Στήβεν ο ήρωας

by James Joyce, Μιχάλης Κοκολάκης (Translator)

"Τη ζωή του άρχισε να χρωματίζει μια εκζήτηση, μια περιπάθεια. Συνειδητοποιούσε ότι, αν και επίσημα ήταν ακόμη συμφιλιωμένος με την κοινωνία όπου είχε δει το φως, η συνθήκη αυτή δεν θα μπορούσε να παραταθεί. Η ζωή του περιπλανώμενου του φαινόταν λιγότερο πρόστυχη από τη ζωή κάποιου που είχε συμβιβαστεί με την τυραννία της μετριότητας επειδή έβρισκε υπερβολικό το τίμημα του να είναι ξεχωριστός. Η νέα γενιά που έβλεπε να ανασταίνεται γύρω του θεωρούσε τις εκδηλώσεις της πνευματικής του ανησυχίας κάτι παραπάνω από απρεπείς, και ήξερε ότι πίσω από το φοβισμένο και στοργικό προσωπείο τους οι αντιπρόσωποι της εξουσίας έτρεφαν την ελπίδα πως η αδέσποτη φύση του θα τον έφερνε σε τέτοια αξιολύπητη σύγκρουση με την υπαρκτή εμπειρία ώστε θα είχαν κάποια μέρα τη χαρά να τον υποδεχτούν επίσημα σε κάποιο νοσοκομείο ή άσυλο".

Το 1908 η αδελφή του Joyce διέσωσε από τις φλόγες ένα χειρόγραφό του με τίτλο Stephen Hero - πρώτη γραφή του μυθιστορήματος που, ριζικά μεταμορφωμένο, έμελλε να γίνει γνωστό ως Το πορτραίτο του καλλιτέχνη. Καθώς περιλαμβάνει πρόσωπα, γεγονότα και στοχασμούς που δεν υπάρχουν σ' εκείνο, με τη μεταθανάτια έκδοσή του, το κείμενο αυτό αναγνωρίστηκε ως αυτόνομο έργο -σημαδιακό για την εξέλιξη του συγγραφέα που, περισσότερο ίσως από κάθε άλλον, σφράγισε με τις πρωτοποριακές αναζητήσεις του τον 20ό αιώνα- και πήρε τη θέση του ανάμεσα στις μεγάλες μοντέρνες μυθοπλασίες γύρω από την ψυχική και πνευματική ένταση των νεανικών χρόνων και τη δύσκολη είσοδο στην ενήλικη ζωή.

... Απαιτείται από τον αναγνώστη να συμπλεύσει στην εναρκτήρια διαλογή της ποιητικής του, να ζήσει από κοντά αντιφάσεις, θεωρητικούς υπαινιγμούς για την κατασκευή του αισθητικού του οικοδομήματος, προσεγγίσεις σε ζητήματα της σύγχρονης κουλτούρας. Όπως παρατήρησε ο Umberto Eco, η ποιητική του Joyce επιβάλλεται να μελετάται συγχρονικά με τα στάδια της πνευματικής ανέλιξής του. Πράγματι, το πρώιμο αυτό πόνημα διαβάζεται ως λεπτούργημα, έξοχο σύγγραμμα με την ιδιότητα του αυτοβιογραφικού κατόπτρου, που επιτελεί τέλεια την αποστολή του και παρά την ελλειπτικότητα που δυστύχησε να 'χει.
(Βασίλης Ρούβαλης, Ελευθεροτυπία, 21/2/1996)

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Ireland, Literature, Novels, Irish Literature, 20th Century

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1944

About the author

James Joyce was an Irish novelist, poet, and a pivotal figure in 20th-century modernist literature, renowned for his highly experimental approach to language and narrative structure, particularly his pioneering mastery and popularization of the stream-of-consciousness technique. Born into a middle-class Catholic family in the Rathgar suburb of Dublin in 1882, Joyce spent the majority of his adult life in self-imposed exile across continental Europe—living in Trieste, Zurich, and Paris—yet his entire, meticulous body of work remained obsessively and comprehensively focused on the minutiae of his native city, making Dublin both the meticulously detailed setting and a central, inescapable character in his literary universe. His work is consistently characterized by its technical complexity, rich literary allusion, intricate symbolism, and an unflinching examination of the spectrum of human consciousness. Joyce began his published career with Dubliners (1914), a collection of fifteen short stories offering a naturalistic, often stark, depiction of middle-class Irish life and the moral and spiritual paralysis he observed in its inhabitants, concluding each story with a moment of crucial, sudden self-understanding he termed an "epiphany." This collection was followed by the highly autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), a Bildungsroman that meticulously chronicled the intellectual and artistic awakening of its protagonist, Stephen Dedalus, who would become Joyce's recurring alter ego and intellectual stand-in throughout his major works.
His magnum opus, Ulysses (1922), is universally regarded as a landmark work of fiction that fundamentally revolutionized the novel form. It compressed the events of a single, ordinary day—June 16, 1904, a date now globally celebrated by literary enthusiasts as "Bloomsday"—into a sprawling, epic narrative that structurally and symbolically paralleled Homer's Odyssey, using a dazzling array of distinct styles and linguistic invention across its eighteen episodes to explore the lives of Leopold Bloom, his wife Molly Bloom, and Stephen Dedalus in hyper-minute detail. The novel's explicit content and innovative, challenging structure led to its initial banning for obscenity in the United States and the United Kingdom, turning Joyce into a cause célèbre for artistic freedom and the boundaries of literary expression. His final, most challenging work, Finnegans Wake (1939), pushed the boundaries of language and conventional narrative even further, employing a dense, dream-like prose filled with multilingual puns, invented portmanteau words, and layered allusions that continues to divide and challenge readers and scholars to this day. A dedicated polyglot who reportedly learned several languages, including Norwegian simply to read Ibsen in the original, Joyce approached the English language not as a fixed entity with rigid rules, but as a malleable medium capable of infinite reinvention and expression. His personal life was marked by an unwavering dedication to his literary craft, a complex, devoted relationship with his wife Nora Barnacle, and chronic, debilitating eye problems that necessitated numerous painful surgeries throughout his life, sometimes forcing him to write with crayons on large white paper. Despite these severe physical ailments and financial struggles, his singular literary vision remained sharp, focused, and profoundly revolutionary. Joyce passed away in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1941, shortly after undergoing one of his many eye operations. Today, he is widely regarded as perhaps the most significant and challenging writer of the 20th century. His immense, complex legacy is robustly maintained by global academic study and institutions such as the James Joyce Centre in Dublin, which ensures his complex, demanding, and utterly brilliant work endures, inviting new generations of readers to explore the very essence of what it means to be hum

