The first novel of Mishima's landmark tetralogy, The Sea of fertility Spring Snow is set in Tokyo in 1912, when the hermetic world of the ancient aristocracy is being breached for the first time by outsiders -- rich provincial families unburdened by tradition, whose money and vitality make them formidable contenders for social and political power. Among this rising new elite are the ambitious Matsugae, whose son has been raised in a family of the waning aristocracy, the elegant and attenuated Ayakura. Coming of age, he is caught up in the tensions between old and new -- fiercely loving and hating the exquisite, spirited Ayakura Satoko. He suffers in psychic paralysis until the shock of her engagement to a royal prince shows him the magnitude of his passion, and leads to a love affair that is as doomed as it was inevitable. "Mishima is like Stendhal in his precise psychological analyses, like Dostoevsky in his explorations of darkly destructive personalities." -- Christian Science Monitor "[The Sea of Fertility] is a literary legacy on the scale of Proust's." -- National Review Translated from the Japanese by Michael Gallagher

三岛由纪夫（1925-1970）是日本著名作家，怪异鬼才，“日本传统文学的骄子”，两次被诺贝尔文学奖提名为该奖候选人。日本著名比较文学研究家千叶宣一认为三岛与普鲁斯特、乔伊斯、托马斯·曼齐名，是20世纪四大代表作家之一。美国的日本文学研究权威唐纳德·金认为三岛是“世界上无与伦比的天才作家”。

三岛在文学上探索着多种的艺术道路，集浪漫、唯美与古典主义于一身，特别是采取日本古典主义与希腊古典主义结合的创作方法，描写男性的生与死的美所取得的艺术成就，是各方公认的。在美学的追求上，三岛着力于对深层心理的挖掘，从隐微的颓唐中探求人性的真实。

以生活为题材向艺术挑战，以肉体为本向精神挑战，这便是三岛作品的真正意义。

三岛主要代表作品有《金阁寺》、《潮骚》、《假面的告白》、《春雪》、《奔马》、《禁色》、《镜子之家》等。