The Book of Laughter and Forgetting Signed First Edition Reference

Le livre du rire et de l’oubli (Gallimard, Paris, 1979; English: Knopf, 1980) is Kundera’s most formally adventurous novel — seven variations on the themes of memory, forgetting, and political erasure, connected by recurring motifs rather than a continuous plot. The book was written in exile after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and contains some of Kundera’s most powerful political writing alongside his characteristic philosophical digressions.

Signed Copy Market Values

• Signed English first (Knopf): $150–$400
• Signed French first (Gallimard): $200–$500
• Unsigned English first: $20–$50

The book that bridged Kundera’s Czech and French periods — formally daring and politically urgent.