Le Rire. by BERGSON, Henri - 1924: Essai sur la signification du comique. Vingt-troisième édition, augmentée.

Paris: Félix Alcan, 1924. Presentation copy Later edition in book form, presentation copy to the Swedish diplomat and Francophile Count Albert Ehrensvärd, inscribed by Bergson on the half-title, "à Monsieur le Comte Albert Ehrensvärd en dévoué hommage H. Bergson".
Having served as Sweden's envoy to the Netherlands, Belgium, the United States, and Switzerland between the years 1908-18, as well as Minister for Foreign Affairs (1911-14), Albert Ehrensvärd the Younger (1867-1940) moved to Paris where he lived until 1934. Devoted to studying and writing about French literature and culture, he published a number of books on these subjects and in 1931 became the chairman of Fonds Descartes, a trust founded to benefit the translation of French literature into Swedish. Both Bergson and Ehrensvärd were on the organising committee for the Antoine Bourdelle exhibition at the Musée de l'Orangerie and Musée du Luxembourg, Paris, spring 1931.
Le Rire is Bergson's classic philosophical investigation, the best and most influential social theory of comedy, which originally appeared serially in the Revue de Paris issues 7 and 8 in 1900, and was then first published in book form later the same year by Félix Alcan. It was first translated into English in 1911. Octavo. Contemporary red quarter morocco, spine lettered in gilt, raised bands between compartments panelled in gilt, red marbled boards and endpapers, top edge gilt, others uncut. With the original printed paper wrappers bound in. Very minor rubbing to corners, binder's stamp to front free endpaper verso, hinge cracked before half-title but firm, contents browned, else a very good copy, handsomely bound.