Relying heavily on Marie Bonaparte's own writings, including her copybooks, letters, memoirs, and stories, Celia Bertin has constructed an interesting and serviceable biography of one of Freud's most loyal disciples. One of the early female psychoanalysts and a member of Freud's intimate circle, Marie Bonaparte came to analysis from a life that reads to a degree like a popular novel with its "poor little rich girl" and unfulfilled womanhood motifs.

Marie Bonaparte was descended from the Bonapartes on one side and from the developers of Monte Carlo and its casinos on the other; she was married to a member of Europe's leading royal family. Despite these advantages, she seems to have lived a life, particularly in childhood, that was emotionally barren, with a relative