Edmund Burke has 4 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 4 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 6 ratings. The most-rated is Reflections on the Revolution in France.
Reflections on the Revolution in France
Summary
This famous treatise began as a letter to a young French friend who asked Edmund Burke’s opinion on whether France’s new ruling class would succeed in creating a better order. Doubtless the friend expected a favorable reply, but Burke was suspicious of certain tendencies of the Revolution from the start and perceived that the revolutionaries were actually subverting the true "social order". As a Christian - he was not a man of the Enlightenment - Burke knew religion to be man’s greatest good and established order to be a fundamental pillar of civilization. Blending history with principle and graceful imagery with profound practical maxims, this book is one of the most influential political treatises in the history of the world. Said Russell Kirk, "The Reflections must be read by anyone who wishes to understand the great controversies of modern politics." Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797) became a member of Parliament in 1765. He championed the unpopular cause of Catholic emancipation and a great part of his career became dedicated to the problem of India. The French Revolution prompted one of his best-known works, Reflections on the Revolution in France.
Public Domain (P)1990 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Speech on Conciliation with America
Summary
This speech by Edmund Burke was delivered 22 March 1775. He submitted a set of resolutions affirming the principle of autonomy for the American colonies with the view of preventing their defection. Burke concludes the speech by exalting the ties of common descent, common institutions, and common sentiment as the strongest links of empire. The cogency of Burke’s arguments and the depth of his political wisdom were ignored by the House of Commons and his resolutions were defeated.
Public Domain (P)2019 Museum Audiobooks
A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful
Summary
In A Philosophical Enquiry, Edmund Burke sets out to define the nature of beauty and sublimity, and establish an objective criterion for discussing aesthetics. His definition of beauty as rooted in pleasure and sexuality, and the sublime in pain and survival, aligned him with the empiricists John Locke and David Hume, as he replaced the metaphysics of Plato's aesthetics with a psychological and physiological perspective. According to Burke, the sublime and the beautiful are experiences that can be explained by biological and sensual factors; thus he proceeds to explain how smooth lines, sweet tastes and middle frequencies of sound can be considered beautiful, and the terror created by high mountains and dark forests can be sublime. These revolutionary ideas ushered in the age of Romanticism, and the Gothic genre of novels, with their delight in horror and fright, and continue to influence aesthetic theories today. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2020 Edmund Burke (P)2020 Naxos AudioBooks
Reflections on the Revolution in France
Summary
Written in the form of a letter to a Frenchman, Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France is an impassioned attack on the French Revolution and its hasty destruction of the Church, the old elites, and the Crown. Burke tackles the new republic and its allegiance to principles such as liberty and equality, as well as its failure to recognize the complexities of human nature, society, and wisdom accumulated over time, contending that gradual change and adjustment is far better than immediate upheaval. Burke's treatise later became the target of Thomas Paine's own reflections on the French Revolution in Rights of Man, a devastating work that predicted more revolutions to come. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
Public Domain (P)2020 Naxos AudioBooks