Augustine of Hippo: A Biography, Revised Edition with a New Epilogue

Book Description

This classic biography was first published thirty years ago and has since established itself as the standard account of Saint Augustine's life and teaching. The remarkable discovery recently of a considerable number of letters and sermons by Augustine has thrown fresh light on the first and last decades of his experience as a bishop. These circumstantial texts have led Peter Brown to reconsider some of his judgments on Augustine, both as the author of the Confessions and as the elderly bishop preaching and writing in the last years of Roman rule in north Africa. Brown's reflections on the significance of these exciting new documents are contained in two chapters of a substantial Epilogue to his biography (the text of which is unaltered). He also reviews the changes in scholarship about Augustine since the 1960s. A personal as well as a scholarly fascination infuse the book-length epilogue and notes that Brown has added to his acclaimed portrait of the bishop of Hippo.

Customer Reviews:

Augustine of Hippo: A Biography.......2007-09-03

This a revised edition of a very good biography of St Augustine of Hippo. Although I am in the mist of reading this bio I find the writing inviting and histology very well done.

Epic study of Western Christianity's towering genius.......2007-07-28

Peter Brown's AUGUSTINE of HIPPO is epic study of the adventure...the spiritual-intellectual ODYSSEY...that is Life of Aurelius Augustine,Saint and uber-Father of the Christian Church in the West. Brown's peerless biography details(36chapters;437pp)a life of towering intellectual genius from birth in AD 354 in Thagaste,Province of Northern Africa SPQR ;until his death as Bishop of Hippo in AD 430.His education is sweepingly arrayed ~beginning in Carthage as orator and magister;his thorough indoctrination in Manichaeism; his meeting with St.Ambrose and immersion in philosophy of Platonist...the birth & death of his brilliant son,Adeodatus,"gift of God"..;the everlasting presence/influence of his mother,Monica; the epiphany cited in THE CONFESSIONS,"to take and read(Biblical exhortations of St. Paul)"followed by his Conversion/Baptism and quick-fire Ordination as Roman Catholic priest;and almost-instant elevation to Bishop. This prelude is followed by Augustine's unsurpassed career as The West's first & premier existential-psychologist:THOU HAS MADE US FOR THYSELF LORD; AND OUR HEARTS ARE FOREVER RESTLESS UNTIL THEY REST IN THEE; and ironic humorist~LORD MAKE ME PURE...BUT NOT TODAY. As well as arch-foe of anti-Catholic heresy~Donatism; Pelagianism;and the Occult(with which he was expertly familiar having been 10 year Initiate therein).

Augustine's CITY of GOD is not only the first consummate philosophy of History (surpassing Herodotus "then";and Hegel/Spengler & even Marx "now" in effect on history. CITY of GOD shaped the LOGOS,world-view of Western Man for 1000 years/entire MIDDLE AGES(ca~AD 476-AD 1517).Austine wrote catechisms ENCHIRIDION);treatises on Free Will;predestination;and is formulator of the Christian concept of ORIGINAL SIN.Augustinian theology l comprises(ironically)most fundamental notions of Protestant Reformers. Catholic Church champion St.Thomas Aquinas is -as-indebted to him as to Aristotle in framing THE SUMMA THEOLOGICA.

Peter Brown's new St.AUGUSTINE of HIPPO is not so much revision but carefully written...in modus of Augustine..reflection on what he had once written.There is brief preface.There is extensively documented epilogue comprised as New Evidence;& New Directions(pp441-520).There is expanded bibliography & index.The 1967 edition is 463pp;the new is 538pp.
Any student of Augustine knows that with him "more is More. Whether 75pp mas is MORE, the reader will of course determine.Brown's book is the classic,unlikely to be surpassed,study of a genius in the service of God,SERVUS DEI. Any serious student of theology,philosophy;or history of Ideas must confront St.Augustine of Hippo.This profound, mythology-like masterwork is not the opus to start with.But when you're ready "to TAKE & READ",it is matchless story-telling that is worthy of the unique,perhaps most remarkable,QUEST for God & Truth that a great and gifted man ever committed his life toward. (777 stars)

The most important bio of the most important churchmen .......2006-08-31

As the first 19 reviews here have thoroughly described, this is the definitive bio of Augustine. (What Bainton once was for Luther). The 2nd edition is a whole new work.

