?Paula Rose has written a readable, detailed, and well-documented commentary on ?De cura pro mortuis gerenda? (DC), a letter-tract of Augustine. Paulinus of Nola, a lifelong and influential friend of Augustine with one of the largest epistolary networks in late antiquity, asked him in what way the dead may take advantage of their ?ad sanctions? burial. (?) Augustine?s reply consists of two parts. The first half of his letter (1-911) deals with the question of the relevance of a proper burial for the deceased. The second half of the epistle (10.12-18.23) is about the communication between the living and the dead by means of dreams and visions. Several scholars (like Arbesmann and Klöckener) regarded the two parts as rather loosely connected. The central thesis of Rose?s study is tat DC from a ?carefully composed unity? (p.53). She has chosen for ?a mixed literary approach?: a discourse analysis focussing on the relation between sentences within the overall structure of the text, with special attention paid to particles (e.g. ?denim? and ?nam?) and the times and modes of verbs; and ?a narratological approach?, which is interested in the way the author reframes the stories he is telling to fit his argumentative purposes (particularly relevant for the second part of DC). Rose has convincingly shown how DC forms a coherent, well though-out thematic unity. It is remarkable, however, that her dissertation has no final chapter in which her approach is being evaluated and conclusions are drawn. Some conclusions are nevertheless given in advance in the General Introduction (pp.67-68). (?) The work done by Rose is seriously hampered by the fact that no sound critical edition of DC exists. (?) In short, a commentary like that of Paula Rose should be warmly welcomed, because most of the Augustinian studies are thematic or systematic, and only a few deal with one single work. By her study she has shown that such a close reading is fruitful and promising also for other texts of the other famous letter-writer, Augustine.? (A.C. KOOIJMAN in Church History and Religious Culture, 2013, pp.100-102).