A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is the first novel by Irish writer James Joyce. It follows the intellectual, moral and spiritual development of a young Catholic Irishman, Stephen Dedalus, and his struggle against the restrictions his culture imposes. Portrait can be placed in the tradition of the bildungsroman – novels that trace the personal development of the protagonist, usually from childhood through to adulthood. The work uses techniques that Joyce developed more fully in his later works – Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939).

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a novel of sexual awakening, religious rebellion and the essential search for voice and meaning that every nascent artist must face in order to blossom fully into themselves.