A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man ─ Centennial Edition

For the centennial of its original publication, a beautiful Deluxe Edition of one of Joyce’s greatest works—featuring an introduction by Karl Ove Knausgaard, author the six-volume New York Times bestselling global literary phenomenon My Struggle,which has been likened to a 21st-century Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

The first, shortest, and most approachable of James Joyce’s novels, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man portrays the Dublin upbringing of Stephen Dedalus, from his youthful days at Clongowes Wood College to his radical questioning of all convention. In doing so, it provides an oblique self-portrait of the young Joyce himself. At its center lie questions of origin and source, authority and authorship, and the relationship of an artist to his family, culture, and race. Exuberantly inventive in style, the novel subtly and beautifully orchestrates the patterns of quotation and repetition instrumental in its hero’s quest to create his own character, his own language, life, and art: “to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.”

This Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, published for the novel’s centennial, is the definitive text, authorized by the Joyce estate and collated from all known proofs, manuscripts, and impressions to reflect the author’s original wishes.

For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents 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.

James Joyce (1882–1941), an Irish poet and novelist, was one of the most celebrated writers of the twentieth century. His works includeUlysses, Dubliners, and Finnegans Wake.

Karl Ove Knausgaard (introducer) is the author of the six-volume New York Times bestselling global literary phenomenonMy Struggle, which has won numerous international literary awards and has been translated into more than fifteen languages. One of Norway’s most celebrated writers, he was born in 1968 in Oslo and now lives in rural Sweden with his wife and their three children.

Seamus Deane (notes), professor of English and the Donald and Marilyn Keough Professor of Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame, is a member of the Royal Irish Academy and the general editor of the works of James Joyce for Penguin Classics.

Roman Muradov (cover illustrator) has done illustrations for an array of clients, including The New Yorker, The New York Times, Vogue, NPR, and Dark Horse Comics. He lives in San Francisco.