A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

By: James Joyce

Narrated by: Michael Orenstein

The intellectual and religio-philosophical awakening of young Stephen Dedalus as he begins to question and rebel against the Catholic and Irish conventions with which he has been raised. He finally leaves for abroad to pursue his ambitions as an artist. The work is an early example of some of Joyce's modernist techniques that would later be represented in a more developed manner by Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. The novel, which has had a "huge influence on novelists across the world", was ranked by Modern Library as the third greatest English-language novel of the 20th century.

Public Domain (P)2013 Trout Lake Media

it is a well written book.

it is James Joyce so you.know it is well written. The story did not really connect with me but that doesn't mean it is bad. I just had a difficult time connecting with the characters.

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Narrator reads too fast

Obviously this is one of the great modern novels. However, this narrator speed reads like the guy who used to do the FedEx commercials. Stick with the Donal Donnelly reading.

Wrong voice for MY head

What did you like best about A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man? What did you like least?

I started to read "A Portrait of the Artist..." in my late teens, knowing it to be a "classic," but found it stylistically unappealing to me at the time. It had become part of my (61-year-old female) "bucket list," and appealed to me out from the Audible catalogue. Alas, the stylized Brogue of the narrator's voice interfered with the mulitiplicity of literary associations I might have had, and the author's adolescent male anguishes stemming from his Catholic upbringing could not resonate in my Russophilic soul.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Stephen Daedalus, or course.

Would you be willing to try another one of Michael Orenstein’s performances?

I fear I am not likely to be a reader of works he might record.

Do you think A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

I've been tiptoeing around "Ulysses" for most of my adult life, and fearing "Finnegan's Wake" ever since to coincided with the early bout of insanity chronicled in Sylvia Plath's "Bell Jar."

I don't understand the hate...

It seems that there are a number of people listening to this book that don't understand the nature of James Joyce. He is dense and complex; one does not simply listen while commuting or you would crash your car. You could easily keep hitting the rewind button and hearing a new thought each time. The narrator might go a bit fast, but he is incredibly rewarding and conveys the nuance of the language well. Currently $1.00 on audible, this is a tremendously valuable work for very cheap.