I met Peter Brown in Princeton, where he taught, a few times, and he just oozed brilliance. I have nothing new to add except an anecdote that tells it all. The story goes that Brown was so focused and mature that he came to the idea of writing this definitive critical bio of Augustine while in his early teens. He focused all of his energy on it, methodically begining to maste the secondary academic literature on Augustine before even beginning his university studies. He wrote this bio shortly after completlng his undergraduate honors thesis, publishing it to rave reviews in his early 20s.

This story has made him a legend. And once, Dr. Paul Rorem of Princeton Seminary told us, he asked Brown about it. Brown laughed and told an even more amazing one. Turns out the truth is that Brown had not developed any special interest in Augustine until the end of his undergraduate studies. Being pressed for a thesis topic, with a deadline approaching, he picked Augustine almost at random. He then set about to master Augustine, and in just 2 years ended up writing the definitive bio that changed the field forever!

The mag. opus of one of the world's great scholars.

Augustine of Hippo.......2005-09-05

This is a classic biography by a master in his field. It is heavy at times, but that reflects the complex person, Augustine, as much as, or more than, the biographer's ability to portray him. The new added chapters, reviewing the more recent discoveries of letters and sermons, and relating how they changed the author's previous judgments of Augustine, are especially excellent.

From Manichees to Donatists, the World of Augustine.......2005-06-22

I read the old version, which was fine. Augustine spanned the gap between the classic world and the emerging world of the middle ages. He started life as a Manichee and flirted with neo-platonism before settling down to life as the bishop of Hippo in Roman Africa. His was a very "Roman African" kind of career (a phrase which meant nothing to me before this book). Roman African Christianity was a "purer" form that was less influenced by decadent Roman/Italian ways. In fact, the main schism of Augustine's time, the Donatists, had split from the Catholic church over the issue of Christian collaboration with Roman pagan authorites.

Throughout his career Augustine stood for the religion of church and parishioner (as supposed to the religion of the monastaries). His theology emphasized original sin and supported baptism at birth. Humans needed Christianity as a weary traveller needs an inn.

He was a prolific writer, but always anchored his writing in current events. For example, City of God was written after the sack of Rome by Alaric the Visigoth(love those names) sent patrician Romans(who were Pagans) scurrying to Africa for succor.

I felt I got a better sense of the "life and times" of Augustine as supposed to his thought and ideas. Not that I have a problem with that. Augustine is an important transitional figure between the classical and christian worlds, and his times give the reader of what it was like to live during the fall of the western roman empire.

I recommnend it for people interested in Augustine himself or the time period in general.

Augustine of Hippo: a Biography, Revised Edition With a New Epilogue

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Augustine of Hippo: a Biography, Revised Edition With a New Epilogue
Peter Brown
Manufacturer: California
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LUNFN8

Book Description

These long-awaited volumes bring together, for the first time ever, the complete short stories of Ireland's master storyteller, Liam O'Flaherty--from great classics like "The Sniper" to previously unpublished originals. These 182 stories include all those included in previous anthologies; the Irish language stories; stories which have never before been collected inn book form; and original stories published here for the first time. This luxurious set will be a treasure for all those who know and love the work of one of Ireland's most skilled and passionate writers.

Customer Reviews:

The Sniper Strikes Again . . . and Again.......2001-09-27

O'Flaherty is one of the more gifted short story writers in contemporary fiction, regardless of geography. The life he bring to Irish fiction, though, is incredible. O'Flaherty is a master of sparse writing, using as few words as possible to carry out the events of the story. He lets the reader fill in any blanks he or she wishes and does not mind letting readers draw conclusions and imagine "the rest of the story." His classic story "The Sniper" is a perfect example of this tactic. O'Flaherty provides no background information, aside from a very brief mention of the Irish conflict and the IRA (the sniper is a Republican). The action is quick and concise, allowing for an abrupt, ambiguous, and unsettling ending. He can and does write about more than just snipers, and the previously unpublished stories provide a nice glimpse into O'Flaherty's entire scope of knowledge, experience, and insights. This collection may lift O'Flaherty into the elite company of short story writers who have overshadowed him in the past. There aren't many, but this volume will lessen that number.

