A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION Set against the turbulent background of the emerging Irish nation state, this autobiographical novel follows the early life and development of its central character, Stephen Dedalus (who also appears in Joyce's later novel, Ulysses), describing his boyhood, the bullying he suffered at school, the growing crisis in his faith, and the guilt surrounding his awakening sexuality and the sometimes precocious adventures which sprang from it. This account leads, in the later part of the book, to a consideration of the role of the artist and his destiny, a destiny which may oblige him to leave his homeland in order to confront the wider world and thereby work through the spectrum of conscience. As well as the Irish dimension, the novel deals with the seismic changes in Western attitudes in the early part of the twentieth century, as the old order crumbled and new concepts of social organisation - cultural, economic and political - took hold. The novel that was to become A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man began to take shape between 1901 and 1906 with a work Joyce entided Stephen Hero. He later completely rewrote the book but partially destroyed it following its rejection by a publisher. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was initially serialised in The Egoist during 1914-15, and was first published in book form in America in 1916, and in Britain in 1917. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a classic novel of Ireland and Irishness at the time of the birth of the Irish Free State, but it is far more than that and covers many of the issues of conscience, art, being, and feeling that are at the centre of Western culture and 'art' in its broadest sense. Although the book is relatively conventional in its form, it does anticipate some of the stylistically revolutionary themes in Joyce's subsequent novel - Ulysses. James Augustine Aloysim Joyce was bom on 2nd February 1882 in Rathgar, Dublin. He was educated at the Jesuit institutions Clongowes Wood College, Belvedere College, and University College, Dublin, ¦where Gogarty was a fellow student. Those influencing Joyce included