A Portrait of the Artist as a Young ManBy: James Joyce James Joyce's coming of age story, a tour de force of style and technique The first, shortest, and most approachable of James Joyces 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