Reviews

[Fernando · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Stephen el héroe” es el nombre que James Joyce le dio al manuscrito borrador que posteriormente se transformaría en una de su tres novelas, “Retrato del artista adolescente”. Este manuscrito fue rescatado de las llamas luego de que Joyce lo arrojara en medio de una fuerte discusión familiar. Fue su hermana Eileen quien lo rescató y conservó.
En él, Joyce comienza a delinear los primeros pasos en la educación de Stephen Dédalus quien además de ser el protagonista de la mencionada novela lo será también de la inconmensurable “Ulises” junto con Leopoldo Bloom.
Tanto en esta como en la novela terminada nos encontraremos con un gran cantidad de datos relacionadas a la vida del propio Joyce quien fue educado en establecimientos jesuitas y de este modo todas esas experiencias empíricas fueron llevadas a la ficción.
Se nota aún las dudas de Joyce en muchos aspectos, lo que hace que el texto por momentos terminen abruptamente o nos encontremos durante la lectura con párrafos omitidos.
De todas maneras no podemos negar que “Stephen el héroe” es la piedra fundacional para la obra subsiguiente del genial autor irlandés que aún hoy disfrutamos y que a partir del “Ulises” se ha transformado como imprescindible en la literatura mundial.

[Olga · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the first steps towards Ulysses. A draft-like intro into Joyce's complicated world.

[Hamish · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're reading this, you probably know the story behind this book (summary: early draft of Portrait of an Artist using a more straight-forward narrative and prose style; Joyce allegedly threw it in the fire and started over; this is the 200 pages of a much larger manuscript that his sister rescued).

Famously Nabokov once tried to burn his draft of Lolita while it was still a work in progress, and his wife stopped him at the last second. So sometimes writers are wrong. Sometimes something that seems like a hopeless mess is actually a classic in chrysalis. And sometimes, like with Joyce, they're smart enough to know when to cut their losses and start over.

It's not that Stephen Hero is bad, it's just that it's far less good than Portrait. The main problem is that, unlike with Dubliners and Ulysses which feel like perfectly rendered and detailed worlds, Stephen Hero is so caught up in its protagonist's world view and artistic development that it feels like everything else is ignored. There's only so much of Stephen's artistic theory and moping about tyranny of Irish nationalism that you can listen to before you lose all interest. Portrait shows that this subject matter, when done with novel stylistic innovations and a tighter structure can be engrossing and wonderful (proof that style and skill will always trump subject), but the writing here is nowhere near as strong as it is in Portrait. It's still Joyce, so it's still well-written, but it lacks the prose fireworks of his better novels.

Basically this novel is only interesting to Joyce super-fans who want to see an early form of Portrait and how the material evolved over ten years. Rather than the succinct, chronologically disparate episode of Potrait, Stephen Hero's narrative moves in a traditional manner, with no real distinct segments. We only get a little of what would have been a much larger book (the rest being lost to time), so we get to see what is going on behind the scenes of episode five of Portrait. It's certainly interesting to learn the details of some of the conflicts that are going on behind the scenes of Portrait, though part of the fun of that novel is that you feel like you're getting a glimpse of someone's life, and that the details will always remain a little mysterious. Still, it's a fascinating glimpse into the working method of a genius and evidence that less can be more.

If it had been published, Stephen Hero in no way would have been the classic that its successor is. However, as a work in progress it's definitely worth reading, but for Joyce completists only.

