After The Banquet.

MISHIMA, Yukio.

$2,500.00

Item Number: 129580

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1963.

First edition in English of “the biggest and most profound thing Mishima has done so far in an already distinguished career” (The New Yorker). Octavo, original half cloth. Translated from the Japanese by Donald Keene. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “To Mr. & Mrs. Ronald Preston with the author’s best wishes Yukio Mishima.” Very good in a very good dust jacket. Jacket design by Fumi Komatsu. Rare signed.

Kazu, one of the leading figures of the entertainment world, is a woman blazing with vitality. She is the mistress of the Setsugoan Restaurant, a luxurious refuge for leading financiers, politicians, and diplomats. If she is sure of anything as she takes her morning walks in her cherished garden, it is that she will never becloud her life and mind again by falling in love. But she is captivated by the distinction and authority of a guest, Noguchi, aristocrat and intellectual, once a cabinet minister. Kazu and Noguchi are profoundly drawn to each other at first, and only time and spiritual agony teach them how mismatched they are. "The biggest and most profound thing Mishima has done so far in an already distinguished career" (The New Yorker).