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Enthralling!
A great historical novel
Hunger for more
Masterful
Reminiscent of Steinbeck

Famine (Great Contemporary Authors)
Liam O'Flaherty
Manufacturer: Irish American Book Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0863270433

Customer Reviews:

Enthralling!.......2006-05-23

What an enthralling book. Such wonderful depiction of Irish life, the way it REALLY was. I just can't put it down!! A++++ on this magnificent piece of work!

A great historical novel.......2006-01-28

Because he was famous as a participant in the Irish Civil War (in 1922, he raised a red flag over the Dublin Rotunda) and because his best-known book is "The Informer," Liam O'Flaherty is regarded primarily as a novelist of the Irish rebellion. In a letter to the Irish Statesman, he celebrated "the wild tumult of the untamed storm, the tumuilt of the army on the march, clashing its cymbals, rioting with excess of energy." Like our own Theodore Dreiser, he was capable of being crude, grandiose and melodramatic, and he was often swamped by his own rhetoric. But he was also capable, far more than Dreiser, alas, of reaching and expressing astonishingly delicate perceptions of the human soul.

At his best, O'Flaherty was one of the great natural forces of 20th Century literature. Like Jean Giono or Knut Hamsun, when writing about the land, the sea and the simpler creatures, including here peasants and seamen, his writing takes on the elemental forcefulness of classic folk tales. "Famine," his greatest work in this mode, is matched only in his best short stories. It reads as freshly today as it did when it was first published 45 years ago.

In 1845, the population of Ireland was estimated at 8.5 million. By 1851, it had been reduced by two million, half of whom had died and half of whom had fled, mostly to the U.S. and other former British colonies. The raw numbers do not do justice to the magnitude of the catastrophe that had befallen Ireland. In large parts of the south and west, traditional culture had been uprooted and destroyed.

Focusing on a family of County Galway tenant farmers, the Kilmartins, "Famine" inserts us into the horror of the "great hunger." A study of the uses of power -- by the old English ascendancy, by the rising middle class of usurious merchants, by the embattled (and mostly defeated peasants), it records the final days of an ancient, ritualistic society, unhinged by the destruction of the customs and traditions that had given shape and meaning to life. It is also about survival, especially that of Mary Gleeson Kilmartin, who fights for her family with fierce determination.

["Famine" was first published in 1937 but was never available in soft cover until a handsome edition was offered by David R. Godine's line of quality paperbacks, Nopareil, which also published works by Benedetto Croce, Edmund Wilson, Paula Fox, William Gass and Stanley Elkin. It was thought at the time that the publisher might be moved to reprint O'Flaherty's excellent short story collections, "Spring Sowing" and "The Tent." If you can find the Nonpareil edition, buy it; it is avaialble now in a version from Interlink.]

Hunger for more.......2006-01-26

For someone like myself, who actually lost family members as a result of the "Great Famine," I was awe-struck by how the author so dramatically portrays the insensitivity and cruelty exhibited by the English during Ireland's greatest moment of need.

Masterful.......2005-08-10

I first read Famine while in secondary school in Drogheda Co. Louth in 1985. Sadly I didn't have the willpower to finish the book and appreciate its brilliance. Twenty years later, I found the book and finally read it through. It truly is a masterful work. Deep behind the story lies a web of emotion that is sure to bring a tear to your eye as you watch the characters fight against hunger and the enthrenched establishment. There is a sense of forboding and pity for what we know awaits the simple people portrayed in the book, yet they are also complex in their outlook on life and their belief in the Almighty. The book will not give you an historical account of what happened during the mid 1800s but it will give you an appreciation for its impact on the people and their way of life. The book is a classic in every sense of the word. It is unfortunately little known outside Ireland but if you can get your hands on a copy, I encourage you to give it the time and effort that it deserves.

