The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (The Collected Works of James Hogg) (Dover Thrift Editions) (Canons)

by James Hogg

John Carey

Set in early eighteenth-century Scotland, the novel recounts the corruption of a boy of strict Calvinist parentage by a mysterious stranger under whose influence he commits a series of murders. The stranger assures the boy that no sin can affect the salvation of an elect person. The reader, while recognizing the stranger as Satan, is prevented by the subtlety of the novel's structure from finally deciding whether, for all his vividness and wit, he is more than a figment of the boy's imagination. This edition reprints the text of the unexpurgated first edition of 1824, later 'corrected' in an attempt to placate the Calvinists.

• ISBN10: 0192835904
• ISBN13: 9780192835901
• Publish Date: 1 August 1999 (first published March 1969)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 27 November 2009
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Oxford University Press
• Edition: New edition
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 306
• Language: English

Reviews

[clementine]

I loved the concept of this book, as I'm generally into dual narratives. The plot was intriguing because it was so full of doubt, and this is definitely one of the better books I've had to read for school. It did drag in places sometimes, and the Scottish characters could be hard to understand - and I have definitely adapted to Scottish accents by now! I guess written it's an entirely different thing.

Not my favourite and I probably won't re-read, but overall reasonably enjoyable.