Nonfiction · 400
The Confessions of St. Augustine
Augustine of Hippo · translated by E. B. Pusey
Written around the year 400, Augustine’s account of his life to the point of his conversion — his youth in North Africa, his years as a teacher of rhetoric, his mother Monica, the garden in Milan — addressed throughout to God, is the first great autobiography in Western literature and one of the foundations of Christian thought.
It is a strange book to call the first autobiography, because half of it is not narrative. The famous scenes are there — the pears stolen for the pleasure of stealing, the voice in the Milan garden telling him to take up and read — but they occupy nine books out of thirteen. The tenth turns to memory itself, the eleventh to the nature of time, the last two to the opening verses of Genesis.
This edition uses the English translation by E. B. Pusey (1838) and gives all thirteen books complete.
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About this edition
The text is free of copyright. This edition was prepared from an authoritative digitisation, processed by Bibliomancer under its own review protocol; every automated correction is recorded in its transformation log. Rights assessed for CA, EU, GB, US.
Part of Ancient Thought.
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About the author
354–430 · Ancient
Augustine (354–430) was born at Thagaste in Roman North Africa, taught rhetoric at Carthage, Rome and Milan, was baptised by Ambrose in 387 after the conversion described in the Confessions, and from 395 until his death was bishop of Hippo. The City of God, On the Trinity and hundreds of sermons and letters are among his writings; he is the most influential of the Latin Church Fathers.
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