An Essay on Crimes and Punishments: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide
An Essay on Crimes and Punishments by Voltaire; Cesare Beccaria: the LibriVox audiobook summary, 72 original MP3 tracks, 6:55:43 running time and a link to listen.

An Essay on Crimes and Punishments, credited to Voltaire; Cesare Beccaria, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.
About the work
The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:
LibriVox recording of An Essay on Crimes and Punishments by Voltaire; Cesare Beccaria. (Translated by Edward Duncan Ingraham.) Read in English by Carolin Ksr Beccaria's treatise On Crimes and Punishments, which condemns disproportionate and irrational penalties as well as torture and the death penalty in general, is said to mark the peak of Enlightenment in Milan. Its translations were widely read by statesmen and policy makers in Britain, America and France. This translation also features the anonymous commentary, attributed to Voltaire. - Summary by Carolin
Recording facts
- Recording title: An Essay on Crimes and Punishments
- Author credits: Voltaire; Cesare Beccaria
- Language: English
- Original MP3 tracks: 72
- Listed recording duration: 6:55:43
Catalogue topics
- torture
- yldz
- enlightenment
- criminal law
- death penalty
Opening tracks: first 24 of 72
- 01 - Introduction — 6:06
- 02 - Preface by the Translator of M.D. Voltaire's Commentary — 4:14
- 03 - Chapter I - On the Origin of Punishments — 2:53
- 04 - Chapter II - On the Right to Punish — 4:18
- 05 - Chapter III - Consequences of the foregoing principles — 3:49
- 06 - Chapter IV - Of the Interpretation of Laws — 7:42
- 07 - Chapter V - Of the Obscurity of Laws — 4:10
- 08 - Chapter VI - Of the Proportion between Crimes and Punishments — 7:37
- 09 - Chapter VII - Of Estimating the Degree of Crimes — 4:01
- 10 - Chapter VIII - Of the Division of Crimes — 6:39
- 11 - Chapter IX - Of Honour — 6:32
- 12 - Chapter X - Of Duelling — 2:41
- 13 - Chapter XI - Of Crimes which Disturb Public Tranquillity — 4:38
- 14 - Chapter XII - Of the Intent of Punishments — 1:51
- 15 - Chapter XIII - Of the Credibility of Witnesses — 7:06
- 16 - Chapter XIV - Of Evidence and the Proofs of a Crime, and of the Form of Judgment — 7:07
- 17 - Chapter XV - Of Secret Accusation — 6:02
- 18 - Chapter XVI - Of Torture — 18:20
- 19 - Chapter XVII - Of Pecuniary Punishments — 5:17
- 20 - Chapter XVIII - Of Oaths — 3:06
- 21 - Chapter XIX - Of the Advantage of Immediate Punishment — 7:03
- 22 - Chapter XX - Of Acts of Violence — 2:25
- 23 - Chapter XXI - Of the Punishment of the Nobles — 4:46
- 24 - Chapter XXII - Of Robbery — 3:09
Listen to this recording
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Source and rights
This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.


