Decay of the Angel

Name: Decay of the Angel
Rating: 4.09375 (16 reviews)
Author: Yukio Mishima
ISBN: 9781407053677

by Yukio Mishima, Edward G. Seidensticker

4.1

(16 ratings)

256 pages1970Penguin Random HouseISBN 9781407053677

sad Character driven Strong Character Development Unloveable Characters Not Diverse Characters Psychology Fiction Classics sad mysterious A mix driven Strong Character Development Unloveable Characters Not Diverse Characters General

challengingdarkemotionalreflectivemediumdarktensereflectiveemotionalslow

About this book

Yukio Mishima’s The Decay of the Angel is the final novel in his masterful tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility. It is the last installment of Shigekuni Honda’s pursuit of the successive reincarnations of his childhood friend Kiyoaki Matsugae. It is the late 1960s and Honda, now an aged and wealthy man, once more encounters a person he believes to be a reincarnation of his friend, Kiyoaki — this time restored to life as a teenage orphan, Tōru. Adopting the boy as his heir, Honda quickly finds that Tōru is a force to be reckoned with. The final novel of this celebrated tetralogy weaves together the dominant themes of the previous three novels in the series: the decay of Japan’s courtly tradition; the essence and value of Buddhist philosophy and aesthetics; and, underlying all, Mishima’s apocalyptic vision of the modern era.

Publication Details

Publisher: Penguin Random House
Published: 1970
Pages: 256
ISBN: 9781407053677

About Yukio Mishima

Kimitake Hiraoka (平岡公威, Hiraoka Kimitake; 14 January 1925 – 25 November 1970), known by his pen name Yukio Mishima (三島由紀夫, Mishima Yukio), was a Japanese writer, playwright, actor, martial artist, model, and the leader of an attempted coup d'état that culminated in his ritual suicide by *seppuku.* Mishima is considered one of the most important postwar stylists of the Japanese language. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times in the 1960s. His works include the novels *Confessions of a Mask* and *The Temple of the Golden Pavilion,* and the autobiographical essay *Sun and Steel.* Mishima's political activities made him a controversial figure. From his mid-30s onwards, his far-right ideology and reactionary beliefs became increasingly evident. ([Source][1]) [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukio_Mishima