A Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man by James Joyce - 1977

VERY GOOD — Firm binding. Crisp exterior. NOTE: Very minor shelf rubbing to bottom edge, front board. Minor scratches/gilt loss to textblock page edges. Very minor fraying to bookmarker tail. Underlining of text throughout the book. Please inspect photos closely for condition details.

This title is featured in the Easton Press series, The 100 Greatest Books Ever Written. Published as a Collector's Edition in 1977, bound in handsome Hunter Green leather, and beautifully illustrated by Brian Keogh, this edition would be a worthy addendum to your collectibles library.

Specifics of this series from the Easton Press website:

• Fully and tightly bound in genuine leather.
  22kt gold accents deeply inlaid on the "hubbed" spine.
  Heavy duty binding boards... .
  Superbly printed on acid-neutral paper... .
  Sewn pages – not just glued like ordinary books.
  ...moiré endpages and a satin-ribbon page marker.
  Gilded page ends.

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"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."

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James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of the 20th century. Joyce's novel Ulysses (1922) is a landmark in which the episodes of Homer's Odyssey are paralleled in a variety of literary styles, particularly stream of consciousness. Other well-known works are the short-story collection Dubliners (1914), and the novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Finnegans Wake (1939). His other writings include three books of poetry, a play, letters, and occasional journalism. . . .

Joyce's work still has a profound influence on contemporary culture. Ulysses is a model for fiction writers, particularly its explorations in the power of language. Its emphasis on the details of everyday life have opened up new possibilities of expression for authors, painters and film-makers. It retains its prestige among readers, often ranking high on 'Great Book' lists. . . .

In popular culture, the work and life of Joyce is celebrated annually on 16 June, known as Bloomsday, in Dublin and in an increasing number of cities worldwide. . . .

The above text derives from, respectively, Penguin Publishing Group (via Google Books) and Wikipedia.