Spring Snow

The Sea of Fertility #1

by Yukio Mishima, Michael Gallagher (Translator)

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780099282990

Tokyo, 1912. The closed world of the ancient aristocracy is being breached for the first time by outsiders - rich provincial familes, a new and powerful political and social elite. Kiyoaki has been raised among the elegant Ayakura family - members of the waning aristocracy - but he is not one of them. Coming of age, he is caught up in the tensions between old and new, and his feelings for the exquisite, spirited Satoko, observed from the sidelines by his devoted friend Honda. When Satoko is engaged to a royal prince, Kiyoaki realises the magnitude of his passion.

Genres: Fiction, Japan, Japanese Literature, Classics, Historical Fiction, Literature, Novels

389 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Yukio Mishima (三島 由紀夫) was born in Tokyo in 1925. He graduated from Tokyo Imperial University’s School of Jurisprudence in 1947. His first published book, The Forest in Full Bloom, appeared in 1944 and he established himself as a major author with Confessions of a Mask (1949). From then until his death he continued to publish novels, short stories, and plays each year. His crowning achievement, the Sea of Fertility tetralogy—which contains the novels Spring Snow (1969), Runaway Horses (1969), The Temple of Dawn (1970), and The Decay of the Angel (1971)—is considered one of the definitive works of twentieth-century Japanese fiction. In 1970, at the age of forty-five and the day after completing the last novel in the Fertility series, Mishima committed seppuku (ritual suicide)—a spectacular death that attracted worldwide attention.

Reviews

[Pavlina Polaskova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jedna z nejkrásnějších knih, co jsem kdy četla.
Navzdory známé misogynii (tady spíše tušené, jsem na to citlivá a nijak mě to nerušilo) i lehké sebestředné nesnesitelnosti hlavního hrdiny, koneckonců je mu na začátku knihy devatenáct.
Skandální láska i její konec, i když to tak jistě nemuselo být, všechny ty velké emoce, které v mladé dospělosti člověk má a které vedou k fatalistickému pohledu na všechno, pocit, že tohle je vrchol a odtud už všechno vždycky bude jenom horší (again, je mu devatenáct).
Nádherné obrazy a symboly, dělala jsem si pauzy, aby mi to doznělo a nutila jsem všechny své kamarády, aby čekali dlouhé minuty, než v tlusté knize nalistuju tu jednu větu, kterou jim nutně musím přečíst.

Až budu mít chvíli, pár jich sem přidám.