[B. Faye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Αγόρασα αυτό το βιβλίο μεταχειρισμένο Είχε σημειώσεις από τον προηγούμενο ιδιοκτήτη γεγονός που με έκανε να το νιώθω λόγο «ξένο» στην αρχή Σημείωσα κι εγώ τα δικά μου και θα μπορούσα να το αφήσω να συνεχίσει το δρόμο του και να σημειώσει κάποιος τρίτος τα δικά του #not !
Όλοι οι φανατικοί αναγνώστες του Τζόυς φαντάζομαι γνωρίζουν την ιστορία του για το πως ο Τζόυς προσπάθησε να το κάψει και η αδερφή του διέσωσε το χειρόγραφο από τις φλόγες Γνωρίζοντας την εξέλιξη του εν λόγω συγγραφέα μπορώ να φανταστώ γιατί ο Τζόυς θέλησε να κάψει το έργο αυτό, το οποίο είναι σε εμβρυακό στάδιο σε σχέση με τη συνέχεια του έργου του Χαίρομαι που δεν τα κατάφερε 😌
Οργασμική αναγνωστική εμπειρία να διαβάζεις την παρθενική εξόρμηση μιας συγγραφικής διάνοιας που χειρίζεται τη γλώσσα όπως κανένας άλλος
Βαθιά αυτοβιογραφικό μας γνωρίζει τον Στέφανο Δαίδαλο που όπως και το επίθετο του στην ηλικία τις ωρίμανσης αμφισβητεί όλο το κατεστημένο της εποχής και προχωρά σε δαιδαλώδεις αναζητήσεις εσωτερικές και εξωτερικές
Κομβικά σημεία του βιβλίου για μένα η αναφορά στο είδος και ύφος της φιλίας του με τον Κράνλυ, ο θάνατος της αδερφής του και το σημείο στις πρόσθετες σημειώσεις στο τέλος που βρίσκουν μια νεκρή γυναίκα στην παραλία ( μου έφερε στο νου ξεκάθαρα πολλά σημεία του Οδυσσέα )

« Ο Στήβεν τροφοδοτούσε την στερημένη του ακοή με το περίσσευμα ενός αποθησαυρισμένου λεξιλογίου, και αντέτασσε στην τσουχτερή πεζότητα της χολής του συντρόφου του την πολυσύνθετη ακτινοβολία τις σκέψης του.»

ΥΓ Στα προσεχή αναγνωστικά σχέδια το Πορτραίτο του καλλιτέχνη

[Josh Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is true that this is not as great when judged in the light of Joyce's later works, but what is, judged by that standard? Oddly enough this is the last of Joyce's work (other than letters) that I had not read, though it's his first attempt at writing.

This is so much more autobiographical, so much less stylized, and a bit more human than Portrait, it makes a nice counterpoint. Many of the same characters -plus a new one, father Artifoni, who I presume is the model for the man of the same name appearing in Ulysses (most notably in "Wandering Rocks."

All in all, Stephen's refusal to capitulate to a system of narrow careerism in favor of an aestheticist creed is still inspiring. I know there's a vast debate about Joyce's ironic distance vis-a-vis that creed, but even so the rejection of petty-bourgeois ends on the final pages rings just as true today as it must have in 1904 - "I went to this university day-school in order to meet men of a like age and temper... You know what I met... I found a day-school full of terrorized boys, banded together in a complicity of diffidence. They have eyes only for their future jobs: to secure their future jobs they will write themselves in and out of convictions... It is absurd that I should go crawling and cringing and praying and begging to mummers who are themselves no more than beggars. Can we not root this pest out of our minds and out of our society that men may be able to walk through the streets without meeting some old stale belief or hypocrisy at every street corner? I, at least, will try. I will not accept anything from them. I will not submit to them, either outwardly or inwardly."

[Nick Sweeney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite being a somewhat flawed/schizophrenic fan of Joyce - obsessed with Ulysses and Dubliners and their air of perfection, bored with Portrait and mystified/annoyed by Finnegans Wake - I have always avoided reading Stephen Hero. It's generally seen as an alternative version of Portrait, and I think that was my sole reason for not reading it.

Stephen Hero is not only unfinished, it seems to be miles from the end, if we indeed think of it as a different version of Portrait. Joyce worked on this my-life-disguised-as-fiction book between 1903, it is thought, and 1905, when he abandoned it to make a start on Portrait.

Needless to say, many of the themes later refined to end up in both Portrait and Ulysses are present: the development of a thinker poised between literature and religion, piety and sin, and above all an examination of Stephen's relationships both intimate and formal in the world around him and in his own expanding inner world.

The younger Joyce was not noticeably less of a stylist than the man who wrote the later books, and Stephen Hero is, mostly, very elegantly written, knowing when to swerve detail for the bigger picture and when to linger over it. It is an engaging book, and as always with Joyce, not flawless, exactly, but with it imperfections only exposed because they stand out of a more complete would-be masterpiece of a book.

I'm now re-reading Portrait, and finding it, firstly, fascinating - my disdain for it a mystery - and secondly, lacking in some of the parts of Stephen Hero that didn't make it through to the later book.

As to whether I recommend it, as ever with Joyce: if you're into Joyce, don't be like me, and ignore a book as important as Stephen Hero. If you're not into the quirky manifestations of a very hard man to like, then... leave it, and read something else.

