A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Stephen Dedalus grows up in Dublin, feeling different from the other boys. His childhood and adolescence are shaped by bullying, his father's weaknesses and the growing realization that in order to make his way in the world he must reject a conventional life and boecome an artist. Penguin Popular Classics are the perfect introduction to the world-famous Penguin Classics series — which encompasses the best books ever written, from Homer's Odyssey to Orwell's 1984 and everything in between.
Stats for nerds
11recommend
38mentions
33people
2008–2026years
29% recommend47% neutral24% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- If you want a shot at liking Joyce try "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man."
- It took me a few tries to get through Ulysses, but I enjoyed it when I finally figured it out.
What helped for me is first reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which is kind of like an easier version of the same style that introduces some of the characters in Ulysses. And then following along on ulyssesguide.com when I was reading it. Some of the parts (the fake quasi latin) are extra difficult and it helps to have a guide so you don't get completely lost as to what's going on.
- I would strongly recommend anyone who has a second-hand impression of Joyce based on articles like this just go and read Dubliners. Seriously. It’s an amazing set of short stories that are wonderfully-written, at times funny, moving, sad, haunting etc. It’s just incredible. It’s not a hard read at all and will enrich your life. I recommend it to basically everyone and several people have talked to me years later about stories in it. It’s fantastic.
Then maybe read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. A really great semi-autobiographical work.
At that point you’ve probably made your mind up one way or the other about whether you like Joyce, so then if you feel like it, go read Ulysses and/or Finnegan’s Wake if you want to. But don’t do it because you think it will impress anyone or anything like that. Just read it if you want to. Before you read Ulysses, I would personally recommend reading a good modern version of Homer[1] because that’s just a great experience anyway and plenty of people don’t know the original story and so don’t understand the relevance of the title and are kind of lost before they even get started.
[1] eg I’ve heard very good things about the Mendelsohn translation https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/O/bo243090... . I heard some excerpts from Seamus Heaney’s version read out and they were amazing and lyrical as you might expect but probably more “poetic” than most people might care for if they’re not already Heaney fans. I read an older translation but I can’t dig it out right now.
- Tough choices ..
Moby Dick has so much to offer .. Gulliver's Travels ... Tristam Shandy ... Essays by Montaigne.. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ....
Probably the collected works of Shaw? Things with dialogue feel freah every time you read them.
- For anyone curious about Ulysses:
It’s great.
Read Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man before Ulysses.
If you gave up on it before: try again. I used to think it was BS for years but I tried again and ended up loving it.
I’d advise skipping student editions or getting hung up on reading tons of notes and criticism while reading it. Just use google translate for latin and know a little bit about Homer and Shakespeare. It’s about mainly about life, death, and reincarnation.
Ulysses is like a slot machine in that it rarely pays out on the first pull. And if anyone loved a good pull it was Joyce.
- I have a suggestion: I read Ulysses about ten years ago and liked it but really didn’t get that much out of it. About five years ago, I tried Ulysses again, listening to it as an Audible audio book with several skilled actors speaking the roles. That was great! I then also listened to Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in audiobook form and enjoyed it much more than reading it in school 50 years ago.
