My copy is the 1955 (Copyright 1944) New Directions hardback, no dustcover, "RELEASED" in big red stamp letters on back of last page, but no information as to released from where. $2.50 in pencil top right inside first page.
"Chief among these profanities Stephen set the antique principle that the end of art is to instruct, to elevate, and to amuse. 'I am unable to find even a trace of this Puritanic conception of the esthetic purpose in the definition which Aquinas has given of beauty' he wrote 'or in anything which he has written concerning the beautiful'" (79).
Chief among interests for Joyce fans include conversations with fellow students as Stephen works to understand himself, his predicament, what he should or might be capable of doing to free himself, to discover a purpose, an audience, what might make a lifetime argument worth the effort. ( )

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

While the book is definitely not part of Joyce's "untouchable four" prose fiction masterpieces it is undoubtedly a lot of fun in its own right. Instead of the soaring descriptive passages found in Dubliners and A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man you get vast swaths of dialogue batted back and forth between Stephen and various other cohorts. This suits Joyce just fine since dialogue is one of his many gifts. Sadly the book in this publication remains incomplete so I took off a half star. It does thicken Stephen's character and explains decisions Joyce made in his personal life (if you read the excellent Ellmann biography) that otherwise could remain a mystery. This is definitely not a starting point to enter the works of Joyce, but it is notably superior to Chamber Music, Exiles, and Pomes Penyeach. All of the mentioned works in this review are well worth the read, however, even if some of it is for fans. ( )