E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Master Flea caused a scandal even before its publication in 1822. Hoffmann’s satire on the state apparatus attracted the censors’ attention. Recognizing the unscrupulous privy councillor Knarrpanti as a caricature of a Prussian police chief, they deleted that episode, and it was not until 1908 that the text was published in full. Hoffmann drew the cover illustrations himself. The front cover shows a flea wearing boots, but otherwise looking realistic as if seen through a microscope. On the back, the flea, wrapped in a cloak, lights its way with a torch – the tiny flea is the only one to see the big picture.