A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Considered as semi-autobiographical, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man consists of five carefully composed chapters that tell the story of Stephen Dedalus and his path to religious and intellectual awakening. Reflecting Joyce's own frustrations with life in Ireland, the restrictions of the Catholic church and social mores, the novel uses free indirect speech to convey the feelings of the principal character via the narrator. It very nearly didn't get published, as at one point, Joyce flew into a rage and through the manuscript into a fire, only for it to be saved by members of his family.