In 1904 James Joyce submitted an essay entitled 'A Portrait of the Artist' to the Irish journal Dana. The piece was rejected, but out of this essay grew the novel Stephen Hero. Joyce revised Stephen Hero over the period 1907 to igi4, but in 1g11 - frustrated by the failure of a business venture and difficulties in publishing his collection of short stories, Dubliners - Joyce threw the manuscript of the novel that had become A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man into the fire. Although rescued byJoyce's sister Eileen, this was not the end of the troubles for the novel; initially serialised in the London journal the Egoist, the book form of the novel was rejected by a number of English publishers before being brought out by the American publisher B. W. Huebsch in 1916. ...

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man represents the transitional stage between the realism of Joyce's Dubliners and the symbolism of Ulysses, and is essential to the understanding of the later work.

The novel is a highly autobiographical account of the adolescence and youth of Stephen Dedalus,who reappears in Ulysses, and who comes to realize that before he can become a true artist, he must rid himself of the stultifying effects of the religion,politics and essential bigotry of his background in late 19th century Ireland.

Written with a light touch, this is perhaps the most accessible of loyce's works.