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James Joyce's first novel, poignant and semi-autobiographical, is brought to the reader anew in this splendid edition.
First published in 1916, this story follows the unconventional and iconoclastic Stephen Dedalus, a young artist and thinker strongly modelled upon Joyce. In part autobiographical, the story charts the departure of Dedalus from traditional Irish views of Catholicism. As a result of this stifling, Stephen embarks on a journey of self-exile to Europe, where his artistic awakening and development proceeds apace.
As with other works of Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man is notable for its original stylistic elements: through the use of free indirect speech, we witness the steady evolution of Dedalus's mind as he encounters and absorbs new locales and experiences. The change of outlook and philosophy, whereby the young man embraces aestheticism and a love of beauty, comes in spite of the advice of his best friend Cranly to make compromise with the deep traditions of Ireland.
About the author
1882-1941. Born in Dublin, Ireland, into a family of ten children, Joyce showed singular intelligence and a gift for writing from an early age. After leaving University College Dublin with a degree in modern languages, Joyce emigrated to Europe, living in Italy, Zurich and Paris. A string of short stories, including Dubliners, were followed by his first novel, Portrait of an Artist in 1916, and then the controversial but very successful Ulysses in 1922, a work in which he perfected his stream-of-consciousness style and made his name as a great literary figure. Joyce died in Zurich in 1941, two years after the publication of Finnegans Wake, his long-awaited follow up novel which earned him further honours.
