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Runaway Horses
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Check link for latest rating. ( 8,770 ratings, 774 reviews)
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Format: Paperback / softback
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See moreIsao is a young, engaging patriot, and a fanatical believer in the ancient samurai ethos. He turns terrorist, organising a violent plot against the new industrialists, who he believes are threatening the integrity of Japan and usurping the Emperor's rightful power.
The second novel in Mishima's masterful Sea of Fertility tetraology
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Description
The second novel in Mishima's masterful Sea of Fertility tetralogy.
Runaway Horses is the second book in Mishima's Sea of Fertility tetralogy. It is a story of political violence, traditional samurai values, and nihilism.
Isao is a young, engaging patriot and a fanatical believer in the ancient samurai ethos. He turns terrorist, organising a violent plot against the new industrialists, whom he believes are threatening the integrity of Japan and usurping the Emperor's rightful power. As the conspiracy unfolds and unravels, Mishima brilliantly chronicles the conflicts of a decade that saw the fabric of Japanese life torn apart.
Runaway Horses is described as disturbing material and a harbinger of Mishima's own act of "patriotic" self-slaughter... Strange, elegant, erotic (Guardian).
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Yukio Mishima's Runaway Horses explores the profound desire to preserve beauty at its peak to prevent its inevitable decline. The book is praised as a part of Mishima's significant tetralogy dealing with themes of death, sexuality, and samurai ethics, reflecting on Japan's socio-cultural transformations through the 20th century. The novel is recognised for blending Eastern and Western traditions with a unique and compelling intensity, establishing Mishima as a leading figure in 20th-century literature.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780099282891
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 11 March 1999
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Vintage Classics
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 28.0mm
Width: 129.0mm
Height: 195.0mm
Weight: 296g
Pages: 432
About the Author
Yukio Mishima was born into a samurai family and imbued with the code of complete control over mind and body, and loyalty to the Emperor - the same code that produced the austerity and self-sacrifice of Zen. He wrote countless stories and thirty-three plays, in some of which he performed. Several films have been made from his novels, including The Sound of Waves, Enjo which was based on The Temple of the Golden Pavilion and The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea. Among his other works are the novels Confessions of a Mask and Thirst for Love and the short story collections Death in Midsummer and Acts of Worship. The Sea of Fertility tetralogy, however, is his masterpiece. After Mishima conceived the idea of The Sea of Fertility in 1964, he frequently said he would die when it was completed. On 25 November 1970, the day he completed The Decay of the Angel, the last novel of the cycle, Mishima committed seppuku (ritual suicide) at the age of forty-five.
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