The Confessions
Saint Augustine · c. 400 CE
The first great autobiography in Western literature, and the first to use the form as an examination of consciousness rather than a record of deeds. Augustine's account of his restless seeking, his sins, his conversion, and his discovery of God contains psychological self-analysis that would not be surpassed until Freud.
The case against
Augustine agonizes for chapters over stolen pears, then dismisses the mother of his son in a sentence; the moral arithmetic never balances. And the autobiography everyone comes for ends at Book Nine. Four further books on memory, time, and a line-by-line reading of Genesis await whoever continues; they are brilliant, and they belong to a different book.
Memoir · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
if this one calls to you, so will these →
