James Joyce

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce

A unique edition: beautifully formatted;large, optimized, easy-to-read fonts; annotated with additional articles about the book and the Author; also contains several photos.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man follows the intellectual, moral and spiritual development of a young Catholic Irishman, Stephen Dedalus, and his struggle against the restrictions his culture imposes. Portrait can be placed in the tradition of the bildungsroman-novels that trace the personal development of the protagonist, usually from childhood through to adulthood. Joyce contrasts the rebellion and the experimentation of adolescence with the sombre influence of Stephen's Catholic education. For example, his startled enjoyment of sexual experience in chapter 2 is followed by the famous 'Hellfire sermon' in chapter 3 which leaves him fearing for his soul.

In many respects, the novel represents Joyce's own artistic development, and Stephen plays out fictionalized versions of many of his author's experiences: the episode surrounding the death of the disgraced Irish home-rule leader Charles Stuart Parnell has many similarities with the arguments this event caused in the Joyce household.

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