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What if the harshest punishment does less to prevent crime than a mild penalty that no one escapes?
In Crimes and Punishments, James Anson Farrer brings a history of harsh penalties into conversation with Cesare Beccaria’s On Crimes and Punishments. The short Italian treatise asks what punishment is for, and whether cruelty makes anyone safer. Together, these parts turn questions of law into questions about how people live.
Beccaria begins with public safety: people surrender a small part of their freedom so they can live together securely. From there, he challenges severe penalties, torture, and the death penalty. Farrer places this argument against a long history of punishment, inviting you to consider where justice ends and needless suffering begins.
What you’ll discover
- Safety before severity Explore Beccaria’s argument that punishment must serve public safety, not cruelty for its own sake.
- The power of certainty Consider why a penalty people expect can restrain crime more effectively than one they hope to escape.
- Truth under torture See how pain can force an innocent person to confess while a stronger person endures.
- A challenge to execution Encounter Beccaria’s condemnation of the death penalty within his wider attack on cruel law.
- History meets moral argument Follow Farrer’s historical perspective alongside a treatise aimed at ordinary educated readers, not lawyers alone.
Who will love it
Readers who love the history of ideas, law and justice will find much here, as will anyone curious about torture, the death penalty and fair trials.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- An outsider questions the criminal courts
- Public safety limits the right to punish
- Written law should govern every verdict
- Justice needs evidence weighed in public
- Certainty matters more than cruelty
- Execution is neither necessary nor reversible
- Penalties should reflect harm to society
- Prevention begins with fair social conditions
- Legal authority must remain within limits
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Crimes and Punishments
by James Anson Farrer · 1880
A young man in Milan with no legal training writes a short book that drives torture from Europe's courts.
Challenging2–5 hours to read20 languages
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In short
What makes a twenty-six-year-old with no legal training take on every court in Europe? In 1764 a young nobleman in Milan published a short book on crime and punishment.
Crimes and Punishments at a glance
- Reading time
- About 3 h 40 min2 h 55 min fast, 4 h 25 min slow
- Length
- 52,600 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1880by James Anson Farrer
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A shy young writer took on the torture chamber
Beccaria wrote his book at about twenty-six. He was not a lawyer, yet he attacked a system backed by every authority, living and dead. Farrer says no other book did more for legal reform.
He lived in Milan, under Austrian rule. Count Firmian cut back the Church's privileges and even abolished the Inquisition, but the criminal courts stayed as they were. Torture forced confessions before conviction and again before executions. Guilt rested on torture and secret accusations, and penalties depended on the magistrate's whim.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1880
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 4 h 25 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Farrer, James Anson. Crimes and Punishments. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/crimes-and-punishments.
Farrer, J. A. (2026). Crimes and punishments. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/crimes-and-punishments (Original work published 1880)
Farrer, James Anson. Crimes and Punishments. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/crimes-and-punishments.
@book{farrer2026crimes,
author = {Farrer, James Anson},
title = {Crimes and Punishments},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/crimes-and-punishments},
note = {First published 1880}
}
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What is Crimes and Punishments about?
It argues that punishment should rest on clear written laws, be public, swift, certain and no harsher than needed. It attacks torture, secret accusations and the death penalty, and it asks that all ranks face the same law.
Who was Beccaria and when did he write the book?
Beccaria was a young nobleman from Milan who published Dei Delitti e delle Pene in 1764, when he was about twenty-six. He was not a lawyer, and his friends the Verri brothers urged him to write it.
What does James Anson Farrer add to the treatise?
Farrer adds essays on Beccaria's life, on how his ideas spread through Russia, France, Tuscany and America, and on the long struggle for reform in England. He also raises his own questions about punishment.
The author
James Anson Farrer
1849–1925 · British historian and writer
James Anson Farrer (1849–1925) was a British historian, lawyer and writer who lived in England. He wrote books about history, law and customs. His works included Primitive Manners and Customs, published in 1879, Crimes and Punishments, published in 1880, and Literary Forgeries, published in 1907.
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