Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant in Places, Absolutely Tedious in Others
Review: "A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man" is many things. Perhaps most importantly it is a bridge work - it spans the divide between more accessible (but brilliant) work found in his collection of short stories, "Dubliners" and the less accessible (and that's a clear understatement for Finnegan's Wake!) but superlative work of his later years. To some extent, then, we expect some patchiness as Joyce is finding his feet here.Another aspect to the novel is that it is largely autobiographical covering Joyce's time at two Jesuit colleges and Dublin University. Much of the factual substance has been removed - it's an autobiography focussing on state of mind, brief glimpses into his world as his father's fortunes diminish. His heavily Catholic upbringing - high on guilt and corporal punishment - laying the seeds for an eventual rejection of faith altogether. His extreme emotions concerning a girl that he just meets briefly a few times. The book is also a sounding board for Joyce's philosophical views on beauty and aesthetics. Long "conversations" fill the pages with discussions on Aristotle, etc. and witty literary jokes. Most of this is, to put it politely, utter tedium I'm afraid. Pretension at it's worst. There are writers who can introduce such philosophical rants in their works and bring it off (Dostoyevsky for instance) but here Joyce fails to keep any semblence of pacing, or even beauty, in the words. Another example of this excess can be found in the description of a retreat that he goes to towards the end of his years in Jesuit school. Now this retreat is a pivotal moment in the book and gives rise to the most beautiful writing - a stunning description of the cathartic nature of Catholic confession - so it is worthy that it is treated in some detail. Unfortunately, what we get is pages and pages of two entire sermons on the physical and emotional nature of hell. Accurately distilled this could be moving, riveting and thought-provoking. As it is it's mind-numbing. Yet the book is still very beautiful. It deserves to be read and it deserves to be read slowly. Joyce, at his best, is one of the most lyrical, poetic authors ever to have molded the written language. So, read it - but be prepared to have to force yourself through a couple of sections.
Rating:
Summary: Very well written.
Review: A Portrait of an Artist was a surprise to me. I read it as a school assignment but I actually
enjoyed it a little. It was a thought provoking book and was very well written. James Joyce's'
fictional but semi- autobiographical novel was very creative. It was written in a style that I have
never read before. It wasn't first person or third person, but it also wasn't quite a third person
omniscient. It was a new style to me but James Joyce made it work.
It is a novel about a boy, Stephen Dedalus and his struggles to grow up, break away from
the confining restrictions of church, family, and country (patriotism), and to ultimately find
himself as an individual and artist. Most of these struggles are very similar to things that all of us
have gone through(with exception of becoming an artist). I think many of the problems he faced
were a little amplified, and that helped show what kind of person Stephen was. He was very
thoughtful and he tried, like many of us to fit into many places that he didn't naturally fit.
All through the book Stephen changes schools and is never accepted by the other kids at
the school. Eventually he decides to stand up for himself by talking to the school master after
being punished unfairly. He is rewarded for his bravery and begins to be accepted by his peers.
But he still doesn't quite fit in.
The thing that stuck out most to me was the jesuit priests and how they preached about
hell and damnation. I thought it was an extreme way to try and control the way the kids act. It
seemed as though they were trying to scare them into being good instead of having them do it for
the right reasons. Ultimately scaring people into something rarely works. If you want them to do
something they have to do it for the right reasons or they will not continue to do it in the future.
One of the most interesting things for me was seeing the way Joyce used the imagery, he
is so good with words. I enjoy reading the vivid descriptions he uses and find myself forming a
mental picture much easier than I do when reading other books. One thing I disliked about this
book was the lack of plot. I t was difficult to find a story line to follow. While the creative style,
imagery and wording of the book interested me I did find it hard at times to continue reading
because there was nothing that made me want to continue to the next chapter. Nothing that
caught my attention and made me want to find out what happens next.
Overall I would recommend this book because of it's creative style and great word usage.