[Willard Brickey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is essential reading for any fan of Joyce and/or anyone who has read A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man, and pointless for anyone else. I say pointless because it is not a whole novel; it is a fragment of a novel because Joyce (allegedly) pitched it into his fireplace after twenty publishers rejected it; his wife (allegedly) salvaged it.
So it will not be a whole story to anyone who has not read A Portrait. But the Stephen Daedalus presented here is less abstraction, more flesh-and-blood than the young man presented in the later work. Frankly, it is, in my opinion, a more satisfying, if less complete, portrait.

[Differengenera · Rating 4 out of 5]

conflicted about this! on the one hand, its very existence is an act of Joyce-idolatry. by whatever measure you use it is obviously an earlier draft of Portrait, written at a stage when he wasn't quite hitting the formal and stylistic irony as well as he later did

on the other, there's loads of stuff here that i always wish Joyce dealt with in his other works. we see far far more in the way of the revolutionary generation then taking shape (albeit its more middle-class adherents) in the form of the Gaelic League, the GAA as well as serious considerations of what revolutionary politics are and should be. Joyce's representation of this milieu is obviously not a favourable one and in many ways seems to shaped what irish intellectual culture more broadly would come to regard this generation as, i.e. racist against the English, as opposed to anti-imperialist. there are some moments in which Joyce's cynicism seems to be justified, there are indications that this cohort will merely replace the English as a ruling class, there's a reference to a Gaelic Leaguer who is a large landlord in one of Dublin's brothel districts, but these are always conveyed in the context of a broader Nietzschean objection to politics as a sphere of action at all, which would be hilarious if it wasn't in earnest

even though it is a fragmentary work that was later significantly improved upon, its still in many ways head and shoulders above a lot of irish novels, both then and now

[Mackenzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

In many ways, I actually enjoyed it more than Portrait of the Artist--I prefer the outside of Stephen's psyche to the inside. The dialogue is clever, and plot things actually happen. That said, Portrait contains a tasty stylistic and thematic mysticism that is missing from this text, so I think both are worth reading together.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stephen Hero is a fragment of an early draft for Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. It portrays Stephen Dedalus in his teens (the period described in the last third of A Portrait). The style here is not so Pater-esque as in A Portrait; it is closer to Ibsen, even to naturalism, than it is to the stylistic and formal experimentation of Joyce's later books. The narrative includes a conversation between Stephen and his mother that is among the most shocking things I have ever read.

Acquired 1991
The Word, Montreal, Quebec

[Camilo González · Rating 4 out of 5]

