In this book, Miss Brophy proposes to examine the libretti of Mozart's operas from the literary and the psychological viewpoint to deduce “a new view of Mozart, his operas and his age.” Thus, Don Giovanni is considered as Mozart's unconscious autobiography—and is interpreted as such.

There are two basic fallacies inherent in this method: first, Mozart did not write his libretti, and therefore, they cannot be considered as relevant projections of his unconscious world. Second, the proposed approach does not encompass Mozart's music, which after all is the only valid manifestation of his genius. For this omission we should perhaps be grateful to the author because her musical perception never rises above the