The novel is set in Dublin in the late 19th century. It portrays the early years of Stephen Dedalus, who rebels against what he sees as the pervasive repressive influence of the Roman Catholic Church and the parochial and provincial attitudes of his family and of Ireland itself. He leaves Ireland for France in order to fulfill the artistic promise inherent in his name. Each of the novel’s five sections is written in a third-person voice that reflects the age and emotional state of its protagonist, from the first childhood memories written in simple childlike language to Stephen’s final decision to leave Dublin for Paris to devote his life to art, written in abstruse Latin-sprinkled stream-of-consciousness prose.
