A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a sophisticated,complex novel about nationalism, language, religion, sexuality, and art, filled with literary, classical, and political theories and references. Its influence on the world of literature was immediate and lasting. In James Joyce's tine, the American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby (1925), loved Joyce's work so ardently that he offered to jump out of a high window in the Irish writer's honor the first time they met. Throughout the twentieth century, writers from around the world have reg ularly lauded and imitated Joyce's stylistic innovations, his examination of inwardness, and his use of myth to structure his works.

INTRODUCTION

CHRONOLOGY OF JAMES JOYCE"S LIFE AND WORK

HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS

A YOUNG MAN

NOTES

INTERPRETIVE NOTES

CRITICAL EXCERPTS

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

SUGGESTIONS FOR THE INTERESTED READER