In this new translation of what many consider to be a masterpiece of Western literature, the brilliant and impassioned descriptions of Augustine's colourful early life and search for spiritual satisfaction are accurately conveyed to the English reader. Augustine tells of his wrestlings to master his sexual drive, his rare ascent from a humble Algerian farm to the edge of the corridors of high power at the imperial court at Milan, and his renunciation of secular ambition and marriage as he recovered the faith his mother Monica had taught him. It was in a Milan garden that Augustine finally achieved the decisive act of will to Christian conversion, which he compared to a lazy man in bed finally deciding it is time to get up and face the day. Augustine has been called The First Modern Man. But his work contains many references and allusions that can hardly be understood without background information about the ancient social and intellectual setting. The accompanying notes and introduction to this translation should prove of great use to the contemporary reader.