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I read this before my Goodreads.com days as one of the books discussed by the book group Great Books KC. This short review from PageADay's Book Lover's Calendar for 3/18/13 reminded me of it:
Arguably Ireland’s most well-regarded literary son, James Joyce wasn’t always an optimistic fellow, but he told a cracking good story. This is his first novel, which introduces us to Stephen Dedalus, who returns in Joyce’s novel Ulysses. This book laces together scenes from an Irish upbringing that closely h ...more
Arguably Ireland’s most well-regarded literary son, James Joyce wasn’t always an optimistic fellow, but he told a cracking good story. This is his first novel, which introduces us to Stephen Dedalus, who returns in Joyce’s novel Ulysses. This book laces together scenes from an Irish upbringing that closely h ...more
Parts of Portrait are brilliant, but the book as a whole has never quite gelled for me. Some scenes have stuck with me since I first read the book in high school. I still have days when I think I know just what it's like to be shoved into the square ditch. And the Christmas dinner argument is the epitome of holiday family disturbances. But the extended fire and brimstone sermon is a bit much for me nowadays, and young love was so much better expressed in Araby than it is in a Portrait, where it
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Honestly, I thought this book was tedious. It is basically about exactly what it and other reviewers say it's about. The main character grows into and discovers his true religious and philosophical beliefs. I've read a lot of books like this that were better. Nothing earth-shattering.
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Or, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Transcendent of Irish Political Humiliation and Catholic Guilt.
Good book, I can see why it's considered a classic. He lost me a bit in the parts in which he's carrying on these academic and philosophical conversations with his classmates at university, only because I'm not familiar at all with the Irish history they were discussing. And the sermon went on for about 17 pages. I didn't skim that, it was good, but wow, that was long. There were parts that blew me away with the beauty of the description. He really gets to the heart of how a particular scene can
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An autobiographical portrait of Joyce’s artistic development, the novel portrays the early years of Stephen Dedalus, who later shows up as one of the main characters in Joyce’s “Ulysses." Its focus on the formation of consciousness, identity, and artistic growth reflects the critical stages of the author’s personal life, and it is an intriguing insight into the intellectual workings of one of Ireland’s literary masters.
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Alot easier to read than Ulysses. Read it for a class- most remembered scene- a comparison of a woman and a heron, standing in water: sexual feeling, epiphany. yadda, yadda, yadda
Sep 29, 2007
Kimley
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
british,
20th-century
Apr 22, 2010
Rhingst
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
european-classics
