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  • Published: 1 June 2001
  • ISBN: 9780099285670
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 256
  • RRP: $22.99

The Temple of the Golden Pavilion




'One of the outstanding writers of the world' New York Times

Because of the boyhood trauma of seeing his mother make love to another man in the presence of his dying father, Mizoguchi becomes a hopeless stutterer. Taunted by his schoolmates, he feels utterly alone untill he becomes an acolyte at a famous temple in Kyoto, where he develops an all-consuming obsession with the temple's beauty. This powerful story of dedication and sacrifice brings together Mishima's preoccupations with violence, desire, religion and national history to dazzling effect.

  • Published: 1 June 2001
  • ISBN: 9780099285670
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 256
  • RRP: $22.99

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.

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Praise for The Temple of the Golden Pavilion

A dark vision...a beautiful, disturbing novel

Los Angeles Times

Mishima writes with a fury that seldom flags

Glasgow Herald

Glitters with images of beauty and destruction, cruelty and sacrifice, dedication and betrayal

The Times

An amazing literary feat

Chicago Tribune

I adore Mishima's prose and vivid descriptions. They pull me out of my daily reality

Amanda Harlech, Harpers Bazaar

Read simply as the story of the man who burned a famous building, it is constantly absorbing. But additional layers of meaning seem to reveal themselves, different for each reader.

A dark vision...a beautiful, disturbing novel

Los Angeles Times

Mishima writes with a fury that seldom flags

Glasgow Herald

Glitters with images of beauty and destruction, cruelty and sacrifice, dedication and betrayal

The Times

An amazing literary feat

Chicago Tribune

I adore Mishima's prose and vivid descriptions. They pull me out of my daily reality

Amanda Harlech, Harpers Bazaar