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Summary: The Flight of the Author from Dublin
Review: This book is one that has stayed with me and continues to infiltrate my thoughts and ideas daily. I often find myself mulling over the path of Stephen Dedalus through this book. He begins as an innocent child mired in the sins of his family, country, and religion. He finishes by breaking the bonds that chain him to the earth to soar from Dublin as a great "artificer." The painful, glorious growth of a soul reaching for truth and beauty is chronicled here in sharp intensity. When Stephen is castigated unfairly by Father Dolan he bravely reports the breach to the rector. This bravery is soon rewarded with sneering jibes by his father who relays to Stephan that he has had a good laugh about the incident with Father Dolan. "'You better mind yourself, Father Dolan,' said I,'or young Dedalus will send you up for twice nine.' We had a famous laugh together over it. Ha! Ha! Ha!" The betrayal by both his father and the church is very intense and painful, a slap in the face. During his adolesence Stephen endures overwhelming sexual desire coupled with a contrary and all consuming reverance for the teachings of the Catholic church. These two opposing compulsions come to a crisis with the retreat in honor of Saint Francis Xavier. During this retreat, Father Arnell gives sermons on the four last things: death, judgement, hell and heaven. This is an intense odyssey into the nature of eternal damnation. I am not Catholic nor Christian, but I must admit that this section did make me squirm at times. The depth and breadth of the torment of hell is communicated herein with excruciating detail by Father Arnell. In mortal terror Stephan confesses his sins and attempts to lead a pure and devotional life. The life of devotion ends when he is later offered the priesthood. He realizes at that moment that he must renounce the church and choose to "learn the wisdom of others himself wandering among the snares of the world." Free of the church and father, Stephen finally must confront the bonds that his friends, mother, and country claim on him in the final section. One by one through discusions and encounters with his classmates he slips these bonds and resolves to go away from Dublin and all that keeps him earthbound. This is a beautiful novel of growth and deliverance. It will be one of my cherished books always. As a final note I want to let readers know that the edition I am reviewing, The Modern Library Hardcover 1996 edition, has several misspellings and punctuation errors. It almost seemed as if the publisher had used a spell check type of program to proof read the book instead of a person. This is extremely irritating in that I bought the Modern Library edition so as to always have a sturdy, well made edition of this beautiful book. I find it insulting to the author and the reader that more care was not taken in the publication of this edition.
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Summary: A Hard Read But Well Worth It
Review: If there is anything that Joyce is not, it is easy to read. At times his work is confusing, and at other times it is really confusing, but it is always real - expressing the way we, as people, think and feel. Joyce is a master of literature, and a master of style. Portait of the Artist as a Young Man is no exception. At times it is confusing - maybe better described as complex - but always it is a work of art. Do not attempt to enjoy this novel if you are only looking for a quick, "light" read. If you want a book that has the potential to change the way you view literature or even life, this book might be it. Give it a chance.
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Summary: Joyce's autobiographical novel: the prelude to ¿Ulysses¿
Review: "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" is James Joyce's autobiographical novel, first appeared in book form in 1916. After over 80 years it is still read and studied all over the world highlighting the place it has received in literature. It portrays the early and teenage life of Stephen Dedalus. This is the same character who later appears in 'Ulysses' (1922) as a matured adult. Joyce walks us through the life of Stephen Dedalus in five stages written in a third-person narrative. Anyone interested in Joyce's intellectual, spiritual and physical journey of life should read this great classic which is the prelude to 'Ulysses', one of the best novels ever written in the 20th centaury. As Ezra Pound correctly predicted 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' would "remain a permanent part of English literature" for centuries similar to the place 'Ulysses' has reached in literature.
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Summary: A Classic Coming-of -Age Tale
Review: A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN does not so much solicit deep thoughts and great emotions so much as it wrings them out of the reader. To finish this book is not to feel uplifted and encouraged for Stephen Dedalus, but to feel that at least he has made progress and knows enough of his strengths and weaknesses that he may make something of himself. Is this not possibly where we are left at the end of all great coming-of-age novels? Joyce takes us through five stages of Stephen's youth. As a boy in 1890's Dublin he hears his father arguing that Irish nationalism has been sold out by the Catholic clergy. Soon Stephen's hands are "crumpling" beneath the paddle of an unjust priest. He becomes a leader in his class, an intellectual in a world where many believe: "If we are a priestridden race we ought to be proud of it. They are the apple of God's eye." Later Joyce spends eleven inimitable pages on these apples explaining in colorfully exhaustive detail what it would be like to be baked in a hellpie (for God is loving but God's justice is harsh). Five pages on the physical tortures of the eternal fire, and six more after a break about the mental tortures--Dante himself would be impressed. Fear of hell scares Stephen sufficiently enough to repent from his teenage brothel-frequenting phase. He goes to rather interesting extremes of devotion, even considering the priesthood as a vocation. But his questioning nature is even too intellectual for the jesuits and he discovers another path for himself at and after college. Joyce writes poetic, often urgent prose: "To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to create life out of life!" becomes one of Stephen's clarion calls. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN should be read by anyone looking for one of the best tales of intellectual, physical and spiritual awakening we have. Its beauty is best savored slowly. The rhythms might be difficult to pick up at first, but it really won't take very long until you will have a hard time putting the book down.