I think if you read this book through and give it a chance, then you will be satisfied. With this
book you do have to read all the way to the end or it will seem like a waste of your time.
Rating:
Summary: The substance is in the self analysis
Review: A previous reviewer states that this book doesn't focus on substance, and that the substance (for him) is in the story. While I don't disrespect this view, it does seem unnecessarily limiting for oneself as a reader.
In my opinion this is an innovative book because it focuses on internal response rather than external action--the internal is the substance of Portrait. Of course being innovative doesn't make it good--it's the fact that it does this introspection very well, completely, and unapologetically that makes the book a successful endeavor. One of my favorite moments is the first full paragraph of 254, which starts "A louse crawled over the nape of his neck...".
I can understand that to some, this endless recording of introverted response might seem self-indulgent in its excess, but I think that the length and dramatic language is needed to express the depth that is inside, not just little Stevie Dedalus, but all of us.
Isn't this one of the prime purposes of art? To force us to look at ourselves in a way that we haven't before? Of course, if we don't give the piece of art a fair chance, it can never succeed.
Unlike other reviewers--I'm not reviewing based on whether or not I agree with the main character's conclusions (and therefore James's conclusions), but on whether or not the artist achieved his aims.
Incomprehensible? It's only incomprehensible if you expect to read a clear and informative essay. That's not the purpose, it's to convey the innermost thoughts of one individual--and these thoughts/feelings/responses are not always perfectly clear--in fact, they rarely are, in any of us.
Why a 4 instead of a 5? Because Portrait feels more to me like a series of stories that only happen to occur chronologically, rather than a bonified novel. I don't feel like I've gone from point A to B when I'm done. Maybe this aspect is unavoidable given the true goal of the book, as I've interpreted it, but I'm just being honest.
Rating: 
Summary: An autobiographic novel
Review: Although the hero of James Joyce's novel is called Stephen Dedalus, the events and characters depicted in it parallel the author's own experiences. In his early childhood, at the very beginning of the 20th century, Stephen was sent to Clongowes, a Jesuit boarding school near Dublin. He disliked the place because his classmates bullied him, because he was taught religion in a dogmatic way and because he was flogged unjustly by his prefect of studies. After that he spent a summer with his uncle Charles in Dublin. Stephen was then sent to Belvedere college, which he disliked as much as Clongowes. The spirit of quarrelsome comradeship couldn't turn him away from his habits of quiet obedience. He mistrusted the agitation and doubted the sincerity of such comradeship, which he felt was an awful anticipation of adulthood.
Stephen was by then aware that he didn't belong. He also felt more and more estranged from his father after having accompanied him once to Cork and witnessed his drinking habits, a journey which ended in Stephen's first experience in love making - a sordid one.
More disappointment followed as Stephen went to university, thus becoming a disillusioned young man - a disillusionment caused by academicism, love and sex, his parents, religion and perhaps also his own country, Ireland...
Rating: 
Summary: The best edition of "A Portrait"
Review: Depending on one's taste and level of concentration, James Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" is either tedious flop or a wonderful cornerstone of world literature. (I believe the latter.) I won't go into a discussion of "A Portrait" here because if you are looking at this particular Viking Critical edition, you've already committed yourself to reading it. The value of this edition lies in the critical essays and notes at the end. The notes will help the reader along, as they explain some of the terms and/or conditions that are particular to Joyce's Ireland. The essays are, each and every one, valuable tools. Whether it's an examination of Joyce's life, the creation of "A Portrait", the influences it would have, etc., every essay is a heavy-weight that enchances an understanding of the book. (At least it did for me.) If you're seriously considering reading "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" this is the edition to use.
Rating:
Summary: A day of dappled seaborne clouds.
Review: Do you wish to be an author of a book some day? Do you want to make a movie or a script for one? If so, do you want it to be popular, that people will like it? Lots of people. Well, in the past, and not so distant really, before most things were businesses and entertainment, there was this thing called, 'art'. Hard to say what this thing was and is, but this book is an example and Joyce is a maker, an artist. What is interesting about this work is it is art and sort of shows what it is to be an artist at the same time. I think it is for young people. As I say I am not sure what art is, but it seems to be appreciated more by people after the artist dies then when he was living. But I do not think most artist mind, much, since they probably write for themselves and not so people would like it. But maybe you will, who knows?
