Audiobook · read by volunteers
Essays of Francis Bacon
Sir Francis Bacon (1561–1626)
Read by Carl Vonnoh, III · 14 chapters · 6 h 17
About the book
Francis Bacon wrote essays the way a lawyer builds a case: briefly, clearly, and with a keen eye for how people really behave. In a few pages each, he considers truth, death, revenge, friendship, ambition, marriage, travel, gardens and many other subjects. The sentences are dense, and sometimes sharp, yet they are full of memorable turns of phrase.
His essays are practical in intent. He wants to help the reader understand human nature and succeed in public life, and he does not hide his taste for careful calculation. At the same time, he shows warmth and humour, and a refined feeling for the English language of his day.
This collection presents the essays in order, in fourteen sections lasting around six hours. It gives a sense of how the essay as a genre took hold in English, and what it sounded like when it was young. A rich, thoughtful listen for anyone who enjoys aphorisms, history of ideas, or the pleasure of a mind at work.
Introduction
Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was an English statesman, lawyer and philosopher. He was the youngest son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, a senior official under Queen Elizabeth I, and rose to become Lord Chancellor under James I. His career ended in disgrace in 1621, when he was convicted on charges of accepting gifts as a judge, after which he devoted himself to writing.
He is remembered both as a public figure and as a thinker. His works on method, such as The Advancement of Learning and the Novum Organum, argued for observation and experiment as the basis of knowledge, and are often seen as foundations of modern scientific thinking. The Essays, however, are what most readers know first. The first edition appeared in 1597 with ten short pieces, and Bacon expanded and revised the collection in later editions, in 1612 and 1625.
The Essays helped to establish the form in English, following the model of Montaigne in French while adopting a more compressed, aphoristic style. They deal with subjects such as truth, death, love, friendship, riches, studies and gardens. Many lines have become proverbs, among them his remark that some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
This recording has fourteen sections and lasts a little over six hours, read by a LibriVox volunteer. Since each essay is short and self-contained, it is easy to listen to a few at a time. The language is that of the early seventeenth century, rich but usually clear when heard aloud.
Public domain
Sir Francis Bacon died in 1626: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text