Although not a required text for school, Portrait is an excellent read, especially when considering the importance of Joyce in the greater pantheon of English literature. The novel follows Irishman Stephen Dedalus, from birth to early adulthood, as he experiences a traditional late nineteenth century Irish Catholic upbringing. Portrait is a bildungsroman (coming of age story), with the main character’s life mimicking Joyce’s own. How does one’s life shape them? A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the first and most approachable novel of acclaimed Irish author James Joyce, aims to answer this question, or at the very least ask it. “I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can” – James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
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