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by: James Hogg
Amazon.com's Price: $4.99 Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 2 to 4 weeks
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9781853261886
ISBN: 1853261882
Label: Wordsworth Editions Ltd
Manufacturer: Wordsworth Editions Ltd
Number Of Pages: 224
Publication Date: December 05, 1999
Publisher: Wordsworth Editions Ltd
Sales Rank: 461231
Studio: Wordsworth Editions Ltd
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
With an Introduction and Notes by David Blair, University of Kent at Canterbury In the early years of the 18th century, Scotland is torn by religious and political strife. Hogg's sinner, justified by his Calvinist conviction that his own salvation is pre-ordained, is suspected of involvement in a series of bizarre and hideous crimes. A century later his memoirs reveal the extraordinary, macabre truth. The tale is chilling for its astute psychological accuracy as it illustrates, with power and economy, the dire effect of self-righteous bigotry on a fanatical character.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - THis book is awesome.
I loved the comedic narrative that starts off the book; it's a colorful and richly detailed black comedy that youd expect from HAWTHORN- making fun of the clash between overly zealous religious funamentalists and more earthy rural folk. As the story progresses it decends into a dramatic/tragic tone that I would compare to CHARLES BROCKDON BROWN.
then the story breaks into the second part.
THe change to the killers perspective/narrative is a huge unexpected leap that I ... Read More
Rating: - Doppleganger
Is Robert a schizophrenic to be pitied or a psychopath to be loathed?
Similar to Dostoyevsky's psychodrama, The Double, we find the exhileration of the psyche brought bare before our perusal. James Hogg's two part account of a "sinner" (a predestined and chosen one albeit) is on surface a derisive gothic narrative of the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination. The taut trance-like animated lustre it creates is exceptionally haunting. The author succeeds in invoking the sublime and supernatural ... Read More
Rating:  - Synopsis: A supernatural psychological thriller
The story of James Hogg's "Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner" describes events 100 years before Hogg's own lifetime, and revolves around Robert Wringhim, a young man with a questionable paternal origin, and confused religious principles. His mother and her husband George Colwan have fathered his older half-brother George, but Robert appears to be the product of his mother's unchastity with the fanatic Revd Robert Wringhim. This minister becomes his surrogate father and mentor, and ... Read More
Rating:  - Completely Misrepresents Predestination & Runs Many a Rabbit Trail!
I tried to like this novel because as one who believes in predestination, I thought it would show some of the opposing arguments in fictional form; it failed to do this. James Hogg merely shows us a deranged human being (nothing new there!) who murders because he feels that he is 'destined for heaven' no matter what he does. Yes, he might have been saved from the fires of hell, but it would have been by God's grace, not by his own good or evil works. Isn't this what the New Testament is all about-grace ... Read More
Rating: - None better
The depth of this novel is amazing. Visit Edinburgh on a misty night and you will see it is not set in the past.
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