Death in Midsummer

Yukio Mishima

Death in Midsummer presents nine of Mishima's finest short stories, selected by the writer himself.  They represent his extraordinary ability to depict, with deftness and penetration, a wide variety of human beings during significant moments.  His characters are geisha who request wishes from the moon, esthetes who scorn yet follow tradition, and seppuku-committing soldiers and their loyal wives who follow them in death.  Death in Midsummer also includes one of Mishima's "modern Noh plays," remarkable for its uncanny intensity.  The English versions of these stories were made by four outstanding translators" Donald Keene, Ivan Morris, Geoffrey Sargent, and Edward Seidensticker.