This novel by James Joyce shocked contemporary readers on its publication in 1916. The book's treatment of the minutiae of daily life was found indecorous and its central character unappealing. Was it art or was it filth? The novel charts the intellectual, moral and sexual development of Stephen Dedalus, from his childhood listening to his father's stories through his schooldays and adolescence to the brink of adulthood and independence and his awakening as an artist. Growing up in a Catholic family in Dublin in the final years of the 19th century, Stephen's consciousness is forged by Irish history and politics, by Catholicism and culture, language and art. The story of Stephen mirrors that of Joyce himself.