Once upon a time, and a very good time it was, there was a moocow coming down along the road, and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nice little boy named baby tuckoo. So begins one of the most significant literary works of the twentieth century, and one of the most innovative. Its originality shocked contemporary readers upon its publication in 1916, who found its treatment of the minutiae of daily life 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 school days 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 nineteenth century, Stephen's consciousness is forged by Irish history.