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Like many, I read A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in my youth. Now, much later (50 years), I am struck by the evolution within this autobiographical novel of its language, paralleling the growth of the "young man" himself. And I am reminded that Joyce had, and still has, the largest vocabulary of any author--it is said that Ulysses has 30,000 different words, including tenses (by comparison, Shakespeare had a vocabulary of over 10,000 words, an incredible ten times the average person of his era). In addition, the power of Joyce's description of Hell is unparalleled, except perhaps, but only perhaps, by Dante. Read during my first extended visit to Ireland, this book fulfills its reputation as one of the five best English books of the 20th Century.
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I have been afraid of James Joyce for many years. Finally, I found the courage to read "The Dubliners." It was excellent, and very readable. I read advice from people about how to approach reading, "Ulysses." I followed the advice that said, "Just read it. Don't attempt to look up every obscure reference. Keep up your momentum." Thanks to iPad I can look up many references very rapidly. There were only two sections of "stream of consciousness" and the advice to let it flow was right for me. I got through the book and was thrilled that I not only read it, but enjoyed it. Then came, "The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man." Having warmed up on "The Dubliners," and reached full throttle on "Ulysses," I decided to keep going with Joyce's works. "Portrait of the Artist ...," is now stylistically familiar, as is Dublin and even the author. I don't know how autobiographical the book is, but it doesn't matter. The young man is interesting, introspective, and deeply committed to his perspective. I still struggle with many references, but now I understand quite a few, and that enriches the experience. Fear of Joyce probably causes many people to miss a wonderful literary experience. These books are very high on my list of great experiences.
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This novel/memoir deserves its status as a classic. It's a touching and intimate look into the heart and mind of the artist as he grows from a sensitive, open child, through his alienated youth, into a creative adult. I find some of the religious rants overlong; we get the idea of why they would turn a creative, questioning boy's heart cold long before they come to an end. But there's no story I've ever read that has let the reader experience a character's life and spirit better than this.
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While I can understand why this boo is considered a classic, it was awfully long winded for me. Pages and pages of hell fire and damnation sermons, along with more pages and pages spent musing on religion and politics. It is a coming of age novel and perhaps I would have enjoyed it more when I was younger and more tormented. It is beautifully written, but wordy.
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This is one of the two great revolutionary novelists of the early 20th century in the making (The other revolutionary is Proust). From the gurgling infant, bullied schoolboy, adolescent aesthete, sometimes sensualist, Stephen matures into the commanding artist. I would have given the book four stars, but then what grade would be left for his masterpiece, Ulysses?
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James Joyce at his most accessible and human. The true story of growing up and into a writer's voice, from toddlerhood to young manhood. Really affecting.
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While historical, this story just isn't funny enough to read through all the drama and insults. Yes, insults. Joyce uses vulgar humor (blue comedy) to emphasize that: - The protagonist cannot escape the literal and metaphorical crap of the world. This is most apparent in the first two chapters in how Stephen continues to come across cow dung and then latter on, uses it to torture his senses.
- Sexual desires are inescapable. He does this by narrating the scene of Stephen's "first" sexual encounter with that of the confession to the priest. He uses words to emphasize that Stephen is metaphorically getting some sexual satisfaction from the priest.That is to say, that the environment that Stephen travels is similar and the result is the same: Stephen finishes up and bows his head to surrender himself.
-etc
Yet, for all these small moments, this story is just a bunch of dama about someone being sexually confused and allegories to Irish politics and Victorian era policy. Nothing special, at least if you have read enough "modernist" literature.
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I would give 5 stars for the book, but not this free edition. Some annotations would have been of great help if not solely for the translation of Latin. I feel I missed out on key information because of my lack of understanding of Latin. Don't get me wrong, there isn't a great deal of Latin in the book, but the few passages that there are, I felt in a fog, with a lack of clear understanding as to the authors intent.
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