Mishima's first volume, The Forest in Full Bloom (Hanazakari no Mori …), is a collection of precociously decadent and detachedly romantic stories, many of which recollect a colorful but boring upper-class life long gone even then. Also they provide a heavy dose of nationalistic rhetoric glorifying the beauty and elegance of the Imperial past—a fact interesting in view of their author's later works. The elaborate and archaic vocabulary and general aloofness to the drab and wretched scenes of wartime Japan similarly foreshadow his mature works, whose motifs, images, and themes are already apparent. With Confessions of a Mask …, Mishima entered the forefront of the Tokyo literati. (pp. 145-46)

Overall, the progress of the plot [in Confessions of a Mask] follows the protagonist's growing-up years with no temporal disruption. Structurally, however, there is no clear beginning, middle, and end, nor is the division into four [chapters] marked by any...