Delusion and Dream
An Interpretation in the Light of Psychoanalysis of Gradiva
by Sigmund Freud and Wilhelm Jensen
The book, and the century it came out of.
Translated by Helen M. Downey
Jensen’s novella of an archaeologist who becomes obsessed with a girl on a Roman relief and believes he meets her in Pompeii, printed with the essay in which Freud takes it apart — his first full reading of a work of literature, published in 1907. The two halves make an argument about how much a writer knows without knowing it.
On a visit to one of the great antique collections of Rome, Norbert Hanold had discovered a bas-relief which was exceptionally attractive to him, so he was much pleased, after his return to Germany, to be able to get a splendid plaster-cast of it.
Delusion and Dream, by Sigmund Freud and Wilhelm Jensen, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.
It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.
- Series
- Essays & Criticism
- Format
- Ebook
- Extent
- about 120 pages
- Reading time
- about 2 hours
- Illustrations
- Full-page plates, credited
- Text
- Complete, unabridged
- Translation
- Helen M. Downey
- Language
- en
- This edition
- 2026
- ISBN
- 9785486616310
60 paintings are bound into this edition
Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.
A page from this edition
Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.
Both photographed from the finished volume.
Delusion and Dream, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Essays & Criticism shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.
Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785486616310, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.
Questions readers ask
- Is this the whole of Delusion and Dream?
- Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
- What exactly did you change?
- The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Sigmund Freud and Wilhelm Jensen's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
- Are the pictures really in the book?
- Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
- How long is it?
- About 120 pages, which is roughly about 2 hours of reading.
- What do I actually get?
- An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