Rating:
Summary: "Portrait" holds you in its hypnotic trance
Review: I have never encountered a character quite like Stephen Dedalus. He is sad, happy, complex, strange, unlikable, but always fascinating. Stephen is the main character in Joyce's "Portrait of an Artist", which is a semi-autobiographical tale of Joyce's alter ego. The story is told entirely in third person, although most of the time you swear it is being told in the first.
The story is not as important as the form, or as the emotion. These elements are precisely what makes "Portrait" so good. As far as plot goes, it is not concrete, yet that goes perfectly along with the flow of the story. `Portrait" opens boldly and brilliantly, charting Stephen's incoherent thought processes as a youth. Sentences wildly strung together, uneven, yet right on target on how a mind so young might work. The second part of the story is dark, menacing, and wandering. Almost like a nightmare with words. This goes along well with the emotional turmoil of Stephen's soul as he enters into sin. The third part of the story is controversial, ad it probes the positives and negatives of religion quite well. Stephen begins to turn his soul over to God at this point, mainly because of fear. The fourth part deals with Stephen's "awakening" as he breaks free of religion and starts to discover what he truly wants. The final part of the story is mostly scenes of dialogue, and is the most philosophical part of the book and the most structured. Here he is an intellectual, artistic poet and thinker. He still leaves his future wide open, yet has finally reached the point in his life that he feels will take him where he needs to go.
Supposedly, "Portrait" has loads of symbolism. The book explores a variety of issues from Romanticism to Religion. I doubt if readers of this book are going to pick it all out with a single reading. I didn't. I wonder if the readers will care about that, or will just do as I did, and focus on how original the material all is. Even not knowing what was going on at times, I was drawn in by the story's hypnotic hold it had on me. I was riveted by the artistic use of words, similes and metaphors conjugated together to form an often confusing, yet always captivating story, or even a poem if you like. This book is more of a feeling than a story, and even though the book becomes a bit more structured as it progresses, it never loses its dreamlike war on words that keeps you locked it its trance.
Even though I am giving "Portrait" a perfect rating, I don't think it is one of the greatest novels of all time. I wished I could have got just a bit more out of it. Possibly my view could change if I would just examine deeper into it. I doubt it thought. Like all enthralling dreams, one can't look too deep, but rather is mesmerized by the whole experience.
Grade: A
Rating:
Summary: A Portrait of 20th Century Literature as a Young Form
Review: James Joyce is the single most important writer of the 20th century. Simply put, the form of the novel exists in two stages - pre-Joyce and post-Joyce; no other novelist approaches the impact on the literary landscape that Joyce acheived in perfecting his style. The story behind the actual writing of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (originally entitled Stephen Hero) is that Joyce began writing basically a semi-autobiographical account of his childhood up through his early adulthood. He then decided that he wanted to convey the events of his life in a form other than direct disclosure. The rest, as they say, is history. Enter stream of consciousness. Enter free association. Enter Freud, Shakespeare, Greek mythology, the Bible, Catholicism, the complexity of man, the simplicity of man, social class,and Irish lifestyle (to name a tiny portion of what this novel presents) without ever having to mention many of these influences by name. What it really boils down to is that this novel began a revolution in the way literature is read and written. Sounds over the top I know, but think about it. What Joyce experimented with here he later advanced in Ulysses (which is even better than A Portrait) and totally submitted to in Finnegan's Wake (of which I didn't understand a single word). His direct influence ranges from Faulkner to Proust to Nabokov. For those who are just getting into literature and may not know those names, those three are heavy hitters. Like sumo-wrestler heavy.
