A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man, is often cited as one of the finest works of fiction ever written. It traces the intellectual and religio-philosophical awakening of young Stephen Dedalus, a fictional alter ego of Joyce and an allusion to Daedalus, the consummate craftsman of Greek mythology.

A masterpiece of semiautobiographical literature, this coming-of-age story focuses upon the psyche of its narrator, Stephen Dedalus, allowing the reader to experience Stephen’s evolving intellect and worldview intimately. This experience is further enhanced by Joyce’s initial experimentations with the Modernist stream-of-consciousness techniques which would come to define his later works.

JAMES JOYCE (1882-1941), one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century, transformed the art of fiction. Author of numerous novels short stories and poems, including Ulysses, Finnegan’s Wake, Dubliners and Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man, he is considered, along with Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner, a central figure in the development of the modern novel.