07 January 2008

Archival Review: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

Trade paperback, 400 pages
Published 2005 (originally 1914-15)
Acquired January 2007

Read December 2007
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
by James Joyce

I read this in high school.  I liked it all right, but I like Joyce's short fiction better.  I had to read it again in a class I took in the spring of 2007, but a misunderstanding in our assignments meant I fell behind and had to skip sections 3 and 4 so I could give a presentation on section 5.  So I slotted the book into my list, and finally got around to reading those missing sections.  They're the parts where Stephen renounces sin (following the amazing description of hell) and then, some time later, also rejects the priesthood.  Which ties into what our professor told us-- Stephen has to reach a point where he doesn't make one of two choices, but rejects the choice altogether.  Whatever.  It's James Joyce, and he really needs to discover the quotation mark.

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