“Completing this great novel - 'The Sea of Fertility' - makes me feel that the end of the world has come...” wrote Yukio Mishima in October 1970. By November, he was dead - following a ritual suicide.
Consisting of four parts, 'The Sea of Fertility' represents the blossoming of Mishima's quirky genius. 'Spring Snow' is a gentle and moving love story. In 'Runaway Horses', its bloody sequel, a far-right terrorist takes center stage. In 'The Temple of Dawn', a Thai princess is mystically connected to the heroes of the previous works. 'The Decadent Angel' is a work as thrilling and romantic as the previous ones, but imbued with a farewell sadness.
On November 25, 1970, Yukio Mishima, at the height of his brilliant literary career, shocked the world with his ritual suicide by disembowelment (hara-kiri, or more correctly, seppuku). Mishima often refers to themes of suicide and premature death in his works, and he expressed many times his desire to die young. He completed this tetralogy, his last work, on the morning of the day of his death.
Shortly before committing suicide, he wrote to his friends that he felt empty, having given all his beliefs and feelings about life to this colossal endeavor, which was later praised as a masterpiece.
[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]
