Bergson's essay looks at comedy within a wider field of vision, focusing on laughter and on what makes us laugh. His study examines comic characters and comic acts, comedy in literature and in children's games, comedy as high art and base entertainment, to develop a psychological and philosophers theory of the mainsprings of comedy.
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Probably the two best looks at the lighter side are these essays, the first by a master of the English novel of manners, the second by a philosopher who influenced a generation of French writers, including Proust... Contains a long index and appendix, the latter offering a wide-ranging historical inquiry into the comic.
(Washington Post Book World )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Henri Bergson is brilliant.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Comedy: "An Essay on Comedy" by George Meredith. "Laughter" by Henri Bergson (Paperback)
Henri Bergson describes why we laugh, and subdivides this description further into three characteristics. Each of these characteristics is then divided further occassionally. Example: >We laugh at mechanical rigidity. The three types are repetition, inversion, and reciprocal interference of series. An example of repetition is a frozen facial expression (repetition) and is comical only if it's imitatable.< Then he proceeds to give examples of word play, character, actions, etc which illustrate his points.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best theoretical study of comedy available,
By A Customer
This review is from: Comedy: "An Essay on Comedy" by George Meredith. "Laughter" by Henri Bergson (Paperback)
Bergson's _Laughter_ has been out of print for too long. It's the best theoretical study of comedy available. A meditation by the great philosopher of "elan vital" about our natural response to humans acting mechanically, _Laughter_ is also about the nuts and bolts of comedy. Moliere is the main model, but it works for Shakespeare, Chaplin and Preston Sturges just as well.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Euphoria,
By A Customer
This review is from: Comedy: An Essay on Comedy/Laughter (Hardcover)
Bergson offers a taxonomy of laughter. The description is concise, realistic, and rife with examples. He begins with a broad definition of anything that is laughable and further narrows the definition where appropriate. Never have I encountered an example not explainable by this.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
What does laughter mean? Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
comic fancy, reciprocal interference, comic idea, comic spirit, comic will, comic hero, comic action, comic element Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
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What does laughter mean? Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
comic fancy, reciprocal interference, comic idea, comic spirit, comic will, comic hero, comic action, comic element Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Don Quixote, George Dandin New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 48
books:
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- An Essay On Comedy by George Meredith on 4 pages
- English Drama from Early Times to the Elizabethans by Arthur P. Rossiter in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- The Way of the World (Dover Thrift Editions) by William Congreve in Front Matter (1), Front Matter (2), and Back Matter
- Early Times : The Story of the Middle Ages by Suzanne Strauss Art in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Early Times: The Story of Ancient Rome by Suzanne Strauss Art in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
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