Of all the biographies of Freud, the very best is Peter Gay's definitive and comprehensive opus, published in 1988, Freud, A Life for Our Times. The thoroughness, the level of scholarship, the meticulous pursuit of the truth are overwhelming. After such an arduous task, it is plausible that the author might feel he deserves a respite.

This book seems to be the product of a need to relax playfully. Gay explores, among other things, idiosyncratic features of Freud's beliefs and activities. These are not serious or in some instances even relevant topics, but the author, scholar that he is, cannot refrain from approaching these different areas with the same scholarly discipline. To some extent, this may make it tedious for some readers because the narrative and commentary are, indeed,