A Portait Of The Artist As A Young Man (1916) By James Joyce

As I continue toward my goal of finally conquering James Joyce’s classic Ulysses, I began by reading Dubliners several weeks ago, a collection of character studies.  Now, I’ve completed Joyce’s first full length book, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, a semi-autobiographical text.

Joyce was born and raised in Ireland, yet chose to flee to Paris after university.  In Portrait of the Artist, the title character is Joyce’s alter ego, Stephen Dedalus.  His coming of age crisis, if one wants to classify it as such, is masterful writing, completely intense, and not at all an easy read, even at a relatively short 224 pages.  The Norton Critical Edition that I read included nearly 400 pages of notes – most of which I passed over.

Without the notes however, one needs a fairly strong knowledge of: Irish history, the Catholic catechism, and Church structure vis-à-vis diocesan and orders (in this case, both Franciscan and Jesuit).  After one chapter of A Portrait, I had to stop and do a review of Irish history, building on a solid basis that I had not realized I had acquired just by living in Chicago, occasionally referred to as Ireland’s County Cook.

The chapters of the book relating to Stephen’s early childhood delve heavily into Irish political history, as discussed at a family dinner party.  The heated discussion laid bare the divide between those who viewed the institution of the Church, as the guarantor of the Irish people, and those who viewed the diocesan structure as selling out to the colonizers. 

When Stephen enters university however, is when his personal dilemmas materialize, and he’s faced with questions of sexual awakening morality.  He has pre-marital sex, which delights him, but then plunges him into the depths of guilt, compounded by priests and a theology that forbids this.  The strongest section of the book details Stephen’s confession, which occurs as he is being urged by his teachers to consider the priesthood, a temptation to most males born in the Church.  His post-confession personal homily is some 40 pages long, intense, and decisive.  He will never be able to live up to the standards of a priest, because he does not believe in those standards.

Some of Joyce’s best narrative is the dialogue between Stephen and his university classmates as they question everything, and then question the answer – an at times vicious circle of academic arrogance and pomposity, as these overly educated people wield their education for sport.  Joyce captures this academic subculture perfectly.

In the end, Stephen prepares to depart Ireland, not out of repudiation, for Joyce will make his life work chronicling the country and its society; but out of a need to find a neutral space where he can think about the world, not respond to it.

Because I have attempted to read Ulysses before (actually, I’ve tried several times), I know that page one of the book will re-introduce Stephen Dedalus to readers.  Now, I think, I’m better prepared for that challenge.   

Recommendation:  James Joyce is a genius writer, but he is not light reading.  Prepare to devote the needed time and thought if you pick up any of his works.