Reminiscent of Steinbeck.......2002-09-14

O'Flaherty has brought alive a tragic era in Ireland's history similar to Steinbeck's handling of the Great Depression. He does this with more matter-of-factness but less poetic flair than Steinbeck. His ability to create vivid mental images, even in the Irish naive mind, is unprecedented.

Great Irish Short Stories (Dover Thrift Editions)

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Synopsis

Great Irish Short Stories (Dover Thrift Editions)
Maria Edgeworth , William Carleton , Lady Gregory , Standish O'Grady , William Butler Yeats , James Stephens , James Joyce , Seumas O'Kelly , and Liam O'Flaherty
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0486437884

Book Description

Features 13 captivating tales, including stories by Maria Edgeworth and William Carleton from the beginning of Irish prose fiction in English; the retellings of traditional tales by Lady Gregory and Standish O'Grady from the great age of the Irish Literary Revival; and the 20th-century works of William Butler Yeats, James Stephens, James Joyce, Seumas O'Kelly, and Liam O'Flaherty.

Customer Reviews:

Synopsis.......2005-10-02

"This collection of thirteen captivating tales by Irish authors illustrates both traditional and modern approaches to the Celtic art of storytelling. Spanning two centuries, it features stories by Maria Edgeworth and William Carleton from the beginning of Irish prose fiction in English; retellings of traditional tales by Lady Gregory and Standish O'Grady from the great age of the Irish Literary Revival; and contributions from many of the twentieth century's most significant writers, including William Butler Yeats, James Stephens, James Joyce, Seumas O'Kelly, and Liam O'Flaherty."--eCAMPUS

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The Informer (Ireland into Film)
Pat Sheeran
Manufacturer: Cork University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Adaptations | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1859182887

Book Description

Liam O'Flaherty's novel The Informer (1925) is what the author of this fascinating study calls a "mythogenic text" - one that lends itself easily to adaptations, recreations and renditions. To date there have been four film versions (Arthur Robison 1929, John Ford 1935, Jules Dassin 1968, Michael Byrne 1992) and at least as many stage versions. One of the reasons the novel has proved so attractive to filmmakers is that it was itself written with an eye on the silent expressionist cinema of the day. All too often O'Flaherty has been regarded as a hard realist who drew the great vigor of his art from the native Gaelic culture of oral storytelling. In fact, he was much more at home in the linked gestural and visual language of melodrama and the silent cinema. As Patrick Sheeran amply demonstrates, the central antagonism between O'Flaherty's Hardman (Gypo Nolan) and the Gunman (Commandant Dan Gallagher) has provided dramatists and filmmakers with a compelling way of staging political conflict - not only in Ireland but in Weimar Germany and in the inner-city ghettoes of Afro-America as well.

The Wounded Cormorant, and Other Stories (The Norton Library, N704)

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The Wounded Cormorant, and Other Stories (The Norton Library, N704)
Liam O'Flaherty
Manufacturer: W W Norton & Co Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Searing account of love and pain

The Black Soul
Liam O'Flaherty
Manufacturer: Irish American Book Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0863274781

Customer Reviews:

Searing account of love and pain.......1997-11-21

Absolutely one of the best novels ever to come out of Ireland. A love story involving three people, O'Flaherty's story is as wild as the Atlantic waves, as scorching as a baker's oven, as compassionate as a cow with her calf.

Book Description

A tale of temptation, betrayal, and reprisal, this powerful novel is set in the aftermath of the Irish Civil War. It tells of Gypo Nolan, who informs on a wanted comrade. The source of the Academy Award-winning film directed by John Ford. Preface by Denis Donoghue.

