A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Penguin Classics) is James Joyce’s coming-of-age story, a tour de force of style and technique. The novel follows Stephen Dedalus from his Dublin upbringing through to his questioning of all convention. At its center lie profound questions about origin and source, authority and authorship, and the relationship between an artist and their family, culture, and race. Exuberantly inventive in style, it subtly and beautifully orchestrates patterns of quotation and repetition essential for Stephen’s quest to forge his own character, language, life, and art: “to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.”

This Penguin Classics edition is the definitive text, authorized by the Joyce estate and meticulously collated from all known proofs, manuscripts, and impressions to reflect the author’s original wishes. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, with over 1,700 titles that represent a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.