“Originally published in 1902, Wilhelm Jensen's novella Gradiva tells the story of a German who falls in love with a Roman statue of a woman. His attraction leads him on a journey to Pompeii that crosses over into a dream, in which he meets the woman, who died in the Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79 AD. But when he speaks to her in Latin, she replies in German. Is she real or a delusion?
In 1907, Sigmund Freud wrote an essay on this question, "Delusion and Dream in Wilhelm Jensen's Gradiva," which our edition includes. Gradiva was also popular with the Surrealists.” https://www.greeninteger.com/book.cfm?-Wilhelm-Jensen-Gradiva-&BookID=171