Customer Reviews:

Fenian Hulk Finks on Friend, Fatally Fails to Flee.......2006-01-11

In the confused political situation in Ireland between 1916 and 1925, all kinds of ideologies competed, common criminals took up party work only to revert to their original callings. Leaders were betrayed, assassinated, jailed. The long dream of independence came to life, but in a fog of disappointment and disillusion. When the dust settled, all the brilliant men lay dead. O'Flaherty has set his novel in the politico-criminal underworld of this period, with a large dollop of that disillusion. Nobody comes out smelling like a rose. Gypo Nolan, the main character, harbors great physical strength, but little brain. Unlike most protagonists, he thinks little. The author describes his feelings or changes of mood, an interesting tack to take. Gypo informs on a former colleague in the Party, who is promptly surrounded by the police and gets shot dead during the standoff. With his 20 pound reward burning a hole in his pocket ( it might have been equivalent to about 20 weeks pay for a worker), Gypo treats a crowd to fish and chips, then drinks, fights, and whores, giving a big part of his loot away to a sad woman he meets by chance. The Party suspects Gypo, who fingers an innocent man. At the subsequent "trial", the truth comes out. Gypo is locked up, but escapes. The denouement is not long in coming.

THE INFORMER is fast paced, highly descriptive. I felt that sometimes the urge to describe everyone and everything in detail got the better of the author, his descriptive style began to resemble a Thomas Hart Benton mural, with each individual a caricature of a `type' or a `stock character'. The "firm jaws", the "mouths belonging to an average Irishwoman of the middle class", "he looked like a waiter thrown out of employment through old age".....very graphic, colorful, but somehow cartoonish. Anyway, little gripes aside, this is a novel that will hold your attention. It hangs together very well, connecting Irish history and society with a film-noir atmosphere of suspense, action, and intrigue. It catches the Dublin and the Ireland of the time, now changed out of all recognition by prosperity and respectability. And more luck to Ireland for that.

The Real Story.......2005-08-09

This is a good novel about Ireland's ongoing troubles. It spares us the contrived world of the Clancy brothers and rebel songs. The story is set in the years after the establishment of the Irish Free State. The protagonists, unlike in the movie, are not patriots per se but rather communists or IRA members who wanted complete independence from the United Kingdom. Gypo Nolan and his victim Frankie McPhilip are less than valued members of the organization. The story deals with successful efforts to track down Gypo who informed on Frankie. It is noted that Gypo betrayed Frankie to the police not to the Black and Tans. It is a gripping story and it is also a good antidote to stories of the noble Irish and the evil Brits. Please note carefully O'Flaherty's description of the leader of the organization. The author was a member of the Communist Party who had a somewhat different take on the situation in Ireland. If you want an alternative view of the Irish troubles which is also a good read this is the book for you.

Good read.......2005-04-18

I've read this book twice. It was actually better the second time. The movie adaptation is even better than the book, with the lead actor receiving the Oscar for that year. Whether you watch the movie or read the book, you can't go wrong in my opinion. The struggles of life in Ireland, the betrayal by a friend for money, and the descriptions of the characters and places kept me turning the pages.

Good but not great.......2003-08-05

A review of this book is most fair when it is broken into three sections of 60 pages each. The first two sections are fantastic as it takes us through the story of Gipo, a man haunted by informing on his best friend. O'Flaherty does a fantastic job of painting the scene of poverty in Dublin that would lead to someone informing on their buddy... and then we have the pleasure of watching him use the blood money. If it ended on page 120, I would definitely give the book 5 stars.

The last 60 pages are very boring and drawn out. Whereas the story could have been a fascinating tell of the above mentioned material, the last is so obvious, that it is physically painful waiting for the conclusion.

All in all, the book is a great study in the darker side of human behavior. I am glad that I read it for that reason. However, the climax leaves a lot to be desired.

What was that?.......2001-09-02

I don't understand what happened in this book. There was hardly any plot line. The characters did not develop well enough either. I wish I could have given this zero stars.

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Insurrection
Liam O'Flaherty
Manufacturer: Four Square Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: B0007JF4ZU

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Irish Portraits
Liam O'Flaherty
Manufacturer: Sphere
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0722165137

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