American Fantastic Tales", edited by Peter Straub. Frances Jenkins Olcott's 1942 anthology "Good Stories For Great Holidays" included a version of Charlotte S. Burne's "The King of the Cats" adapted by Ernest Rhys. Barbara Sleigh's 1955 children's book "" is inspired in part by this tale, as are its two sequels, "The Kingdom of Carbonel" and "Carbonel and Callidor", which make up the "Carbonel" series. Peter Straub's 1980 novel, "Shadowland" also references the