The Essential Letters volume in the series of Augustine's complete works features a rich selection from the Bishop of Hippo's extensive surviving correspondence. Following a rich introductory chapter by Augustine scholar Przemyslaw Nehring, the letters are then arranged in categories that focus on Augustine in his different roles, for example, as philosopher, theologian, exegete, and monastic founder. These writings display Augustine's wide-ranging concerns with a similarly wide range of correspondents and often provide a glimpse of his character that cannot be obtained in his other writings, not even in The Confessions.