A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

James Joyce’s first novel, A Portrait of the Artist of a Young Man tells the story of Joyce’s own beginnings and his eventual awakening against his orthodox upbringing.

Summary of the Book

Stephen Dedalus was born into an orthodox family, and he began his education in a simple Jesuit-run Clongowes Wood College. The other schoolboys make fun of him for being unable to understand the code of behavior, and the intelligent but apprehensive young Stephen feels alienated. At home he sees his family being split by discord over the social, political, and religious tensions in Ireland concerning Charles Stewart Parnell. Stephen soon begins to question which social institutions he can trust. When his family moves to Dublin because of their debts, he leaves his Clongowes and finds a new place at Belvedere College. He begins to outshine the other students and soon becomes a class leader. He wins some money at the college and squanders it on prostitutes, distancing himself from his father. Semi-autobiographical in nature, James Joyce’s novel speaks of his own journey towards aestheticism and how he learnt the value of art. The language is particularly unique as it matures with Stephen himself, the first lines describing the journey of a moocow and the last progressing towards Stephen’s love for beauty and art. Joyce’s style emerges early, and hints at the juggernaut of fiction that he becomes through his later novels in this debut.

About James Joyce

James Augustine Alyosius Joyce was an Irish writer and poet. He spearheaded the the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century and is best remembered for Ulysses, Dubliners and Finnegan’s Wake.

The current title was adapted into a feature length film in 1977 starring Bosco Hogan as Stephen Dedalus and T. P. McKenna as Simon Dedalus. The novel is considered to be an example of a Künstlerroman in modernist style.