A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man (Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism)

Rating:
Summary: A Portait Whose Time Has Come and Gone..
Review: It is remarkable that such a well-crafted novel manages, as a story, to resonate so poorly. When was the last time someone referenced Stephen Dedalus in a conversation? Moby Dick, Holden Caufield, "the old man in Nabokov," Heller's Yosarian: all already have or will continue to enjoy an iconic status long after Portrait becomes the exclusive domain of a specialized readership. Portrait struck me less as a work of art to be experienced than a puzzle to be solved. Fraught with literary antecedents and allusions and word play it exemplifies the artist as cryptographer. On the plane of a puzzle, it's remarkably good fun. So, this puzzled me, and I'm sure that there is minor, obscure commentary either to answer or dismiss it as a question: When Mr. Dedalus claims that "silence, exile and cunning" shall be his weapons, what, if anything, in Portrait, with its extended conversation with the great books of the western canon, prepares us for the role of "silence" in the arsenal?

Rating:
Summary: A Portait Whose Time Has Come and Gone..
Review: It is remarkable that such a well-crafted novel manages, as a story, to resonate so poorly. When was the last time someone referenced Stephen Dedalus in a conversation? Moby Dick, Holden Caufield, "the old man in Nabokov," Heller's Yosarian: all already have or will continue to enjoy an iconic status long after Portrait becomes the exclusive domain of a specialized readership. Portrait struck me less as a work of art to be experienced than a puzzle to be solved. Fraught with literary antecedents and allusions and word play it exemplifies the artist as cryptographer. On the plane of a puzzle, it's remarkably good fun. So, this puzzled me, and I'm sure that there is minor, obscure commentary either to answer or dismiss it as a question: When Mr. Dedalus claims that "silence, exile and cunning" shall be his weapons, what, if anything, in Portrait, with its extended conversation with the great books of the western canon, prepares us for the role of "silence" in the arsenal?

Rating:
Summary: a good book if you can get past a long section on hell
Review: Joyce's classic was required reading for my english class. This edition, especially the deconstruction essay included in it, promotes a better underatnding of the novel. The first 90 pages of the book keep the reader wanting more, the mind of this artist is looked into from a fascinating perspcetive. However, as the story progresses, religion and the Jesuit Church play such a large role in Stephen Dedalus' consciousness that the book becomes more about hell and confession than the about the art and the maturity of a semi-neurotic youth. The ending brings the book back to life and proves that the main character really is capable of being an artist--for he "writes" the last few pages of his own "portrait."