Patriotism - Softcover

Mishima, Yukio

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0811213129 ISBN 13: 9780811213127

Publisher: New Directions, 1995

Synopsis

"Was it death he was now waiting for? Or a wild ecstasy of the senses?" For the young army officer of Yukio Mishima's seminal story, "Patriotism," death and ecstasy become intertwined. With his unique rigor and passion, Mishima hones in on the body as the great tragic stage for all we call social, ritual, political.

About this title

About the Author:

Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) was many people. The best known in Japan of the writers to emerge there after World War II, he was by far the most published abroad. Mishima completed his first novel the year he entered the University of Tokyo. More followed (some twenty-three, the last completed the day of his death in November, 1970), along with more than forty play, over ninety short stories, several poetry and travel volumes and hundreds of essays. Influenced by European literature, in which he was exceptionally well read, he was an interpreter to his own people of Japan's ancient virtues, to which he urged a return. He had sung on the stage, starred in and directed movies and was a noted practitioner of Japan's traditional martial arts. He seemed at the height of his career and vitality at the age of forty-five, when after a demonstration in the public interest he committed suicide by ceremonial seppuku.

Review:

“The violence we are facing with such difficulty in our daily lives, he gives us simply in all its subcutaneous horror and myth.”
- Hortense Calisher, The New York Times Book Review

“A direct yet lyrical style devoted entirely to bringing out the elevated emotions of its two characters.”
- Trevor Berrett, The Mookse and the Gripes

About this edition

• Publisher: New Directions
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0811213129
• ISBN 13: 9780811213127
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 64