The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner Paperback – January 24, 2012

_"I said I was a poor student of theology, on my way to Oxford. They stared at one another with expressions of wonder, disappointment, and fear. I afterwards came to learn that the term theology was by them quite misunderstood, and that they had some crude conceptions that nothing was taught at Oxford but the black arts, which ridiculous idea prevailed over all the south of Scotland."_Apparently the author, James Hogg, was just a poor Scottish shepherd in the late 18th C who taught himself how to read and right, hobnobbed with the likes of Sir Walter Scott and Wordsworth, wrote this rather mind-boggling critique of Calvinism and predestination for which he got in a bit of trouble, and accidentally fell through the ice while curling, which eventually killed him. A meta-James Hogg also appears briefly at the end of this novel in the form of a homely shepherd who gamely dodges requests to help one of the many narrators dig up a body.Despite the heavy religious allegory/parable (or is this just a ghost story?) this was a surprisingly entertaining read--and certainly easier to read than Sir Walter Scott. The main story-in-a-story revolves around a young man persuaded by an angel/demon/hallucination/ghost/alter-ego to commit murder of "enemies of heaven" on the grounds that he is predestined by God to go to heaven, therefore nothing he does in life can change where he ends up in the afterlife. Of course, if some heavenly being flatters you with tales like this, how do you know they are really from where they say they are from? And what if you're just going mad?Unlikely as it may seem given the subject matter, Hogg never strays too far from snarky underhanded narration and touches of slapstick. One of the more hilarious scenes (which still manages to wring empathy from the reader) involves the titular Sinner tangled like a fly in a vitriolic weaver's loom. The opening, in which a pious young woman is wed to a wastrel nobleman, is also comedically tragic, and doesn't seem to carry the usual moral message we might expect from something written at the time. As a self-taught country man, the author brings skepticism to excess money, power, self-righteousness, and also to narrow-minded superstition.

This book gave me a hard time. The first third of the book was fascinating, the rest seemed like a never ending story. Read it, by all means. The plot is serious and thought-provoking, especially if you believe in the devil and in hell. Thinking about it, I'll give this book four stars, not just two, as initially intended. The devil is really, really well portrayed. A hell of a good devil. Seriously!

I've tried twice to finish James Hogg's "The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner." But, I just can't do it. Technically, it's well-written (especially for a book first published in 1824 by someone who started life as a poor, self-educated shepherd). In fact, the only technical complaint I have about it is that in some of the dialog, Hogg uses a very heavy old Scots dialect that's fairly difficult to follow. My real problem with it, though, is that the story he describes is just so darn nasty that I can't get through it. Even though I can't tolerate the book, I'm adding a star for the author's technical ability. I rate it at a Not Very Good 2 stars out of 5. However, since this book is in the public domain and free, I do recommend you download it and give it a try. If you're made of sterner stuff than I am, you'll probably like it.

Interesting. Language somewhat old fashioned, but easy enough to follow. Showed how self-justification in religion can lead to disaster. Too much faith in ourselves can destroy. Specifically, an unshakeable faith in pre-determinism leads to an abdication of personal responsibility. A nice moral play on that basis.

I thoroughly enjoyed this magnificent bookThe writing is powerful . James Hogg is a forgotten master.I read this book having very scant knowledge of Hogg and his works.Despite the prose being very much of the eighteen hundreds, the scope andstructure of this book is timeless and very relevant to todays reader.Before I obtained the work, I read that Hogg was a favourite author ofIrvine Welsh . Now I know why.Praise to those who have worked to get this classic into the digital format.I look forward to reading more from this great author .

I loved this book so much that I'm adding it to my syllabus for Horror and Fantasy this fall. Hope they enjoy it, too. The genre is ... well, it's hard to put a finger on. Doppelgangers, mysterious estates, cases of mistaken identity...or are they... this novel has all the great hallmarks of Gothic literature with a heaping dose of Scots language thrown in for your daily bit of culture and linguistics. Hogg was a creative guy, that's for sure. This book needs to get more attention outside the British Isles.

This is a classic gothic novel from the 1800's told in a curious style - once from an observer's viewpoint, once from the subject's. Macabre but fun to read.

good book

This novel opens in hilarity, with an account by the "editor" of a Scottish laird's ill-starred marriage and the two sons it produced. The couple and the sons are alike estranged, and the sons meet as youths in animosity. This leads to a fateful encounter, whose forensic aftermath is the clumsiest and dullest stretch of the book; but a third of the way through the narrative switches to the first-person memoir of the eponymous 'sinner', which is rather more interesting.The sinner is 'justified' in that he considers himself chosen by God, his place in heaven reserved. Consequently, all his deeds, even his crimes, must be God's will. He is encouraged in this outlook by a mysterious stranger, a diabolical double who both fascinates and manipulates him, egging him on to ever greater atrocities.In this, the novel is a satire on Calvinist predestination, but it also partakes of the Gothic, the folktale, the psychological thriller, allegory and tragedy. The inescapable bond between the protagonist and his nemesis calls to mind "Frankenstein", "Caleb Williams", and "Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde". The ingenuous editor, the discovered manuscript and its unreliable narrator form an intriguing metafictional artifice that adds another layer of provocative doubt. The principal interest is the process by which the intelligent, well-meaning and devout confessor is brought down by his own arrogance and his interlocutor's cunning exploitation of his own logic. It's quite a novelty, both a product of its time and weirdly original.

This is an extraordinary book - a pre-modern post-modern narrative written in 19th Century! It gives conflicting views of the thoughts and actions of a young man who may or may not be a religious hypocrite, drunkard, rapist and murderer, depending on which of the conflicting accounts you choose to believe. It's a bold and experimental narrative which unfolds from an (admittedly dull) solicitor's account of having received a curious manuscript, the contents of which he leaves the reader to judge. That editor's prologue is a bit heavy going and does nothing to prepare the reader for the extraordinarily first person account which follows, in which the young man appears to be either haunted or crazed after seemingly trading his soul with a devil in the guise of a religious man who convinces him that all his actions are justified as he is one of god's chosen elect. Part satire, part supernatural thriller, part page-turner and multi-layered literary experiment, it even features an Amis-like appearance by the author in the shape of a grumpy shepherd refusing to confirm or deny the details of his own story. This book is hard to classify or pin down but it really is quite astonishing and it certainly repays the efforts of the reader. It really deserves to be very much better known. Read it and judge for yourself!

This edition is 'printed in Great Britain by Amazon'. The type is small (8 point Times, I think) with no paragraph separation at all. Buy another printing.

This is a very good novel which leans towards the gothic. The only down side is that Hogg has to transcribe what the Scottish characters say in thick accents which you can barely understand.

This story is without a doubt one of the most interesting things I've read in ages. There's a lot left open to the reader's interpretation and the more you consider it, the more interesting the tale becomes. My only issue is that Hogg takes an inordinate amount of time to say anything and the pacing is all over the place. The more dramatic parts will fly by only to be followed with pages and pages of tedious expositionary material. Nevertheless, if you have the time and the inclination, it's definitely worth a read. Maybe get a better edition than this though because there are some small, yet irksome, editorial errors in this one.