Por fin puedo acercarme al gran enigma de este manuscrito. Me gusta mantenerlo en mi imaginario como un texto mitológico, anterior y germinal a todo el universo infernal que veinte años más tarde estallará en El artista adolescente..., Ulises y FW. Antes que llamarlo una novela inconclusa o quedarme con la idea de 'texto rechazado por una editorial', me gusta pensar Stephen Hero como un campo de batalla, un borrador infinito, un taller donde lentamente se pulen todas las piezas de una gran obra (por algo es Dédalo).
Fragmentario, obviamente, la ventana que se nos abre en este texto nos permite conocer al Stephen universitario, reaccionario, decidido, aquel que escribirá y sentenciará su exilio en las páginas finales a modo de diario de El artista adolescente... Conocer este texto permite crear una trazabilidad y monitorear el desarrollo de varios personajes, episodios y posturas estéticas que Stephen (o Joyce) maduran en su mente a lo largo que se escribe su obra (ya sea la del uno o la del otro). Son los diálogos con todos los 'pedorros esos', como dice míster Simon Dédalus, los que construyen una estética y una propuesta artística que yo denominé proteica, y son estos diálogos de 'Esteban, el héroe' los que permiten dilucidar cómo se sentía Joyce frente a su patria, su familia, la iglesia y todo tipo de institución que lo rodeaba. En estas páginas descubrí, acaso, al Stephen más encarnizado, fogoso, atrevido y mordaz.
Aquí un fragmento de este texto primitivo: "Estos vagabundeos endurecían las raíces de su ira ya bien arraigada, y cada vez que se topaba con un grueso cura sudado bajo sus ropas negras haciendo su ronda matinal por esas colmenas de piadosos reptantes para atestiguar la estabilidad de su parálisis, maldecía con ira la farsa del Catolicismo, la farsa de su isla: una isla donde los habitantes confían y venden su espíritu al mejor postor, una isla en la que todo el poder y la riqueza están en manos de los guardianes de las llaves del otro mundo, una isla en la que César confiesa a Cristo y Cristo confiesa a César, engordando ambos de la mano su tripa y su bolsillo como puercos a costa del hambre de una plebe a la que consuela fácilmente con palabras y frases vulgares como: el Reino de Dios está en cada uno de vosotros."
Por otro lado, quiero hablar de la historia editorial o historia de las traducciones de este texto. Según mis conocimientos y posibilidades, son cuatro las traducciones que tenemos disponibles de Stephen Hero al español. La primera, legendaria acaso como todas las primeras traducciones de Joyce al español porque todos sus aterrizajes a este continente americano fueron forzados, fue publicada por la editorial Sur en los años sesenta en Argentina. Sé poco de esta traducción, además de su particular título 'Esteban, el héroe', solo podría decir que es íntegra, que su traductor fue Roberto Bixio y que la edición goza de ese fulgor y pasión argentina por la obra del dublinés manifestadas por las revistas culturales de la época ya ruinas, casi, de lo que fue una vanguardia productiva.
La segunda traducción pertenece a la editorial Lumen y hace parte del conjunto de textos que el señor José María Valverde tradujo de la obra del autor irlandés. Debo decir que me encantan esas ediciones blancas, que son escasas en mi país. No he leído esta traducción, al igual que la primera, pero si juzgamos desde su traducción de Ulises, podemos decir que es un trabajo bien hecho. Este ciclo de traducciones y publicaciones de Joyce en Lumen debe rondar la década de los setentas. No me es posible precisar la fecha de traducción pero lo intuyo porque mi traducción de los Critical Writings en Lumen, curiosamente con un traductor diferente, figura publicada en Barcelona en 1971. Y, estas son conjeturas que tendré que aclarar, creo que la publicación de Ulises en la traducción del señor Valverde se corresponde al año 1976 (por confirmar).
La tercera traducción es la que aquí nos convoca. Esta edición es argentina e intuyo que es un intento por llenar varios vacíos: la escasa difusión de los textos, digamos marginales, de la inmensa obra de Joyce en Latinoamérica; la necesidad y actualización de un corpus joyceano en español; la conmemoración, puede ser, de los cien años de Ulises regalando otra traducción a su corpus (y vaya que salieron nuevas traducciones y proyectos en el 2022); en fin. Sobre esta tercera traducción no me queda más que felicitar al señor Garrido por la agilidad y frescura que le dio a un texto que tiene más de cien años de vida. Disfruté de la lectura y en ningún momento me sentí atascado en los laberintos de la querida y sucia Dublín. Además, sé que viene realizando un trabajo importante de actualización del corpus joyceano al español. Espero poder seguir accediendo a aquellos textos 'imposibles de hallar' de mi, de nuestro, escritor favorito.
Para cerrar este largo comentario sobre las ediciones y traducciones, navegando hoy por la web encontré otra traducción de Stephen Hero que, según la ficha técnica de Casa del Libro y Amazon, fue lanzada entre diciembre del 2022 y enero del 2023. No tengo posibilidad de acceder a este texto pero sí me da muchísima desconfianza el subtítulo que acompaña la portada ¿qué es eso de 'El Joyce más autobiográfico y comprensible'? Semejante subtítulo me hace pensar en que este es un texto con muchos remiendos y recortes (como si el texto en cuestión no fuera ya un fragmento que sobrevivió el tiempo) para facilitar una comprensión de la obra de Joyce. Esto me parece un atropello y espero que la traducción de Raquel Duato García no sea ese monstruo que me estoy imaginando.
Siempre disfrutaré de las particularidades del mundo Joyce en español. Espero aproximarme a otras de las tantas novedades de estos últimos años y que los traductores siempre se sigan desafiando a sí mismo y a las traducciones canónicas de un autor como este. Siempre será necesaria una revisión y un nuevo acercamiento.

Dejo aquí las portadas de las traducciones de Stephen Hero al español halladas en la web y mencionadas en este texto.

[Stephen Gallup · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (which I comment on here) was originally seen as Joyce's autobiography. While it is autobiographical, that view became complicated when the fragmentary manuscript for this earlier work, Stephen Hero, came to light. In 1938 Sylvia Beech (publisher of Ulysses) sold it to Harvard. In grad school I heard the tale that Joyce had supposedly thrown it into the fire after failing to find a publisher, and that his wife Nora managed to salvage 400 (of the original 1,000) pages. However, I'm told the surviving pages are not at all charred, and that another 20 pages of it mysteriously showed up in the Yale library. So who knows.

At any rate, this precursor to Portrait of the Artist is probably of little interest to anyone other than serious Joyce scholars. (I fancied myself one while in school and hence read it.) It concerns a young man who wants something other than the "mediocre" norm and who therefore separates himself from the "spiritual and temporal authorities" as well as from his fellow students (whom he thinks of as "slaves"—"terrorized boys" who "have eyes only for their future jobs").

Young Stephen Dedalus is self-absorbed, self-righteous, and honest to the point of cruelty (not unlike one or two young men I've known in real life). In order to get to the root of his nature, from whence he believes art will spring, he is preparing to sacrifice family, friends, country, Catholicism—everything else. That pursuit was, I think, at the heart of the modernist movement. According to a 1903 essay by Joyce entitled "Aesthetics," the overriding objective was to enter a state of mind in which beauty can be perceived, and created.

In comparing the two works, Portrait of the Artist is more subjective and more artfully rendered. The sequence of events in that book is determined more by association than by chronology. Also, it's more dramatic, because it's centered around epiphanic moments, i.e., frozen moments at the highest point of consciousness. The extraneous stuff is filtered out.