Rating: 
Summary: Unique
Review: "A Potrait of the Artist as a Young Man" is James Joyce's magnificent and now classic evocation of a Catholic boyhood in Ireland. The book is written in a peculiar style, which can make it difficult for self-confessed 'skim-readers' like myself! However, this style also makes it intruguing. The style is, in fact, brilliant when it is examined carefully, detailed, structured and readable. The struggle through sin and sanctity towards self-expression is the book's major themes, making a timeless classic to be enjoyed by all.
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Summary: Not easy but well worth the effort
Review: I've seen some reviews that criticize the book for being too stream of consciousness and others for not being s.o.c. enough. The fact is, for the most part it's not s.o.c. at all. (See the Chicago Manual of Style, 10.45-10.47 and note the example they give...Joyce knew how to write s.o.c.). A better word for A Portrait is impressionistic. Joyce is more concerned with giving the reader an impression of Stephen's experience than with emptying the contents of his head. What's confusing is the style mirrors the way Stephen interprets his experiences at the time, according to the level of his mental development. When Stephen is a baby, you get only what comes in through the five senses. When he is a young boy, you get the experience refracted through a prism of many things: his illness (for those who've read Ulysses, here is the beginning of Stephen's hydrophobia - "How cold and slimy the water had been! A fellow had once seen a big rat jump into the scum."), his poor eyesight, the radically mixed signals he's been given about religion and politics (the Christmas meal), his unfair punishment, and maybe most important of all, his father's unusual expressions (growing up with phrases like, "There's more cunning in one of those warts on his bald head than in a pack of jack foxes" how could this kid become anything but a writer?) It is crucial to understand that Stephen's experiences are being given a certain inflection in this way when you come to the middle of the book and the sermon. You have to remember that Stephen has been far from a good Catholic boy. Among other things, he's been visting the brothels! The sermon hits him with a special intensity, so much so that it changes his life forever. Before it he's completely absorbed in the physical: food, sex, etc. After it he becomes just as absorbed in the spiritual/aesthetic world. It's the sermon that really puts him on the track to becoming an artist. One reviewer called the sermon overwrought. Well, of course it's overwrought. That's the whole point. Read it with your sense of humor turned on and keep in mind that you're getting the sermon the way you get everything else in the book: through Stephen. After Stephen decides he doesn't want to be a priest, the idea of becoming an artist really starts to take hold. And when he sees the girl on the beach, his life is set for good. That scene has to be one of the most beautiful in all of literature. After that, Stephen develops his theory of esthetics with the help of Aristotle and Aquinas and we find ourselves moving from one conversation to another not unlike in Plato (each conversation with the appropriate inflection of college boy pomposity). In the end, Stephen asks his "father" to support him as he goes into the real world to create something. I like to think that this is an echo of the very first line in the book. The father, in one of many senses, is the moocow story. The story gave birth to Stephen's imagination and now it's the son's turn to create. This is such a rich and beautiful book. I suppose it's possible for people to "get it" and still not like it, but I really think if you read and re-read, and maybe do a little research, the book will open up to you the way it did to me.
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Summary: Deserves all the praise it's ever gotten.
Review: Gentle reader, please know that this book deserves its reputation as one of the greatest novels in the history of the English language. It can be approached at many levels and satisfies at all of them. I read this in my early years at University and my advice is to take some of the reviews here with a grain of salt. Mr. Thomas Gidding's ponderous, ill-tempered harangue (wherein he calls Joyce's work pretentious while stuffing into his review as many multisyllabic words as possible), and Mary's "Not up to par" review (wherein she reveals she is getting collage credit for her English course having yet to find the spell check) only prove that they have missed the boat not because it left early, but because they showed up late. Be brave. Dive deep. This is a wonderful novel. And it is like no other.
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Summary: A Portrait of Life
Review: I'll be the first to admit it, I hated this book when I first read it. It was required reading for my high school AP English class, and the first time I read it, I couldn't understand how anyone could believe that it was "Literature with a capital 'L'"; however, after all was said and done, I began to think about the story, and how much of it could be applied to my own life. Knowing that if I was willing to think about a book in response to my own life I needed to give it a second chance, I went out and bought a copy. Sure enough, upon a second reading, the novel seemed all the more enjoyable to me. Granted, it's not the world's easiest read, but to anyone who is willing to look, you'll find a great deal of merit to this book.
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Summary: Mostly a ponderous, ill-tempered harangue
Review: The first two chapters of this book are very good, but Joyce fumbles the ball irretrievably in the third chapter and the dreary effort results in a painful loss. The third chapter is a boring, over-wrought sermon; the fourth chapter brings more pontification, miserable soul searching, and hackneyed attacks on religion; and, the fifth chapter is garrulous and didactic---an excruciatingly dull and inartistic parade of platitudinous ideas, littered with a pretentious display of Latin. The characters are tiresome, the dialog is tedious, the reading is labored, and the rewards are few and minor.
Rating:
Summary: Not up to par
Review: I was thoroughly dissapointed with this book. The only reason I read it was because it was required for my AP English class. From its sorted beginning, I knew I was in for one confusing time. Yes, I must admit that it did get better, but not nearly as much as some would like to think. The plot was unclear, and his "journey" through life is easily dubbed a bore. Stephen Dedalus is on a quest of sorts -- he is growing up, discovering who he is. With that comes adventures. But Joyce never elaborates on the ones that are the most dynamic, and continues on to drone about everything in the same monotone style. Mind you, it's all stream of consciousnes, which makes it even harder to digest. I DO NOT reccomend this book to ANYONE. The only reason I give it two stars instead of one is because I want to give him credit for fooling everyone into thinking this book has any literary merit.
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