A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
by James Joyce
Perhaps Joyce's most personal work, Portrait of an Artist in His Youth, depicts the intellectual awakening of Stephen Dedalus, one of literature's most memorable young heroes. Through a series of brilliant epiphany parallel to his own aesthetic consciousness, Joyce evokes Stephen's youth, from his vulnerable years as the youngest student at Clongowed Wood School, to the deep religious conflict he experienced in his day school in Dublin, and finally to his university studies, where he challenged the traditions of his upbringing and his sense of faith and intellectual freedom. James Joyce's highly autobiographical novel was first published in the United States for immediate recognition. Ezra Pound correctly predicted that Joyce's book would "remain an enduring part of English literature," while H.G. Wells called it "the most important vivid and compelling painting that ever existed in Irish Catholic education." An extremely rich work of the burgeoning young mind, this work left an indelible mark on literature and confirmed Joyce's reputation as one of the world's greatest and longest-lived writers.
