The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud

Book excerpt: Ernest Jones’s three-volume The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud was first published in the mid-1950s. This edited and abridged volume omits the portions of the trilogy that dealt principally with the technical aspects of Freud’s work and is designed for the lay reader. Jones portrays Freud’s childhood and adolescence; the excitement and trials of his four-year engagement to Martha Bernays; his early experiments with hypnotism and cocaine; the slow rise of his reputation and constant battles against distortion and slander; the painful defections of close associates; the years of international eminence; the onset of cancer and his stoicism in the face of an agonizing death. “One of the outstanding biographies of the age... It gives us an unmatched — and unretouched — portrait of Freud as a human being.” — The New York Times “The definitive life of Freud and one of the great biographies of our time... Charged with intellectual excitement, it is a chronicle of heroic struggle and adventurous discovery.” — The Atlantic “A landmark of literature, a remarkable appreciation of one of the remarkable spirits of the modern age.” — Scientific American “Superb drama... Dr. Jones has managed to illuminate some obscure corners of Freud’s first years with a thoroughness that would have astonished, and might well have dismayed, the reticent and august Freud.” — The New Yorker “A masterpiece of contemporary biography... The letters are also a fascinating guide to the man. From them emerges suddenly a tough, jealous, ferocious figure.” — Time