Until recently Charles Wesley has been much less fortunate than his brother John in scholarly editions of his prose works. Even the extensive Victorian edition of his poetry has had to be extended by a three-volume modern supplement. Then came Newport's exemplary edition of the sermons in 2001. The very imperfect 1849 Jackson edition of the journal (extant only to 1756 with several gaps) was only replaced by Kimbrough and Newport's edition in 2008 (with the journal-letters still to come).While there has been sound scholarly work on the poetry (which includes much more than the hymns), the biographical record has generally been marred by hagiography and a tendency to recycle earlier accounts without thorough use of the manuscript sources. A new standard of interpretation has, however, been established by Gareth Lloyd's Charles Wesley and the struggle for Methodist identity (2007); that he and Newport are now editing the letters is a guarantee of scholarly quality. As they explain, they faced some formidable difficulties. Charles hardly ever fully dated his letters; some passages are in his adaptation of Byrom's shorthand and his erratic style at times makes it unclear whether a letter is complete. The editors have been remarkably successful in dating the letters, deciphering the shorthand and filling in gaps as far as possible. Persons named in the letters are identified in notes and a biographical appendix. The letters are revealing both of Charles and of early Methodist experience and emotional atmosphere. Like his hymns, Charles's letters often seem to be a mosaic of biblical phrases and echoes, revealing a mind which often seems to be unaffectedly reliving the life of apostolic Christianity. He was liable to oscillate between exaltation and depression and frequently professed to long for and expect death, even during his courtship and happy marriage. The courtship is the subject of a large slice of the letters but equally important are details of his early life as a travelling preacher, confirming the emerging consensus that he was as active as John in this role until the 1750s, after which he settled in Bristol and London. Other subjects include his wrecking of John's plan to marry Grace Murray, his strained relations with Mrs John Wesley, purging of lay preachers and conflicts with John over threats to ordain and risks of separation from the Church of England. There will be more on these problems in the second volume. There are a few places where further notes explaining the context and contents of letters would be helpful and two small slips may be noted. The Kirkham family lived in Stanton, Gloucestershire, not Stanton Harcourt (p. 22); and ‘Oldham’ (pp. 306, 311 and index) refers to Adam Oldham, an early Manchester trustee, not the Lancashire town. But these are minor blemishes on an exemplary work of exact scholarship which will be an indispensable foundation for further biographies of Charles Wesley and studies of early Methodism and its context. Pity about the price, though.