Cover: Cover of the Project Gutenberg edition (eBook #3296) · Public domain · source
Confessions
Augustine of Hippo · 354–430
A North African bishop tells God — and, overhearing, us — the story of his restless heart: a stolen pear, a mother's prayers, the long struggle with desire and ambition, and a voice in a Milan garden saying 'take up and read'. The later books turn inward to memory and time, and are still argued over by philosophers.
- First published
- 397–400 CE
- Difficulty
- Demanding
- Reading time
- About 8 hours
- Translation
- E. B. Pusey
Reading time: 111,872 words in Project Gutenberg text #3296, read at 238 words per minute.
Written in Latin. E. B. Pusey's translation, Oxford, 1838.
- conversion
- memory
- time
- desire
- grace
Where to read it
- Read free — Project GutenbergPublic domain in the USA; check your local law outside it. · checked 11 Oct 2026(opens in a new tab)
- Read the 1838 Pusey scan — Internet ArchivePublic domain scan of an early edition. · checked 11 Oct 2026(opens in a new tab)
Copyright
- Kenya
- Public domain (translator d. 1882)
- United States
- Public domain
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Questions for discussion
Why does Augustine spend so long on a stolen pear?
Book XI asks what time is. Can you answer him better than he answered himself?
What does it mean to read the Confessions as an African book?
Is a conversion a single moment or a long story? What does Augustine's suggest?
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