Gradiva (novel)

Gradiva
"Gradiva": Cast of a work in the Vatican museum, which inspired the fictional character. Freud Museum – London
AuthorWilhelm Jensen
LanguageGerman
GenreRomance novel
PublisherFischer Taschenbuch Verlag
Publication date
1903
Publication placeGermany
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
OCLC7305023

Gradiva: a Pompeian fantasy is a novel by Wilhelm Jensen, first published in instalments from June 1 to July 20, 1902 in the Viennese newspaper "Neue Freie Presse". It was inspired by a Roman bas-relief and became the basis for Sigmund Freud's famous 1907 study Delusion and Dream in Jensen's Gradiva. The psychoanalytic study popularized the novel, and the fantasy-image described by Jensen, based on the Roman sculpture, then became a prominent subject in Surrealist art.