Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima, Paperback, 9780241301197 | Buy online at The Nile
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Confessions of a Mask

Author: Yukio Mishima and Meredith Weatherby   Series: Penguin Modern Classics

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The dawning of a young man's homosexual and sadistic desires

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PRODUCT INFORMATION

Summary

The dawning of a young man's homosexual and sadistic desires

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Description

The dawning of a young man's homosexual and sadistic desiresA Japanese teenager is overcome with longing for his male classmate. Each night he imagines his body punctured with arrows, like the body of St Sebastian in Guido Reni's painting; the objects of our hero's desire are tortured, killed and maimed, over and over again each night in his private fantasies. He must hide his lust from a homophobic and stiflingly conventional Japan. Self-loathing and desperate, he begins acting out a love affair with the sister of a school friend, while grappling with his hidden desires under the shadow of a Japan under threat from World War Two.

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Critic Reviews

“A writer of immense energy and ability”

Mishima is lucid in the midst of emotional confusion, funny in the midst of despair -- Christopher Isherwood
Never has a "confession" been freer from self-pity and emotional over-indulgence Sunday Times
Time Out
A terrific and astringent work of beauty... a work of art Times Literary Supplement

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About the Author

Yukio Mishima was born in 1925 in Tokyo, and is considered one of the Japan's most important writers. His books broke social boundaries and taboos at a time when Japan found itself in a state of rapid social change. His interests besides writing included body-building, acting, and practising as a Samurai. In 1970 he attempted to start a military coup, which failed. Upon realising this, Mishima performed seppuku, a ritual suicide, upon himself. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize for literature three times.His major novels include Confessions of a Mask, Forbidden Colours (also a Penguin Modern Classic), The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea and the tetralogy The Sea of Fertility- Spring Snow, Runaway Horses, The Temple of Dawn and The Decay of the Angel.

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Back Cover

'There is in this world a kind of desire like stinging pain' A Japanese teenager is overcome with longing for his male classmate. He imagines his body punctured with arrows, like the body of St Sebastian in the painting that obsesses him. Over and over again, each night in his private fantasies, the objects of his lust are tortured, killed and maimed. But, in the rigid world of imperial wartime Japan there is no place for such transgressive desires. He must wear a false mask and hide his true nature, whatever the cost. 'A terrific and astringent work of beauty' The Times Literary Supplement 'Mishima is lucid in the midst of emotional confusion, funny in the midst of despair' Christopher Isherwood 'Never has a "confession" been freer from self-pity' Sunday Times

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Product Details

Publisher
Penguin Books Ltd | Penguin Classics
Published
7th September 2017
Pages
176
ISBN
9780241301197

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$23.41
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