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3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Overall I found it a very tedious read but not without its rewards. I remember reading somewhere that A Portrait is half-way between [b:Dubliners|11012|Dubliners|James Joyce|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1334138184s/11012.jpg|260248] and [b:Ulysses|338798|Ulysses|James Joyce|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1346161221s/338798.jpg|2368224] and from my reading about 1/3 of the first (I haven't finished due to lack of time, but I liked it - it's definitely on my to-finish list) and from what I heard about the latter, that comment does ring true. It also makes me think that I probably won't enjoy Ulysses ;)
There are two things I liked most about A Portrait - one is how the narrative changes with the age of the protagonist and the second - specifically Chapter 3. It portrayed exactly how I felt being raised in the Roman Catholic faith and why I would never want my (future hypothetical) children to endure the same psychological abuse.
While I value the above (and other) insights of the book, I think my biggest complain is that I simply didn't enjoy it. I found myself skimming through long passages, not able to concentrate, numbed by the splendid, but exhausting, narration. I also feel like I missed some of the depth - not fully grasping the subtle meanings or metaphors. I guess you could call me lazy but reading A Portrait felt like a lot of work to me at times and, while there is nothing wrong in it per se, I think it's safe to say that Literature would not have been a good choice of degree for me ;)
There are two things I liked most about A Portrait - one is how the narrative changes with the age of the protagonist and the second - specifically Chapter 3. It portrayed exactly how I felt being raised in the Roman Catholic faith and why I would never want my (future hypothetical) children to endure the same psychological abuse.
While I value the above (and other) insights of the book, I think my biggest complain is that I simply didn't enjoy it. I found myself skimming through long passages, not able to concentrate, numbed by the splendid, but exhausting, narration. I also feel like I missed some of the depth - not fully grasping the subtle meanings or metaphors. I guess you could call me lazy but reading A Portrait felt like a lot of work to me at times and, while there is nothing wrong in it per se, I think it's safe to say that Literature would not have been a good choice of degree for me ;)
Confusing. No real plot... at least I don't think. Also no real resolution. Was not a fan
I read this book just to find out what all the hub-bub was about. My college roommates had to read it for an English class they were in and said it went over their heads.
I don't think it went over mine (too far at least). I made some notes in the margins (which really saves me some time of having to re-read everything to get to the point of what I thought about this book). It's written in the Victorian age in Ireland. The main character Stephen Dedalus is named after the mythic figure Daedelus.
Guess we'll have to go to Wikipedia for that one.
Just to quote the back of the book: "Joyce's brilliant rendering of the impressions and experiences of childhood broke new ground in the use of language and in the structure of the novel." I did like this quote in particular about a flogging: "It can't be helped/ it must be done/ So down with your britches/ out with your bum."
And this sentence I underlined, despite all the others: "Pride and hope and desire like crushed herbs in his heart sent up vapors of maddening incense before the eyes of his mind."
Stephen (really autobiographical character for Joyce?) remembers school days and friends lost. Family relations and impoverished circumstances to make him the 'artist' he eventually becomes.
I don't think it went over mine (too far at least). I made some notes in the margins (which really saves me some time of having to re-read everything to get to the point of what I thought about this book). It's written in the Victorian age in Ireland. The main character Stephen Dedalus is named after the mythic figure Daedelus.
Guess we'll have to go to Wikipedia for that one.
Just to quote the back of the book: "Joyce's brilliant rendering of the impressions and experiences of childhood broke new ground in the use of language and in the structure of the novel." I did like this quote in particular about a flogging: "It can't be helped/ it must be done/ So down with your britches/ out with your bum."
And this sentence I underlined, despite all the others: "Pride and hope and desire like crushed herbs in his heart sent up vapors of maddening incense before the eyes of his mind."
Stephen (really autobiographical character for Joyce?) remembers school days and friends lost. Family relations and impoverished circumstances to make him the 'artist' he eventually becomes.
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“The phrase and the day and the scene harmonized in a chord. Words. Was it their colours? He allowed them to glow and fade, hue after hue: sunrise gold, the russet and green of apple orchards, azure of waves, the greyfringed fleece of clouds. No it was not their colours: it was the poise and balance of the period itself. Did he then love the rhythmic rise and fall of words better than their associations of legend and colour? Or was it that, being as weak of sight as he was shy of mind, he drew less pleasure from the reflection of the glowing sensible world through the prism of a language manycoloured and richly storied than from the contemplation of an inner world of individual emotions mirrored perfectly in a lucid supple periodic prose?”
An ineffable book, full of bittersweet yearning. The historical context eluded me, but the rhythms and the rich interiority were hypnotic and lush.
Having grown up in an atheist household, I haven’t put much stock in the afterlife (certainly not as much as Stephen Dedalus, with his metaphysical musings on Hell), but this book made me wistful for reincarnation, to have another chance to experience the joys and sorrows of youth.
Sometimes my eyes glaze over when I read the modernists, but when I slow down and sink in, it's a sensory delight!
An ineffable book, full of bittersweet yearning. The historical context eluded me, but the rhythms and the rich interiority were hypnotic and lush.
Having grown up in an atheist household, I haven’t put much stock in the afterlife (certainly not as much as Stephen Dedalus, with his metaphysical musings on Hell), but this book made me wistful for reincarnation, to have another chance to experience the joys and sorrows of youth.
Sometimes my eyes glaze over when I read the modernists, but when I slow down and sink in, it's a sensory delight!
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Finally got through it. It can be hard going at times, but is well worth it. Very much of its time, it does paint a vivid picture of Ireland in the late-19th Century.
It was a challenging read. I daresay among other famous writers of bildungsroman (Hermann Hesse, J.D. Salinger to name a few), Joyce is the toughest. As a Catholic, I could certainly identify myself with Stephen's struggles to understand the world that stretches beyond Roman Catholicism or any other religious institution. In some ways, I am much better off than Stephen. I was free to choose to be Catholic or anyone else but he was not. I understood the perpetual loneliness and humiliation it causes to live a life that is solely decided by something other than myself... At the same time, I envied him living at the time and place in which a prospect of the artistic career was something worth pursuing.