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Yukio Mishima

Thirst for Love Hardcover – June 1 1970

by Yukio Mishima (Author), A.H. Marks (Translator)

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Sexual torment, jealousy, and impossible-to-resolve longing, Mishima's Thirst for Love is a portrait of the corrosive power of frustrated desire. The protaganist is Etsuko, a young widow whose philandering husband died horribly from typhoid. After moving into the house of her father-in-law, her misery deepens as she numbly submits to the old man's advances. But soon Etsuko falls in love with the young servant, Saburo. Tormented by his indifference yet invigorated by her anguish, she makes one last, catastrophic, bid for his attentions. Praise for Yukio Mishima

“One of the outstanding writers of the world.”—The New York Times

“Like his Western counterparts—Mann, Joyce, Pound, Elliot, and Yeats—Mishima manages in his art to attain the laughter of the gods.”—San Francisco Examiner

Print length

187 pages
Publisher

Secker & Warburg
Publication date

June 1 1970
ISBN-10

0436281546
ISBN-13

978-0436281549
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Product description

From Library Journal

Published in the United States during the 1960s but written years earlier, this Mishima trio, while vastly different in plot, all sport the common theme of idealism destroyed by reality. Nearly three decades after his death, Mishima continues to be a compelling novelist. (LJ 1/15/63, LJ 3/15/68, LJ 9/1/69)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

About the Author

Yukio Mishima was born in Tokyo in 1925. He graduated from Tokyo Imperial University’s School of Jurisprudence in 1947. His first published book, The Forest in Full Bloom, appeared in 1944. He established himself as a major author with Confessions of a Mask (1949). From then until his death he continued to publish novels, short stories, and plays each year. His crowning achievement, The Sea of Fertility tetralogy—which contains the novels Spring Snow (1969), Runaway Horses (1969), The Temple of Dawn (1970), and The Decay of the Angel (1971)—is considered one of the definitive works of twentieth-century Japanese fiction. In 1970, at the age of forty-five and the day after completing the last novel in the Fertility series, Mishima committed seppuku (ritual suicide)—a spectacular death that attracted worldwide attention. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Secker & Warburg (June 1 1970)
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 187 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0436281546
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0436281549
Item weight ‏ : ‎ 322 g

Customer Reviews:
94 ratings

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Yukio Mishima

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Yukio Mishima (三島由紀夫 Mishima Yukio?) is the pen name of Kimitake Hiraoka (平岡公威 Hiraoka Kimitake?, January 14, 1925 – November 25, 1970), a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, and film director. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968 but the award went to his fellow countryman Yasunari Kawabata. His works include the novels Confessions of a Mask and The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, and the autobiographical essay Sun and Steel. His avant-garde work displayed a blending of modern and traditional aesthetics that broke cultural boundaries, with a focus on sexuality, death, and political change. Mishima was active as a nationalist and founded his own right-wing militia. He is remembered for his ritual suicide by seppuku after a failed coup d'état attempt, known as the "Mishima Incident".

The Mishima Prize was established in 1988 to honor his life and works.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Shirou Aoyama (http://www.bungakukan.or.jp/) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

94 global ratings

5 star		62%
4 star		20%
3 star		14%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from Canada

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esperanca c.

Love story

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 19, 2021

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A famous writer who talks about Japan’s culture.

Helpful

Angry Mofo

Unsatisfying early effort from Mishima.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 15, 2002

