This page is an attempt to help new readers and old fans of James Joyce's book
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by providing on-line some information
about the book and its writing. Most of this information is adapted from the fuller
treatment in R. B. Kershner, ed. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and is copyright 1993 by Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press. This is a volume in Bedford Books' "Case
Studies in Contemporary Criticism" series, and as well as a great deal of background information
provides five interpretive essays following the text.
Three main options are available from this page: for information about Joyce's life with a special emphasis on his writing of Portrait, click on BIOGRAPHY for the first of several screens devoted to Joyce's life and times. For a summary of the critical reception of Portrait, click on CRITICISM. This also leads to several screens. For a set of notes on Portrait explaining phrases in foreign languages or in local dialect such as "non serviam" or "greaves in his number"--basically, the footnotes to my edition of the novel--click on NOTES.