Joyce wrote the first draft of a work he called Stephen Hero between 1901 and 1906, but was dissatisfied and later rewrote and developed it. He partially destroyed this version in a fit of rage when it was turned down by a publisher, and again rewrote the work in the form in which it was finally published in 1916 as A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. ‘James Joyce was and remains almost unique among novelists in that he published nothing but masterpieces. …

The Portrait, with its exalted Stephen, its impressionist background, its shadowy cast behind the brilliantly lit central figure and its succession of dramatic monologues, is written in a mood of enraptured fervour… – The Times Literary Supplement ‘By far the most living and convincing picture that exists of an Irish Catholic upbringing. The technique is startling … A most memorable novel’ – H. G. Wells ‘A Portrait of the Artist is not an autobiography; it is an artistic creation’ – Professor Stanislaus Joyce The cover shows a detail from a portrait of James Joyce by Jacques Emile Blanche, in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin For copyright reasons this edition is not for sale in the U.S.A.