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

First published in the year 1916 at the turn of the 20th century and a laid foundation of modern novel in Europe, James Joyce’s first novel ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’ traces the religious and intellectual awakening of young Stephen Dedalus, a fictional alter ego of Joyce and an allusion to Daedalus, the consummate craftsman of Greek mythology. Stephen questions and rebels against the Catholic and Irish conventions under which he has grown, culminating in his self-exile from Ireland to Europe.