Mark Cousins's story about A Portrait of the Artist as a young Man
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Author: James Joyce
SynopsisThis autobiographical novel portrays the early years of Stephen Dedalus. Each of the novel's five sections is written in a third-person voice that reflects the age and emotional state of its protagonist, from the first childhood memories written in simple, childlike language to Stephen's final decision to leave Dublin for Paris to devote his life to art, written in abstruse, Latin-sprinkled, stream-of-consciousness prose.
My Story
James Joyce's “A portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” blew apart my waning Catholicism in Belfast in the 1970s. I read it like a lifestyle manual. It decoupled me from the whisky breath of my nation, and made me want to be an explorer. I haven't cracked its spine in more than two decades, but am sure that I'd have had a far slower start without it.
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