"Cliff Notes - Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man, A" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

influential prose writer of this century. His influence was felt by
many others, including Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, William
Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, and Samuel Beckett. He has left his mark on
any writer who uses the stream-of-consciousness technique (see the
section on Style), or employs language in a fresh and punning way.
And for many writers, like the Anglo-American poet T. S. Eliot, his
use of myth to give shape to the chaos of modern life had "the
importance of a scientific discovery."

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A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN: PLOT

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man opens with the earliest
childhood memories of its hero, Stephen Dedalus. Some of these
memories are happy and musical. Others hold terror. His governess
threatens that if he does not apologize for a mysterious misdeed,
eagles will pull out his eyes. This is the first time--but not the
last--the sensitive and gifted boy will be pressed to conform to the
ways of his world, Roman Catholic Dublin in the late nineteenth
century.

Stephen becomes one of the best students at the fashionable boarding
school, Clongowes Wood College. Socially, however, he is an
outsider, bullied by the other boys. When he returns home to spend
Christmas with his family, the holiday proves a disappointment. The
festive dinner is disrupted by a bitter argument over Ireland's
political idol, Charles Stewart Parnell, whose affair with a married
woman has divided both the nation and Stephen's home. His father,
Simon; a dinner guest, John Casey; and his governess, Dante Riordan,
go at each other's throats. The small boy is dismayed to see his
hero, Parnell, attacked, and to see such hate and intolerance among
the adults he has been told to respect.

Back at school, Stephen learns that men of God can also behave with
cruel injustice when the harsh Father Dolan punishes him unfairly.
The outraged Stephen musters enough courage to complain directly to
the school's head, Father Conmee, who promises to straighten out the
"mistake" with Dolan. The exultant Stephen enjoys a moment of
triumph as his schoolmates salute his spunk. But he learns later
that Conmee and Dolan merely had a good laugh at his expense.

The Dedalus family suffers the first of many financial reverses and
can no longer afford to send Stephen to Clongowes. He goes instead
to Belvedere College, a Jesuit school, on scholarship. There he is
singled out for his writing skill and discovers the world of books.
He is chosen to lead one of the college's two religious brotherhoods.
Yet, as before, he feels alienated from the other students. His
classmates respect him, but also resent him.

Stephen grows estranged from his family as well. During a trip to