This work, by Professor Bergson, has been revised in detail by theauthor himself, and the present translation is the only authorised one.For this ungrudging labour of revision, for the thoroughness with whichit has been carried out, and for personal sympathy in many a difficultyof word and phrase, we desire to offer our grateful acknowledgment toProfessor Bergson. It may be pointed out that the essay on Laughteroriginally appeared in a series of three articles in one of the leadingmagazines in France, the Revue de Paris. This will account for therelatively simple form of the work and the comparative absence oftechnical terms. It will also explain why the author has confinedhimself to exposing and illustrating his novel theory of the comicwithout entering into a detailed discussion of other explanationsalready in the field. He none the less indicates, when discussingsundry examples, why the principal theories, to which they have givenrise, appear to him inadequate. To quote only a few, one may mentionthose based on contrast, exaggeration, and degradation.
The book has been highly successful in France, where it is in itsseventh edition. It has been translated into Russian, Polish, andSwedish. German and Hungarian translations are under preparation. Itssuccess is due partly to the novelty of the explanation offered of thecomic, and partly also to the fact that the author incidentallydiscusses questions of still greater interest and importance. Thus, oneof the best known and most frequently quoted passages of the book isthat portion of the last chapter in which the author outlines a generaltheory of art.
C. B. F. R.
THE COMIC IN GENERAL—THE COMIC ELEMENT IN FORMS ANDMOVEMENTS—EXPANSIVE FORCE OF THE COMIC
THE COMIC ELEMENT IN SITUATIONS AND THE COMIC ELEMENT IN WORDS
THE COMIC IN CHARACTER
THE COMIC IN GENERAL—THE COMIC ELEMENT IN FORMS ANDMOVEMENTS—EXPANSIVE FORCE OF THE COMIC.
What does laughter mean? What is the basal element in the laughable?What common ground can we find between the grimace of a merry-andrew, aplay upon words, an equivocal situation in a burlesque and a scene ofhigh comedy? What method of distillation will yield us invariably thesame essence from which so many different products borrow either theirobtrusive odour or their delicate perfume? The greatest of thinkers,from Aristotle downwards, have tackled this little problem, which has akna