A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man : (riverrun editions)
(Autor) James Joyce'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man begins with one of the most arresting opening sentences in literature' Patrick McGuinness, from his Preface. A Portrait first appeared in instalments in the modernist magazine The Egoist in 1914, before it came out as a book in 1916, the year of the Easter Rising against British rule in Ireland. An autobiographical 'coming of age' story, A Portrait is Joyce's first novel. Many elements of Joyce's own life - his Catholic schooling, his family circumstances and his father's financial difficulties, as well as his sexual, political and artistic awakenings - are fictionalized and in it he skilfully extend the English language, as it opens with a child's voice rendered by a third-person narrator, and closes with the mature Stephen's first-person reflections.
James Joyce
James Joyce was an Irish writer known for his innovative and complex writing style. His most notable works include "Dubliners," "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," "Ulysses," and "Finnegans Wake." Joyce's stream-of-consciousness technique and use of interior monologue revolutionized modernist literature. His works often explore themes of alienation, identity, and the search for meaning in a rapidly changing world. "Ulysses," considered his masterpiece, is a groundbreaking novel that follows the events of a single day in Dublin, paralleling Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey." Joyce's unique narrative techniques and experimental prose have had a profound influence on the development of the modern novel.