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We are here presented with a most interesting subject of biography—even though one intimately known to a wide public by now—and the method of dealing with it from a psychological standpoint is, of course, a valuable one. It is much to be hoped that in the future we shall have more work of this kind: character, either taken from life or from creative art, examined from the psycho-analytical standpoint, such as has already been done in a few notable instances (e. g. Leonardo da Vinci by Freud, Hamlet by Ernest Jones, etc.).
The present volume certainly gives us Margaret Fuller in a vivid and interesting aspect, with the warmth of an advocate, as the author frankly admits in her preface—but it is none the worse for that. Miss Anthony has the gift of vivid portraiture, of descriptive imagery, and of warm feeling. Margaret's struggles in her love and ambition are well brought before us, but there the matter ends. There is hardly any psychological treatment—certainly no psycho-analytical application—throughout the book, so that it remains something of a disappointment in view of the expectations aroused by the title. Her intellectual theories, her love-impulses, her homosexuality, her leanings towards men younger than herself, her delight in suffering—all these things might well be illuminated by the searchlight of psycho-analytic investigation. Perhaps another country-woman will take up the task.