This book provides a window into Joyce's early attempts, and as such it has interest. Also, his character Stephen reappears not only in Portrait of the Artist but also of course in Ulysses and even in Finnegans Wake (where he's named Shem). So it's part of the overall picture. On its own, however, it doesn't make for particularly great reading.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not a Joyce fan or scholar and I read ‘Portrait’ many years ago. This is not so much a book to ‘enjoy’ in the usual sense but one to study and admire (which admittedly may give many enjoyment).
For me, it was 60% reading, 30% rereading and 10% time with the dictionary.
Stephen is a very self absorbed young fellow with lots to say about art, politics, society and the church. It did become a bit tiresome as the book goes on. The wit, humour and repartee are, for me the parts I enjoyed most.
Possibly the most accessible Joyce book but only for those up for a challenge.

[Edward Champion · Rating 4 out of 5]

Look, this ain't PORTRAIT, but it's a fascinating glimpse of what Joyce needed to get out of his system before tackling that masterpiece. Cranly, Emma, and Lynch are more thinly drawn here and there's quite a lot of exuberant advocacy for Ibsen. But this is for Joyce die-hards only. It's mind-boggling that Joyce believed that schoolboys reading papers was the stuff of literature! Although, of course, Joyce can bring vivacity to just about anything.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A master-work in embryo, as it were; although, it must be said, in danger of being still-born! But good editing & an understanding of Ireland's reactionary establishment made Joyce hold back from a frontal assault. APOTAAAYM...just add the great 'Ulysses' & literary immortality awaits! Cryptic enough for you?

[B & A & F · Rating 3 out of 5]

Other than the dry humor and sarcasm of criticizing mainstream literature and Patriotism, I find it hard to get into this book, even though I’ve been following the virtual book club on A Public Space led by Belinda Mckeon

[Rupert Owen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The rough original draft to "Portrait of the artist" and in my view much, much better.

[Rose London · Rating 5 out of 5]

best book ive ever read and its a fcking draft

[Hibou le Literature Supporter · Rating 3 out of 5]

A must read if you've read A Portrait of an Artist and Ulysses. But uneven. Still, a few amazing conversations between Stephen and his mother re religion.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is fundamentally a draft. But boy oh boy!! This is one of the finest drafts you could lay hands upon!!

Joyce started writing an autobiographical novel while he was still in his teens. It was a forthright narrative and was a delicately camouflaged biography of the author. The hero's development is described against the rich background of his family, friends, city and religion.

The family consisting of father, mother, brother and sister, is designated in great detail. His friends have diverse personalities and fixed opinions which are often dissimilar from those of Stephen but important to him. The sights and sounds of Dublin are pronounced with great gusto.

Roman Catholicism is described as a religion and as a part of their education. There is a lot of emphasis on Stephen's relations with his mother. He tells us that he read essays and books to her while she did ironing. He pronounces the last days of his sister and how he comforted her when she was on her death-bed. He prepared a paper on 'Art and Life' to be read at a meeting of the College Debating Society.

By 1908 Joyce had written about 1,50,000 words of this autobiographical novel. Then he comprehended that what he had written was not a portrait of the artist but of the artist's family, friends, city, country and church.

The stress was not on the advancement of Stephen but on incidents which happened around Stephen. It is the story of a sensitive son, brother, student, resident of Dublin and member of the Roman Catholic Church, gradually and excruciatingly training himself to be a writer.

The aim of Joyce in writing this book was to show the growth of Stephen as an artist. He, consequently, felt that this book was not emerging on right lines. The family and friends of Stephen and the environment of Dublin had taken very great space and the central light had not been kept on Stephen.

He, thus, decided to abandon this work and to revise the book in about one-third of its length, in five chapters only.

In this book which developed into A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man he retained only those incidents which were directly connected with Stephen's growth as an artist. Much of the matter of the carlier book was then destroyed.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man appeared in book form in 1916. The portion of the earlier work which remained was published after the author's death as ‘Stephen Hero’.

The themes of Stephen Hero are Stephen's family, Stephen's friends (boys and girls), the life of Dublin, Roman Catholicism and Art. A Portrait has only one theme: art, and it describes how Stephen freed himself from the bondage of family, nation and church and made himself free to concentrate on the vocation of an artist.

Give this a go. Most recommended.

[Vera]

Scrisă în 1904, dar publicată postum în 1944, “Stephen Eroul” este prima versiune incompletă a romanului “Portret al artistului în tinerețe” și una dintre primele scântei ale legendarei sale creații - Ulise!
Acest mic tratat de o moralitate estetică ne deschide pagina spre lumea conștiinței lui Stephen Daedalus - un student la “Artele liberale” din cadrul Colegiului Universitar din Dublin în primii doi ani de studii.

Printr-un stil estetizant și realist, James Joyce înfățișează dezvoltarea lui Stephen ca om și ca artist prins în brațele unei lumi opuse eului său egocentric. A fost un deliciu literar să-i cunosc noile sale revelații, deși, unele dintre ele par a fi atât de controversate.

Acesta reușește să adopte noi teorii estetice despre scopul și rezultatul artei, care ar sugera recunoașterea frumosului ca adevărul existenței lumii vizibile. Creațiile sale conceptuale provoacă simultan schimbări de identitate ca: abandonarea Bisericii și renunțarea la credință (înlocuirea catolicismului cu arta), sfidarea cinică față de Mișcarea Națională și patriotism, astfel încât toate acestea să conducă la conflicte de ordin religios, politic, intelectual și sentimental.

