A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man follows Stephen Dedalus through childhood, school, religious crisis, family strain, and the slow emergence of an artistic vocation. James Joyce makes development itself the subject: the novel’s language shifts as Stephen’s mind changes, so that style becomes part of the story’s emotional and intellectual force.

Why read A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man today?

The novel remains one of the most accessible entrances into Joyce while still carrying the formal daring that made him transformative. It is intimate without becoming narrow, and intellectually restless without losing the pressure of lived experience. Readers interested in coming-of-age fiction, modernism, or the conflict between social expectation and artistic independence will find it indispensable.

What kind of classic is it?

This is a major modernist novel and one of the defining Künstlerromane in English: a portrait of consciousness, education, rebellion, and artistic formation.

Further context

Wikipedia: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.