A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
by James Joyce
First published 1916 · English · 384 pages
- Novels
- Love and romance
This novel follows Stephen Dedalus, a boy growing up in Ireland at the end of the nineteenth century. We see him as a child at a strict Catholic boarding school, then as a restless student in Dublin, as he struggles with family, religion, nation and his own desires.
Joyce draws on his own youth, and the language itself matures with Stephen, from baby talk to complex thought. The book is about the making of an artist and the need to find independence. It is a landmark of modern fiction and a clear introduction to Joyce's methods.
Quotes
I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it call itself my home, my fatherland, or my church.
Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.
accomplished. The artist, like the God of creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails.
When the soul of a man is born in this country there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight.