A masterclass of metafiction, many of the events are narrated twice first by the 'editor', who gives his account of the facts as he understands them to be, and then in the words of the 'sinner' himself. The plot follows a staunch Calvinist, Robert Wringhim, who believes he is justified in killing those he believes are already damned by God.
It has been called a Gothic novel, a psychological mystery, a religious satire, and an early example of modern crime fiction. N2 - Published anonymously in 1824, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner: Written by Himself: With a detail of curious traditionary facts and other evidence by the editor pushed the boundaries of genre. Neglected at first, this brilliant short novel has climbed in the esteem of readers until it is now regarded as one of the glories of English literature-or, for those who like to subdivide these matters, of Scottish literature.T1 - The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner Karl Miller, The Times Literary Supplement The novel splits and doubles itself, its themes, and its characters: two texts, one following the other, are written from two different points of view narrating the same terrible story, they contradict each other here and there, forming an asymmetrical diptych, all the more compelling for its discordancy and conflicts.Ī work so moving, so funny, so impassioned, so exact and so mysterious, that its emergence from a long history of neglect came as a surprise which has yet to lose its resonance.
James Hogg's great novel is set in eighteenth-century Edinburgh, a city of night and shadow, of lurking eavesdroppers and invisible pursuers, of gloomy wynds and crepuscular crannies. It has been an influence on Scottish literature and certainly on my own Inspector Rebus stories.Very little is what it seems in this complex novel.A psychological horror story, this also works as a novel of stalking, grooming, and serial killing. This book has been haunting me since student days.
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