Stephen se face cunoscut printr-un temperament complex și neobișnuit, înflăcărat de un idealism psiho-intelectual și spirit modern. Numele său “Daedalus” este atribuit creatorului mitologic antic - Dedal, care construiește una dintre cele șapte minune ale lumii - labirintul, și făurește aripi pentru el și fiul său Icar, ca să evadeze din propriul labirint închis de regele Minos. Ambele personaje împart aceeași relație de artist: unul ca artist al cuvântului, om de litere, poet, iar celălalt - artist atenian, sculptor, arhitect. Ambii sunt creatori și eroi. Potrivit titlului, Stephen se consideră a fi erou în filosofia estetică datorită revoluțiilor morale, deși recunoaștem un personaj plin de orgoliu intelectual și aroganță.

Întru-cât romanul nu are final, eram foarte curioasă de urmările ce vor avea loc în realismul și fantezia adolescentului, măcar că e dificil să-l admiri când denotă o stare de cinism și superioritate intelectuală.

Ce ziceți dacă “arta nu este un mijloc de evadare din realitate. Este tocmai opusul acestui lucru. Arta este expresia primordială a vieții,” așa cum ne convinge Stephen?

[jude · Rating 5 out of 5]

words cannot express how influential and how deeply i revere what would ultimately be the final form of this manuscript. joyce's portrait was, to me, a pivotal moment of awakening, a sharp rebuke of all the dogmas i received from my childhood up to the moment i read that work. i hold it very near to my heart, and it is of no question that i would give the same adoration to this, the earlier work.

stephen hero has the hallmarks of a great bildungsroman: an enigmatic protagonist with a certain je ne sais quio about him that intrigues fellow students, makes a mystic out of him to those who do not understand him, and induces a certain kind of worship from his younger brother and a certain kind of contempt from his progenitors and the people whose lines of thought he ultimately rebels against. on its own, this first showing is brilliant; the fact that joyce still thought this form too poorly would soon give us the pivotal masterpiece that is portrait—and that is an act much to be admired indeed, a mark of a ceaseless perfectionism that is indicative of a true artist.

that joyce chose to discard this version is no tragedy. i would not trade what he ended up publishing for this version; still, this work is a must-read for any of us who was moved by the final product, a rare glimpse into the psyche and evolution of joyce, and a masterful work when considered by itself in a vacuum. this seems to me more personal, perhaps even youthful and naïve. where portrait is an experiment in both form and content, this is merely an attempt for the latter, which is not in itself a detraction but one can see why it was sidelined in favour of a better product.

all in all, this is a treat and a gem. it is fragmented, incomplete. it would have been part of a 900-page manuscript, but all that was saved was some 300 pages, and so we are never given the full story. nevertheless, what we are given is worthy of praise, a tour de force that seems to be a personal confession and an artistic statement all at once. my only quibble is that history has not saved more out of that 900-page manuscript, for i would have dearly liked more; but i must be content with what is laid out here—and what is laid out here is good, very good indeed.

[Federico · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn’t put the book down—not because of how good it was, but because I was hunting for epiphanies, the mysterious Emma (Cleary), the intersections with A Portrait... I enjoyed the reading experience, but that’s because I’m a Joyce freak, and all of his writings add tremendous value to the overall context.

But truth be told, even if this is the seed of his groundbreaking work, it is far inferior. It’s Joyce—don’t get me wrong—but it isn’t truly him yet. It’s too adolescent, too self-aware. Too full of himself, lacking the humor so characteristic of him and critical to balance the mystical and poetic urge.

The theoretical discussions, which are perfectly introduced in a surgical manner in A Portrait, seem to never end in Stephen Hero. Interesting, of course, but only because I enjoy spotting the subtle differences in how his aesthetics are presented in both works. But it was boring sometimes, even then.

A shame two-thirds of the manuscripts are lost, but we need to acknowledge that this loss allowed him to go full-on alchemist and turn it into a brief work filled with beauty—and fewer endless diatribes against the Catholic Church. I can see Stanislaus disappointed with the upgrade, though. Not only is Maurice gone in A Portrait, but you can see there was more of Maurice/Stanislaus in early James.

[Raúl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Resulta emocionante (también un tanto aburrido) leer el primer intento —fallido— de Joyce en la prosa, y cómo al quemar el manuscrito de este "Stephen Héroe" (que reelaboró bajo perspectivas muy diferentes en "Retrato del artista como hombre joven") rechazó una forma de narrar externa, ligada a un realismo en el que se siente incómodo, y en la que la visión del yo se inscribe como un reflejo ególatra, que no deja participar al lector y lo acaba ahuyentanado.
En lo que queda de este primer intento de Joyce (se supone que casi la mitad del manuscrito completo) ya aparece la utilización de la epifanía, incluso su definición, exposición y parodia irónica; un breve párrafo, lleno de potencia, de monólogo interior; así como pequeños intentos de estilos heterogéneos (juego de preguntas y respuestas, personificación realizante de una fantasía, diálogos teatrales insertos ajuenos al hilo narrativo— que rompen la fidelidad realista y de crónica de este conato de obra, y que son semillas de lo que Joyce desarrollaría en su gran obra. Una forma de utilización del monólogo personal como exposición plural del yo, de la exploración precisa de lo banal, de entender la literatura como juego... en la que el espectador es invitado a rearmar la obra bajo su propio punto de vista.

