A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man

Rating:
Summary: a shame
Review: I don't know whats more petty, James Joyce's self indulgence or my review of it?

Rating:
Summary: I don't get it
Review: I'm sorry but I don't get it. I realize that there is more going on in the book than I understood as I read it, but I don't want to take the time to find out what it was. This book had relatively few pages, but it took me an awfully long time to finish it, and I mean awful. The story is not very interesting. I've noticed that many reviewers are impressed with the form in which the story is expressed - and surely this is part of the reason why this book has endured - but I've always enjoyed substance over form, and the substance for me is the story. One can sometimes identify with the Dedalus, but in the end it's not enough; his story isn't very interesting. I'm sure that a more critical reading of the book would reveal more and make the book more enjoyable, but given the amount of time that one must invest just to read the book, and the small pleasure derived from that enterprise, one is discouraged from dedicating even more to more fully understand. Pass on this book unless you're really willing to delve into it or try some lighter fare . . . like Moby Dick.

Rating:
Summary: One of the worst books I've ever read
Review: What a painful read. I'm just glad it's over. One of the most confusing, meandering, pointless books I've ever read. I can't see why this is considered great literature. Seriously. The language is complicated, archaic, filled with references to political figures in Ireland that are unrecognizable. And boring. Extremely boring. About the only interesting part in the whole book is the long sermon on hell given by the Jesuits, and the authors internal struggle about going to confession to be forgiven for fornication. Other than that, this is the most pointless, overly complex waste of paper I've ever picked up.

Rating:
Summary: Start of a journey...
Review: Every once in a while, when I happen to mention Joyce to one of my friends, I tend to get these kind of reactions: "booooring", "hard", "overpriced" "he's an idiot"
Well, every medal has two sides.
These oppinions are produced more often then not, with some kind of general recolection of thoughts that critics and publics gave to Joyce's "Ulysses" and "Finnegan's Wake"... complexity, and intelectuallnes of the "mere" book often has that kind of impact on general public.
But, be not afraid (even though I know that You do not consider yourself as a "general public"). This book is something different.
Joyce is in his early stages of hi litterarie work, just starting to experiment with the chain of tought technique, and the result is absoultely brilliant... what we have received is the most beautiful and compelling autobiography, one has written in the entire history of litterature. In a voice of Stephen Dedalus (character around whom, together with Leonard Bloom, Ulysses is built) Joyce presents his early childhood thoughts, Joyce preensets development of character that refusses as the time progresses any kind of bonding with govermenet, education, church or any other kind of institution while at the same time building his own, inside universe where things happen at his command, and by his direction.
Language is sometimes hard, and you'll catch yourself re-reading some passages with tendencie of better grasping his message, his tought, but 3/4 of the work is written in the most beutiful english you can imagine...
I strongly reccomend this book...

Rating:
Summary: to all those who rated this book below 4 stars.
Review: This book is absolutely incredible from a literary standpoint. How can you not give it four or five stars? Yes, its slow and you may not like it, but it is simply too good to not respect. Its like giving Bach or Mozart 2 stars. The writing style is revolutionary, the imagery is layered so thick you could read this book 20 times and not pick everything up, and the flow of the story reveals the deepest changes of Dedalus' soul. I have read many books that I have enjoyed more, but I have only read a few (Lolita, Brave New World, Hamlet) that are more influential and important than A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man.

Rating:
Summary: thought provoking
Review: Portrait...defines a new turn in the century of fiction writing. From the cold, heartless times of Ireland, here is a tale of growing up that offers a critical insight into the heart of an eight year old.

Joyce's style is inimical,imperfect yet charming. he paints the human world of emotional bonding in the most natural way on a child hearted canvas.

A great contrast from Ulysees, Portrait...is definitely a read that would make you sit up and wonder about the simplest of life's truths

Rating:
Summary: A Difficult Life
Review: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce is an autobiography novel about a Catholic boy named Stephen Dedalus going to college and his life. Stephen Dedalus goes to Clongowes Wood College in Ireland. At school, Wells is a bully who makes fun of Stephen and pushes him into a pool, so he got sick. Charles Parnell died in the novel. Father Dolan punishes Stephen by hitting his hand with a patty bat for making an excuse that he lost his glasses on purpose. Stephen was brave enough to complain to the rector saying that he shouldn't have been punished by Father Dolan. The rector said he would talk to Father Dolan and fix this situation. Stephen's classmates carried him up because he told the rector what happened and everyone thinks he's a hero.

One summer in Blackrock, Dublin, Stephen spends time with Uncle Charles and his father and they told him stories about their family history. Stephen's family has financial problems, so they moved to Dublin and Stephen transferred to Belvedere College. He begins to act in the play and plays the part of being a teacher. He receives a money award and treats his family to a nice dinner. He brought gifts to please his family and try to accept his family. Stephen has a crush on Emma by he never expresses his feelings toward her. Stephen expresses his feelings in a poem to Emma. He has his first sexual experience with a prostitute and then he feels sinful. He feels sinful that he couldn't confess to a priest about his sinful thoughts. He got accepted to the university and he feels happy because he made new friends and he felt free. Stephen confesses his sins to his friend Cranly and Cranly wants Stephen to interact more with his family about his problems. At the end, Stephen writes in his journal about his life.

The part that I liked is when Stephen went to the university because it was the part where he really started to mature and felt comfortable with his new friends. The bad part is when he felt sinful, he didn't confess to a priest at his school. The book was easy to read, but some words were difficult to understand. This book is about a boy going through life and obstacles to achieve his goals in writing, acting, and becoming an artist. I would recommend this to teenagers in high school and college students. If you're interested in this book and want to know more information about it, you should read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Simply Awful
Review: James Joyce is the most over-rated author in the history of literature. Anyone who claims to like him is pretentious and a liar. If you disagree, you are deceiving yourself. With the exception of a few short scenes, it is impossible that anyone could derive any satisfaction from reading "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man." Disregard all reviews below giving this book anything more than 1 star. It is quite possibly the worst psuedo-intellectual piece of garbage I have ever read. There was absolutely no tension, no plot, no good characters, and the writing was awful. It is worse than Henry James. For example, toward the novel's end Joyce took tens of pages paraphrasing the aesthetic philosophy of Thomas Aquinas through the voice of Portrait's main character, Stephen Dedalus. If I wanted to learn about St. Aquinas's aesthetic philosophy, I would read Aquinas, not a painful and misplaced rendering of it by Joyce. If you want to read a good coming of age novel about youth, idealism, naivitee, sexual frustration, religious conflict, and yes, ART, read Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham, which has an excellent story, excellent characters, and is excellently written. Avoid this drivel at all costs.

Rating:
Summary: Dreadful book
Review: Apart from a few long sections, I found this book generally uninteresting and badly written. I don't know why it is held out to people as being a great book. It isn't.

Rating:
Summary: It's Literature
Review: As a literary piece this book is geniuos. The ideas conveyed through out this work are as thoughtful and mind boggling as it gets. I admit my mental capacity was not strong enough to be able to interpret every word and I feel there was a lack of overall story line. I found the structure of ones character to be intriguing but did not catch on the national pride and representation of Ireland in this book.
I enjoyed Dubliners much more but what is my opinion worth? Its still a classic masterpiece.