Shelfology Book Pairing

Introduction by Donald Keene

by Yukio Mishima

In The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, celebrated Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima creates a haunting portrait of a young man’s obsession with idealized beauty and his destructive quest to possess it fully. Mizoguchi, an ostracized stutterer, develops a childhood fascination with Kyoto’s famous Golden Temple. While an acolyte at the temple, he fixates on the structure’s aesthetic perfection and it becomes his one and only object of desire. But as Mizoguchi begins to perceive flaws in the temple, he determines that the only true path to beauty lies in an act of horrific violence. Based on a real incident that occurred in 1950, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion brilliantly portrays the passions and agonies of a young man in postwar Japan, bringing to the subject the erotic imagination and instinct for the dramatic moment that marked Mishima as one of the towering makers of modern fiction. With an introduction by Donald Keene; Translated from the Japanese by Ivan Morris.

The Timeless Tale of Survival in the Wild North

by Jack London

Stolen from the warmth of a California home, Buck is thrust into the unforgiving wilderness of the Yukon. There, amid snowstorms, sled teams, and desperate gold seekers, he must fight for survival in a world ruled by strength and cunning. Gradually, the comforts of civilization fall away, and the ancient voice of the wild begins to call him. With vivid scenes of the Klondike frontier, The Call of the Wild is one of Jack London’s most powerful tales of nature, courage, and transformation. This is the English-language hardcover edition of the novel. Jack London. The Call of the Wild. The Call of the Wild was first published in serial form in The Saturday Evening Post in 1903. The first book edition was published by Macmillan, New York, in 1903. Vollständige Neuausgabe, 1. Auflage, Göttingen 2026. LIWI Literatur- und Wissenschaftsverlag