Record Number: 21195

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'St Augustine, Some scattered notes. 'Have glanced at his work On Marriage & Concupiscence, part of his attack on the Pelagians. What he thinks is wrong in copulation is not the semen but the pleasure attending its emission, and he thinks the pleasure wrong because people are ashamed to be seen doing it [...] Elsewhere, he says that the time for giving in marriage was B.C., and the time for abstaining from it A.D., but he does not urge the extinction of the human race, and hopes that husbands and wives will continue to go ahead, with as little pleasure as possible, until the establishment of the City of God. I find it difficult to follow, in anyone so intelligent, such opinions, and think they may have been induced by the unintelligent asceticism of his age; by the knowledge that thousands of stupid men were sitting in the desert all along Africa.'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 1 Jan 1942 and 31 Dec 1942

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

n/a

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

---

Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Edward Morgan Forster

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

1 Jan 1879

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Writer

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

---

Text Being Read:

Author:

St Augustine

Title:

'On Marriage and Concupiscence'

Genre:

Other religious, Classics

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

21195

Source:

Print

Author:

E. M. Forster

Editor:

Philip Gardner

Title:

Commonplace Book

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1985

Vol:

n/a

Page:

133

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

E. M. Forster, Philip Gardner (ed.), Commonplace Book (London, 1985), p. 133, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=21195, accessed: 24 April 2024

---

Additional Comments:

None