The Confessions of Saint Augustine [Mass Market Paperback]

Augustine of Hippo (Author), Garry Wills (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 31, 2006

Garry Wills’s complete translation of Saint Augustine’s spiritual masterpiece—available now for the first time

Garry Wills is an exceptionally gifted translator and one of our best writers on religion today. His bestselling translations of individual chapters of Saint Augustine’s Confessions have received widespread and glowing reviews. Now for the first time, Wills’s translation of the entire work is being published as a Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition. Removed by time and place but not by spiritual relevance, Augustine’s Confessions continues to influence contemporary religion, language, and thought. Reading with fresh, keen eyes, Wills brings his superb gifts of analysis and insight to this ambitious translation of the entire book.

“[Wills] renders Augustine’s famous and influential text in direct language with all the spirited wordplay and poetic strength intact.”
—Los Angeles Times
“[Wills’s] translations . . . are meant to bring Augustine straight into our own minds; and they succeed. Well-known passages, over which my eyes have often gazed, spring to life again from Wills’s pages.”
—Peter Brown, The New York Review of Books
“Augustine flourishes in Wills’s hand.”
—James Wood
“A masterful synthesis of classical philosophy and scriptural erudition.”
—Chicago Tribune

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"[Wills] renders Augustine’s famous and influential text in direct language with all the spirited wordplay and poetic strength intact."
—Los Angeles Times

"[Wills’s] translations . . . are meant to bring Augustine straight into our own minds; and they succeed. Well-known passages, over which my eyes have often gazed, spring to life again from Wills’s pages."
—Peter Brown, The New York Review of Books

"Augustine flourishes in Wills’s hand."
—James Wood

"A masterful synthesis of classical philosophy and scriptural erudition."
—Chicago Tribune

About the Author

Saint Augustine (354–430) wrote Confessions and The City of God.
Garry Wills is the author of numerous books, including Why I Am a Catholic, Papal Sin, and the Penguin Lives biography Saint Augustine.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics; Deluxe Edition edition (January 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143039512
• ISBN-13: 978-0143039518
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #144,402 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #13 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( A ) > Augustine, Saint

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Engaging Translation, June 9, 2006

By 

Mark D. Merlino (Vancouver, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Confessions of Saint Augustine (Mass Market Paperback)

Garry Wills' translation of Saint Augustine's "Confessions" brings this work to life. Wills has rendered Augustine's Latin into beautifully flowing contemporary English. It is commendable that he was able to do this while preserving the personal character of this saint's life story and demonstrating the complexity and depth of Augustine's thought.

While reading this book, I often felt amazed that this work, despite being written so long ago, appears to be so contemporary. Augustine's life and ideas really transcend time and are insightful reflections on the basic human condition. If you would like to read a good translation of the "Confessions" written in contemporary English, I highly recommend this edition to you.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Garry Wills offers a heavy-handed interpretive translation, October 3, 2011

By 

T. W. (Northeastern United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Confessions of Saint Augustine (Mass Market Paperback)

This looked like the right Confessions for my students to read, so I assigned it. As I read it, I have qualms. Though I don't doubt it's fine for my students, there's too much in it that's Wills and not Augustine. If you want a well-digested Augustine, and to ride along in Garry Wills' brain as he understands the Confessions, then this will be fine (yes, Wills is smart and read this book with more care than we will, so you can do worse), and you can dismiss the following reservations as obsessive pedantry. But if you want a reliable guide to Augustine's phrases, read on for better suggestions.

If you read Wills, you will get the impression that Augustine is harping on certain striking expressions. I'll cite two examples. There are a lot of "anfractuous paths," "anfractuosities," etc. Is this a necessary resort to reflect some strange and special word (say Latin anfractuosus) to which Augustine is drawn? No, Wills is translating plain statements about the rough and hard way vs. the smooth and easy way; I guess he just really loves the word anfractuous. More seriously, anyone will read these Confessions and believe that Augustine is always harping about "transgressive knowledge." Look at the Latin, and you'll find all kinds of expressions under this single English translation -- spectandi (which could be Greek theorein), curiosa peritia, curiositates suas (add sicut pisces mari and you get "their fishlike transgressive knowledge"), to name a few. Of course I'm not disputing that an Augustinian idea of vain science ignorant of God or failing to honor the creator above creation is relevant here. But um...let the reader figure that out for herself, as Augustine does, instead of walloping us over the head with "transgressive knowledge" every time you catch a whiff of it.

I've said it reads smoothly enough, but Wills craves his own original expression (tsk, tsk, not a very good Augustinian there, Garry) to the point that he will break up parallel expressions into "vivid" new phrases, etc. Unfortunately sometimes this obscures Augustine's logic. Sometimes Wills condenses willfully. For example, I don't think my students are very helped by his turning "the Paraclete, our consoler, the Holy Spirit" (paracleti consolatoris nostri spiritus sancti) into simply "the Supporter." The latter tends to work only if you know that (a) Supporter = paraclete, (b) paraclete = holy spirit.

I take it as a sign of our unlearned age that Augustine's own words are so strange to us that such estimable critics as James Wood can rave about how "Augustine flourishes in Wills's hands."

Without a doubt for a modern polished translation you're better off in the hands of Maria Boulding (available in two editions: The Confessions, Revised (The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, Vol. 1), The Confessions). Chadwick unaccountably aims for simplicity so zealously that he doesn't hesitate to strike whole clauses that make a point, so I can't recommend him; for example, with the aforementioned fishlike curiosities, Chadwick simply discards "quibus perambulant secretas semitas abyssi." For a still nearer approach, pick up the Loeb (Confessions, Vol. 1: Books 1-8 (Loeb Classical Library, No. 26 v. 1)). The translation shows its age a bit, but it's admirably straightforward, and you can look across the page to Augustine's actual words.