Thirst For Love was only Mishima's second novel, and it shows. It could probably have been made into something great, but the author was either too hasty to finish it or simply didn't know what to do. Despite its great title, it's somewhat of a disappointment. I figure it was an attempt at writing an anti-romance, some kind of complete inversion of the concept of the love story. Well, it wasn't a success. The first half of the book is mired in scenes that don't go anywhere (such as the grotesque flashback where Etsuko's husband dies - did we really need that? why was it included?), and this makes the developments of the second half a bit of a shock. It seemed rather sudden how Etsuko's mild interest in the gardener Saburo turned into complete obsession. Certain aspects of the book sorely needed more attention from the author - Yakichi's attitude toward Etsuko could have been turned into something involving, but ends up being a mere tangent, a check mark on the laundry list of plot points. Had Mishima further developed the backstory of the family, we might have understood what lay behind the enmity between its various members, but it went almost completely unexplained, and said members end up coming across as spiteful for no reason. On the other hand, there are plot lines that are completely pointless and blatantly fabricated and yet are for some reason drawn out to great length - namely, the utterly inane subplot with the socks Etsuko buys.
Admittedly, the bit about the festival conveys the appropriate feeling of frenzy. Also, Mishima does a fine job of showing the dichotomy between the overly sensitive, wounded Etsuko and the utterly uncaring, "light man" Saburo. But these are small parts; the whole just isn't all that good. And let's not even get started on the deliberately "shocking" ending, which goes completely against what little character development Mishima bothered to put in. I got the feeling that he simply didn't know how to end the story, and so took the first way out that occurred to him; it would have been better if he had given it a little more thought. In fact, that can be said of just about everything in this book apart from the title. Feel free to skip it and go straight to the masterpiece The Sound Of Waves.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 10, 1999

Mishima is a fascinating and intoxicating author to me, but I felt a little disappointed with Thirst for Love after having read the Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea. It seems less focused somehow; I found certain segments a bit dull and the end somewhat dissatisfying (not just because it wasn't "happy.") But, those are just the cons -- I still think this is quite a book. Etsuko's psychology is fascinating, and there are some great moments. Quality, unconventional stuff.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on November 14, 2002

the guy below doesnt know what he is talking about, he didnt understand anything

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Top reviews from other countries

Bardo Boy

Remorseless

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 10, 2014

Verified Purchase

This book in my opinion stands shoulder to shoulder with the rest of Mishima's work. If desire itself is taken as the main character, it works magnificently. The book is an excoriating study of the insatiability of desire. Mishima dissects our 'thirst for love' through his characters experience of; exploitation, abandonment, sublimation, avoidance, humiliation, infidelity as well as Etsuko's dark response.

Etsuko, a widowed and cheated on middle aged woman, has had her desire frustrated by circumstances throughout her life. Mishima charts her attempts to negotiate an actual unfulfilling love and an imagined seemingly unobtainable one. This book is the antithesis of The Sound Of Waves and forms a shocking contrast to it. Yet Mishima writes with such genius evoking humans feelings and manipulations with searing honesty. His description of the minutia of desire is remarkable.

He gives us no truly sympathetic or unsympathetic characters - even the object of Etsuko's desire, the 'innocent' Saburo could be seen as thoughtless. The narrative's compelling force comes from the dragging into the light the shadowy feelings and actions we all know and would probably rather forget. For that reason many may find this book a painful experience. For me though the brave light it shines in the dark corners of the human psyche is worth it.

5 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Item as described

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 6, 2021

Verified Purchase

Book described as used but in good condition and this is a fair description of the book I received.

singinghinny

If you like Japanese literature you will like this

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 16, 2015

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In many ways, typical of Japanese literature, slow moving, restrained emotion, yet I liked it on it's level.

Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 24, 2016

Verified Purchase

satisfied

Marco Callegari

Below expectations

Reviewed in Italy 🇮🇹 on July 25, 2014

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Unfortunately this book is below expectations and I've been not able to finish it... Anyhow a deep book, and Mishima is a great writer, in this case it's simply me... I was expecting something different, it's a poetic and descriptive book ... not so passionate, dark and weird as I was hoping. My error basically...but maybe my comments are helping your expectations.

I would not like to add much more comments, because books are also about feelings and personal taste.

Let's say that I've read Murakami (both the Murakami...) and they are - to my personal view - into another level of reader's involvement, since the firs lines.

I hope my comment could be of any help.

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Follow the Author

Thirst for Love Hardcover – June 1 1970

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Product description

From Library Journal

About the Author

Product details

About the author

Yukio Mishima

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