James Joyce’s deeply personal and “most memorable novel” (H. G. Wells) detailing the spiritual and artistic awakening of Stephen Dedalus, now freshly repackaged for the Union Square & Co. Signature Classics line. James Joyce’s semi-autobiographical first novel explores the author’s own love-hate relationship with Ireland through Stephen Dedalus, Joyce’s literary alter ego. Dedalus yearns to be an artist, but must first overcome the aspects of Irish society, like school and the church, that he feels restrains his creativity and stifles his soul. Joyce’s use of experimental literary techniques, including stream of consciousness, is on full display in his first novel, which he further develops in his later works, Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake.

Discusses life, time, beauty, experience, meaning, music, and art.

This second edition is revised and enlarged from Notes for Joyce: "Dubliners" and "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man".

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man portrays Stephen Dedalus’s Dublin childhood and youth, providing an oblique self-portrait of the young James Joyce. At its center are questions of origin and source, authority and authorship, and the relationship of an artist to his family, culture, and race. Exuberantly inventive, this coming-of-age story is a tour de force of style and technique.

"James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) is one of the twentieth century's great coming-of-age novels. This Norton Critical Edition is based on Hans Walter Gabler's acclaimed text and is accompanied by his introduction and textual notes. John Paul Riquelme provides explanatory notes to deepen the reader's appreciation for Joyce's masterpiece." ""Backgrounds and Contexts" is topically organized: "Political Nationalism: Irish History, 1798-1916," "The Irish Literary and Cultural Revival," "Religion," and "Aesthetic Backgrounds." Fourteen illustrations accompany the documents." ""Criticism" begins with John Paul Riquelme's overview of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man's structure. Twelve diverse interpretations of his work follow, by Kenneth Burke, Umberto Eco, Hugh Kenner, Helene Cixous, John Paul Riquelme, Karen Lawrence, Maud Ellmann, Bonnie Kime Scott, Joseph Valente, Marian Eide, Pericles Lewis, adn Jonathan Mulrooney. A Selected Bibliography is also included."--BOOK JACKET.

First Published in 1993. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.