The content of the novel itself reveals the inner character of Stephen Dedalus and, in turn, of James Joyce himself. As I said before, this novel is both largely biographical as well as psychological, perhaps more important in what it says about the human mind in general than what it says about the Irish mind of early 1900s Dublin. And frankly its just beatifully written. This is not Joyce's finest work (that would be Ulysses), but it is certainly one of the foundations upon which modern literature stands. And for that reason, even if you don't like Joyce's work (which is your loss to say the least) you have to respect it. To respect it is to at least read it. It's a tough style, but it's worth it. Trust me.
Rating:
Summary: Stephen Hero
Review: Portrait of the artist is a vitally important novel for anyone interested in writing, writers, genius, repression, Catholicism, intellectualism versus dogmatism, the life and mind of James Joyce and novels as an art form. The writing style mutates and develops throughout the story, reflecting the different ages of Stephen Dedalus, from the baby talk and visceral imagery of his parents, governess Dante and Uncle Charles in his early childhood, through his schooldays as he wrestles with his intellect, his faith, his sexual awakening and his guilt to the advanced articulate and experimental style he invokes in his late adolescence, including an experimental journal at the end of the novel.
The themes in Portrait of the Artist cover the whole spectrum of growing up, but the principal drama surrounds the intellectual development of Stephen. He is a formidable mind, a free thinker. But his faith impells him throughout towards the narrow minded dogmatism of the Catholic Church. At times, the church holds the upper hand, as Stephen is terrified into confessing his sins with prostitutes in the face of Father Arnall's legendary, sensual, brutal 'Hellfire' sermon on the fate of sinners who don't repent before god. But Stephen wrestles with such demons, and grows, and fights, and ultimately prevails. He sees the image of the rotting cabbages in in the kitchen gardens and considers the disordered symbolism of this as more appealing to his natural essence than the neat tidiness of the shrine to Mary.
Stephen realises he must leave this claustrophobic restrictive life behind. The end of the novel chronicles his last days in Dublin before leaving Ireland. His conversation with Cranley forces home the realisation that Stephen is growing up, his childhood is behind him, and, most importantly, he is prepared to err and make mistakes, even if this means damnation. He is able, as he says 'To discover the mode of life or art whereby your spirit could express itself in unfettered freedom'.
Stephen, with all his passionate intellectual talent, is ready to hit the world, and the forces such as Father Arnall who seem ready to stamp on such independence with vitriolic counter ideological pamphleteering cannot stop him. Thank God for that. The original title of the book, Stephen Hero, is apt indeed.
Rating:
Summary: Young genius takes flight
Review: Portrait of the Artist is Joyce's Kunstleroman about the growth of sensibility in a young genius. The novel is luminous and because it is early Joyce, it's accessible as the writing style is straight ahead narrative modified to reflect the writer's age in various stages of his youth. It is easy to witness the writer's sensibility heighten as he matures: his sense of protest, his growing perspective of his life, church and nation. Proust and Joyce wrote at about the same time but met only once briefly in an awkward exchange and Joyce lived for years in self-imposed creative exile in Paris. In the later chapters there are stylistic similarities between early Joyce and Proust, whose style and narrative voice are consistent throughout the 4300 pages of La Recherche du Temps Perdu. However, Joyce's narrative technique changed radically as he grew as a novelist from Portrait to Ulysses and finally to Finnegan's Wake. In Joyce's willingness to experiment unfettered by style, voice, syntax, genre and diction he changed the English language: he left it better than he found it. Chapters 4 and 5 are brilliant and take flight like Daedalus, the inventive hawkman. If you seek an entry point into Joyce's work, this relatively simple, straightforward novel is your window. "To speak of these things and to try to undestand their nature and, having understood it, to try slowly and humbly and constantly to express, to press out again, from the gross earth or what it brings forth, from sound and shape and colour which are the prison gates of our soul, an image of the beauty we have come to understand -- that is art." I can't encourage you more strongly to explore Joyce -- he was the most luminous genius who ever wrote a novel.
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