Editions

Confessions of a Mask

  • Imprint: Penguin Classics

  • ISBN: 9780241301197

  • Length: 176  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 10mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 134g

  • RRP: £8.99

Confessions of a Mask

'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

  • Imprint: Penguin Classics

  • ISBN: 9780241301197

  • Length: 176  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 10mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 134g

  • RRP: £8.99

Reviews

  • 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

  • A writer of immense energy and ability

    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

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 realizing this, Mishima performed seppuku, a ritual suicide, upon himself. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize for literature three times.

Yukio Mishima

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