[Esin · Rating 2 out of 5]

James Joyce’un ilk eseri sayılan yarım bir kitap aslında Kahraman Stephen. Kitap birçok kez yayınevleri tarafından reddedilince yazar çareyi yakmakta bulmuş. Sanatçının Bir Genç Adam Olarak Portresi'nin ilk versiyonunu oluşturan aynı zamanda otobiyografik roman özellikleri taşıyan bu kitap kurtarılan bölümleri ile basılmış.

Her ne kadar bazı bölümlerin kopukluğu hissedilse de eser, Stephen Daedalus (Joyce’un kendiyle özdeşleştirdiği karakter) isimli karakterin ergenlik yaşlarına, okul ve aile hayatına, dini düşüncelerine, sanat ve edebiyat anlayışına, ilk aşkına davet edildiğimiz bir şölen aslında. Tüm azmini sanatçı olmaya adamış, toplumsal koşullardan, İrlanda’nın zihniyetinden, tutucu ailesinden ve din kavramından sıyrılmaya çabalayan, kendini geliştirmiş bir genç görüyoruz kitapta, öyle ki Ibsen’in tiyatrolarından, antik, modern ve güzellik kavramlarından, felsefeden, sanat tarihinden, Aquino’lü Thomas’ın iyi ve yüce kavramlarından bahseden Stephen’ın entelektüellik seviyesinin yüksek olduğu aşikar. Joyce tüm birikimini bir kitaba yüklemeye çalışmış sanki. Çoğu bölümde romanın denemeye kaydığını hissettiğim anlar oldu. Dolayısıyla tüm bu kavramlara ait tartışmalar eğer ilgi alanınıza girmiyorsa kitap sizi cezbetmeyecekir. Yine de edebiyat tarihinin en büyük isimlerinden Joyce'u okumak vakit kaybı sayılmaz.

[Aidan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absoltuely adored this book. A lot of times I heard the narrative voice saying the same things I often say in critique of myself! It was very very wonderful.

Stephen suffers from the same hindrances of a bunch of the protagonists like him in the literary world: incomplete masculine ideas leading to an eventually superficial criticism of their own inner mysoginor. Despite his brilliance, he never applies his righteous indignation to causes worthy of a brilliant lens. This is a product of the era’s patriarchal trappings, but Joyce does go further than he probably had any right to be. And like many of these flawed young men, I still love Hero deeply.

From describing students scaryyering, to papers ruffling, to intense conversations between student and elder, Joyce never misses a singular beat, and every stylistic flourish works for me. Irish people just are really good at writing! What can we say!

[Will Deaton · Rating 2 out of 5]

I understand why Joyce whittled Stephen Hero down, making it a better novel. I also understand why Joyce, allegedly, tried to burn it.

Emblematic quote:
“The deadly chill of the atmosphere of the college paralysed Stephen’s heart. In a stupor of powerlessness he reviewed the plague of Catholicism. ... [It] obscured the sun. ... [Stephen], at least though living at the farthest remove from the centre of European culture, marooned on an island in the ocean, though inheriting a will broken by doubt and a soul the steadfastness of whose hate became as weak as water in siren arms, would live his own life according to what he recognised as the voice of a new humanity, active, unafraid and unashamed.”

(The original handwritten version of this quote is pictured in the book, too.)

[Pyramids Ubiquitous · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stephen Hero is the rawest look into the life and mind of James Joyce. With these fragments, he lays out the blueprint for his lifelong spiritual rebellion. While he moved on to become much more adept at delivering his defiance, the journalary format of this early version is the best at presenting the frustrations he felt with civilization. For Joyce, the most profound and purest art was always in the mundanity of daily living. As such, I believe that this manuscript, if it survived in full, would be standing today as a classic. I'm just not sure he would have gone on to write his three perfect masterpieces if that were the case. I'm at peace with how things turned out.

[Gustavo Euclides · Rating 3 out of 5]

unfair to give a note to a novel missing parts. A great book though. Comparing with A Portrait of the artist, there is more focus on the actual art of writing, technically speaking. It also has the conflict of faith vs art, the church as an obstacle in Stephen's (Joyce's) way to becoming a great artist, etc, which are present in A Potrait, however, still a lot of focus on writing, on its aesthetics (lots of Aquinas' 'esthetics') and philosophical/religious aspects that surrounds the activity of writing/literature in general.

[Dante_baroncini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un romanzo di ribellione, di contro-formazione rispetto all'ambiente in cui il protagonista si trova.Stephen parla "di ciò che si è superato" : in questi frammenti si ha la storia di un'affermazione di sé, che non accetta compromessi o uniformazioni. Stephen si pone come spirito libero che ha lottato con il suo ambiente (familiare e universitario ), ha avuto dubbi e turbamenti, ha subito influenze diverse ma alla fine riesce a superare questi dissidi e turbamenti scegliendo di seguire il proprio io, la propria ambizione, avendo il coraggio di essere artista.