Freud: A Life for Our Time (review)

Abstract

64 biography Vol. 12,No. 1 Still, there are commonalities. All of the biographical subjects are men, and all but two of the biographers are men. More significantly, they face similar problems in writing literary biographies. Most important is the balance between literary criticism and historical background; how much purely biographical information should be included , and should it be limited to material that affects the subject's work? The key difference between a literary and historical biography is that the author is writing about another writer. This has both advantages and perils. There is likely to be a large body of written works—but writers know better than others how to conceal their private selves from the curiosity of their readers. To what extent does a writer's work reveal the writer? To what extent should a literary biographer employ psychology or psychoanalysis? Beyond method, these writers have had similar experiences at many stages in the biographical process: they were rejected initially; publishers insisted on reductions in length that compromised the author's interpretation; other books on the same subject appeared before theirs; inadequate data on the subject's childhood was available; the amount of time consumed by writing the biography was disproportionate to the financial reward; and there were unkind reviews. Furthermore, they emphasize the role of chance, accident, and luck. Such common experiences are not mere coincidences but rather are a part of the everyday life of all biographers. Each biographer must address the demands of the marketplace and must cope with the inertia of literary myth. Donald Greene, for example, tells us that James Boswell's renowned biography of Samuel Johnson is seriously flawed and overrated. Phillip Knightly tells us that the herioc legend of T. E. Lawrence does not correspond with the facts. Writing a book that is factually correct is not sufficient, however. There should be an element of disciplined creativity in writing a biography. The biographer must speculate about motives, but must infer rather than invent. The contributors are a gifted group, and the editor deserves a compliment on his selections. But what the book lacks is a theme, an essay to provide insight and to link and unite the elements of the work. The book is more engaging as a human interest collection than useful as a teaching tool. I was totally absorbed and found myself wanting to meet and talk with the contributors. But while the work is a feast for fellow biographers, it is less enticing fare for average readers who may be unfamiliar with some of the subjects. It is enjoyable, if not abundantly methodologically instructive. It will find an audience among writers of biography and devoted readers of the craft. GlenJeansonne University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Peter Gay, Freud: A Life for Our Time. New York: W. W. Norton, 1988, 810 pp. $25. Among the many Freud biographies Ernest Jones's, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, 3 volumes (1953-57), was long regarded as the most monumental and the most authoritative. Then Max Schur's Freud: Living and Dying (1972) and Ronald Clark's Freud: The Man and the Cause (1980) added new facts and approaches. Now Peter Gay's Life has surpassed all previous biographies. Gay brings various strengths to his biography. In his archival researches he has uncovered new documents, ranging from Freud's copy of the first Freud biography by Franz Wittels (1924)—with the biographee's pointed annotations—to hundreds of REVIEWS 65 Freud's manuscript letters, which, aside from their informative value, make for enthralling reading (Freud was one of the all-time great letter writers). Gay has then mastered (as much as is possible) the "vast, rapidly growing, and almost out of control " secondary literature on Freud. His knowledge of German has enabled him to newly (and sometimes significantly) translate some of Freud's formulations, and to comment on the merits of Freud's successive English translators. His style of writing is usually clear and engaging. His work in the cultural history of Central Europe enables him to delineate the "impressive and precarious" culture of Vienna that nurtured Freud. He is objective in his evaluations of psychoanalytic ideas, and notes not only...