"The first novel by Irish \nwriter, James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a \ncoming-of-age tale about the religious and intellectual awakening of the \nprotagonist. In this semi-autobiographical novel, Joyce examines what \ndistinguishes the individual from the social, religious and cultural, by \nmapping the ever-changing landscape of the mind. Written in a modernist \nstyle, the novel traces the journey of young Stephen Dedalus, a fictitious \nalter ego of Joyce, with an allusion to the skilful craftsman and artist of \nGreek mythology. Stephen rebels against the Catholic and Irish mores that \ngovern his upbringing, culminating in his self-imposed exile from Ireland to \nEurope. American modernist poet Ezra Pound had the novel serialised in the English \nliterary magazine The Egotist in 1914 and 1915. Published as a book in 1916 \nby B.W. Huebsch of New York, Joyce’s debut novel earned him his place as a \nfrontrunner of literary modernism."