SOPHIE FREUD: Living in the Shadow of the Freud Family. Praeger Publishers, Westport, CT, 2007, 446 pp., $34.95, ISBN-10: 0-275-99415-5 The author of this book is Sophie Freud, granddaughter of Sigmund Freud, and internationally known Professor Emeritus of Social Work at Simmons College. The term recognized is used because the literary centerpiece of this book is the autobiography of Sophie's mother, Ernestine (aka Esti), who, at the age of 79, wrote it. The autobiography was languishing, but not altogether forgotten, in a bookcase for more than two decades, until it reappeared in this publication. As we know, Sigmund Freud has had many critics and detractors-contemporary and posthumous-as well as a vast number of ardent devotees, both lay and professional. The title of this book, as this reviewer interprets it, suggests that his intellectual and emotional legacy to some of his closest descendants was decidedly eclipsing and impeditive. Fortunately, the facts, as related in this book at least, reveal a more balanced and nuanced picture. Esti Freud's autobiography is very much a tale of physical and moral courage. Yes, she was by all accounts, including her own, a notorious kvetch, a squawker, who could slyly induce guilt and defenselessness in her siblings and children by carping ad nauseam about her financial hardships and the failure of others to appreciate her good intentions and deeds. But a closer look at the expansive and rugged terrain of her life's experiences reveals some remarkable, almost transcendent, accomplishments. Esti, as she acknowledges toward the end of her autobiography, was born into a life of comfort, opulence and cultural plenitude. Not insignificantly, she was also blessed with considerable intelligence, pulchritude, and an inborn charm (this last self-ascribed trait, given the harsh aspersions made by her family regarding her character that intersperse the narrative of this book, is moot and therefore, invites skepticism). Esti is barely out of her teens when she meets and is enthralled by Martin Freud, named by his parents after Sigmund's esteemed teacher Jean-Martin Charcot. After all, Martin is a very handsome, dashing and irresistible swain. Esti's amorous letters to Martin while he is a POW in an Italian internment camp during World War I are a heated forerunner to a marriage, whose blazing flames of love are quickly extinguished, doused most emphatically by Martin's penchant for womanizing and his unsound monetary ventures. Before their ultimate separation, Martin and Esti have two children, Walter and Sophie. As World War II approaches, and Germany is militarily aggrandizing itself in preparation for an invasion of Austria, Martin and Walter take refuge in England. Esti and Sophie, who was then a healthy and vigorous teenager, escape to Paris where they gain temporary respite from the war. During this time, Esti finds gainful employment as a speech therapist at a Parisian hospital and Sophie enrolls in a good local school. Their surcease from the threat of Hitler's invading armies was short lived and once again Esti and Sophie must decamp as part of the massive exodus from Paris in 1940, this time instantly, for the still-unoccupied territories of Southern France. Esti discovers that railway travel is no longer a viable means of escape; the railroad stations are clogged with people, the delays are intolerably protracted and life threatening and, in a chaotic scene highly reminiscent of those described in the literary masterpiece Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky, mother and daughter bicycle out of the city, escaping capture by a hairsbreadth. In tandem (Sophie is the stronger and swifter of the two) they wend their way along the less congested byways of the countryside and eventually their travels take them to Nice. Clearly, the success of this hegira is a tribute to Esti's cunning, courage, derring-do and, not to be overlooked, her extraordinary luck. …