Yukio Mishima - Novels, Stories, Plays and Memoirs (18 books)

YUKIO MISHIMA, the pseudonym of Hiraoka Kimitake (1925-1970) , was a prolific Japanese author, poet, and playwright who many critics regard as the most important Japanese novelist of the 20th century. His avant-garde work displayed a blending of modern and traditional aesthetics that broke cultural boundaries, with a focus on sexuality, death, and political change. He was nominated three times for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

His first novel, CONFESSIONS OF A MASK (1949), a partly autobiographical work that describes with exceptional stylistic brilliance a homosexual who must mask his sexual preferences from the society around him, gained Mishima immediate acclaim. He followed up this initial success with several novels whose main characters are tormented by various physical or psychological problems or who are obsessed with unattainable ideals that make everyday happiness impossible for them. Among these works are THIRST FOR LOVE (1950), FORBIDDEN COLOURS (1954), and THE SOUND OF WAVES (1954). THE TEMPLE OF THE GOLDEN PAVILION (1956) is the story of a troubled young acolyte at a Buddhist temple who burns down the famous building because he himself cannot attain to its beauty. AFTER THE BANQUET (1960) explores the twin themes of middle-aged love and corruption in Japanese politics.

Mishima’s last work, THE SEA OF FERTILITY, is a four-volume epic that is regarded by many as his most lasting achievement. Its four separate novels — SPRING SNOW (1969), RUNAWAY HORSES (1969), THE TEMPLE OF DAWN (1970), and THE DECAY OF THE ANGEL (1971) — are set in Japan and cover the period from about 1912 to the 1960s. Each of them depicts a different reincarnation of the same being: as a young aristocrat in 1912, as a political fanatic in the 1930s, as a Thai princess before and after World War II, and as an evil young orphan in the 1960s. These books effectively communicate Mishima’s own increasing obsession with blood, death, and suicide, his interest in self-destructive personalities, and his rejection of the sterility of modern life.

In addition to the novels and short stories, Mishima also wrote plays in the form of the Japanese Nō drama, producing reworked and modernized versions of the traditional stories. This collection also includes SUN AND STEEL (1968), a memoir of Mishima's reflections on his bodybuilding and martial arts training, and WAY OF THE SAMURAI (1967), his personal interpretation of "Hagakure", the classic work of samurai ethics that provided Mishima with the code by which he lived and created his fiction.

In November 1970, Mishima committed seppuku (ritual suicide), disemboweling himself with his sword, followed by decapitation at the hands of a follower.


The following books are in ePUB format unless otherwise indicated:


== NOVELS ==

* After the Banquet (Vintage, 2001). Donald Keene, trans.
* Confessions of a Mask (New Directions, 1958). M. Weatherby, trans. -- ePUB + PDF
* Decay of the Angel [Sea of Fertility IV] (Vintage, 1990). Edward Seidensticker, trans.
* Forbidden Colors (Perigee, 1980). Alfred H. Marks, trans. -- PDF
* Runaway Horses [Sea of Fertility II] (Vintage, 1990). Michael Gallagher, trans.
* Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (Penguin, 1970). Nathan, trans. -- ePUB + PDF
* Silk and Insight (Sharpe, 1998). Hiroaki Sato, trans.
* Sound of Waves (Vintage, 1994). Meredith Weatherby, trans.
* Spring Snow [Sea of Fertility I] (Vintage, 1990). Michael Gallagher, trans.
* Temple of Dawn, The [Sea of Fertility III] (Vintage, 1990). Saunders & Seigle, trans.
* Temple of the Golden Pavilion (Tuttle, 1956). Ivan Morris, trans.
* Thirst for Love (Vintage, 2009). Alfred H. Marks, trans.


== SHORT STORIES & PLAYS ==

* Acts of Worship: Seven Stories (Kodansha, 1989). John Bester, trans. -- PDF
* Death in Midsummer & Other Stories (New Directions, 1966). Keene et al., trans. -- ePUB + PDF
* Five Modern Nō Plays (Knopf, 1957). Donald Keene, trans. -- PDF
* Patriotism (New Directions, 1995). Geoffrey Sargent, trans. -- ePUB + PDF


== NON-FICTION ==

* Sun and Steel (Kodansha, 1980). John Bester, trans. -- ePUB + PDF
* Way of the Samurai, The (Perigee, 1983). Kathryn Sparling, trans. -- PDF

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