The journey of a mind strained with religion, family, and culture to the portrait of a mind that has achieved emotional, intellectual, and artistic adulthood . . . Under a father's powerful influence, bullied by peers at school, Stephen Dedalus, a fictional alter-ego of Joyce, must grapple through the pleasures and pains of adolescence to experience the psychological, sexual, and spiritual discoveries. Setting his mind on a self-imposed exile eventually, he lives a life devoted to the art of writing, casting off all his social, familial, and religious constraints. Rushing you back and forth through sudden disruptions, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce's autobiographical novel, traces the intellectual and religio-philosophical awakening of Stephen. Giving an insight into the development of a literary genius, this novel is regarded as one of the 100 best English novels of the 20th century. As you wade through Stephen Dedalus' aesthetic experiences and epiphanies, you will be coaxed into thinking of your moment of profound revelation.