Obliquely autobiographical, 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' relates Stephen Dedalus's emotional and intellectual journey into adulthood, as he struggles to unshackle himself from religion, politics, and the smothering conventions of Irish society. Experimental and innovative in style, pioneering the stream-of-consciousness technique narrative form, Joyce's debut novel expertly encapsulates the development of individual consciousness and the role of the artist in society. The perfectintroduction to the genius of Joyce, 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' is an early example of some of the author's famous narrative characteristics that would later be represented in a more developed manner in 'Ulysses' and 'Finnegans Wake'.