The Sound of Waves.

MISHIMA, Yukio.

$4,000.00

Item Number: 131297

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1956.

First edition in English, preceding the British first by one year of “this classic work, its action might take place at any point across a thousand years” (The New York Times). Octavo, original cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “To Dorothy Norman with the author’s best wishes Yukio Mishima at the X’mas time 1957.” Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket painting by Jose de Almeida. Translated by Meredith Weatherby. Drawings by Yoshinori Kinoshita. Rare and desirable signed.

Set in a remote fishing village in Japan, The Sound of Waves is a timeless story of first love. A young fisherman is entranced at the sight of the beautiful daughter of the wealthiest man in the village. They fall in love, but must then endure the calumny and gossip of the villagers. "Mishima is like Stendhal in his precise psychological analyses, like Dostoevsky in his explorations of darkly destructive personalities" (Christian Science Monitor).