This is Freud's well-known essay on the feeling of the uncanny, the strange unease we feel when something familiar seems suddenly eerie. He begins with the meaning of the German word and then turns to examples, including a tale by E. T. A. Hoffmann, doubles, repeated coincidences and fears about the dead. He suggests that the effect comes from old, repressed ideas returning in disguise. The essay has been very influential in literary criticism and the study of horror.