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Editorial Review Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Fiction / Classics; Fiction / General; Fiction / Classics; Fiction / Psychological; True Crime / Murder / General; ... Read more Customer Reviews (26) 
CHANGE, UNCERTAINTY, FATE:A GOOD READ (WITH ROUGH & TUMBLE PROSE)
An editor writes a (supposedly factual) narrative of mysterious events about several deaths and murders, involving one character centrally, who is notably priggish religiously, confused (religiously and psychologically), and perhaps quite evil (religiously as well as civilly).
Next, that self-same central character writes his own (supposedly factual) narrative and journal of those same earlier-recounted mysterious events (with the goal of explaining the "holes" or mysteries in the events) and then writes even further accounts of what happened to him right up to the last minute before he expires - either by his own hand or by some other.
Finally, there is the editor's narrative of the exhumation of the grave of this confessing and justified sinner.All three narrative sections mentioned above, though each separately having itsown unique mysteries or uncertainties, together have a drive and a force so very much like a lively and natural fresh water river, that even while the water (story) rushes over rocky terrain, crashes against natural hewn walls, splashing drops in a chaotic froth such that one feels one is about to drown or be thrown up on land - that feeling is strictly momentary and never final.
The course, that is, the writing, is clear (despite the Scottish vernacular used among the lower classes) and the rush (or narrative drive) is steady and enjoyably long, however uncertain are one's conclusions about the whole of the journey.
Is the author making fun of religious conviction?Is Hogg a psychological novelist noting early that phenomenon we now term multiple-personality disorder?What moral status do we -- or can we -- finally attribute to the central character whose memoirs we come to know intimately?Is this tale an ancient precursor of Harry Potter, one written, however, exclusively for adults?Or is this novel an early Gothic one, one meant to scare the beejeezus out of us and into beliefs of life beyond the grave?The profusion of views together with the growing preponderance of questions that arise about the events we witnessed as we contemplate the whole journey or novel crash just like the American and Russian space satellites recently did, leaving all sorts of fragments to observe and puzzles to examine.
I was viscerally moved by Wringham, the central character - from a feeling of deep irritation and frustration at the start (I really did want to wring at least his neck if not him entirely) to one of morbid pity by the finale.One discovers soon enough that it isn't the character so much who changes (although, without giving away too much of the story, he is "altered" by the end) as it is the reader. (And if that conclusion isn't enough to warrant reading this novel, the author helps the reader to grasp that she or he is not so very different from the central character -- at heart -- in regard to those deep impulses of righteousness, however secular or holy the source.) My personal take on the story is that I think Hogg was writing about pure, magnetic, palpable and real evil such that anyone, no matter how illiterate the being, can recognize it: a demon seed, without conscience, pathological, and inevitably damning to the body whose innocent (and even educated) soul it inhabits. (And what might be deemed or intended by the author as "supernatural," I took as psychological and metaphorical, naturally.)
***Note about this Penguin Edition:I think the Scottish brogue dialogic sections today require English translation (in small footnoted print) for full comprehension or clarification of what's being said, even though the complete grasp of the dialogue is never essential to grasping the story and can be skimmed without loss of content.The Glossary of Scottish vocabulary at the back of the book is both incomplete and difficult to use.The Scottish vocabulary, if footnoted on the page in which it appears, would have been more useful to the reader.The footnoted Notes at the very end of the novel did very little to improve or highlight one's understanding of the novel or meaning of certain phrases and, in some cases, confused one or detracted from one's understanding; the Introduction at the front of the book is all the supplemental material the reader needs for historical appreciation of the novel and its context.
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 would have to compare to RASHOMON.It describes many of the same events with such a dramatic shift of emphasis that you almost do not recognize the scenes.Some of the multi perspective breaks are funny, some are chilling.
THis killers perspective is brilliant; he's a realistically depicted schizophrenic serial killer that filters his agression through religious delusion.It reminds me of the movie NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, mixed withKILLER INSIDE ME.He also has a DR JEKYLE MR HYDE split personality that reminds me of FIGHT CLUB.
I have experience with schizos and have had the joy of being targeted by a psychopath... the realistic portrayal of mental illness in this book is impressive.
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 within the fragile make-up of a psyche twisted and enlightened by the religious zeal it professes. If Percy Shelley found the tale as insightful as any upopn the workings of the mind it was primarily because of the tenacity of the precepts which justify the sinner's actions and provoke his behavior. A landscape of horrific charge stages a mind terrifying and a depth where foundations are dug to the root and these dragged with a vengence upon the highest peaks of a reprobates mind. Similar to the Marquis De Sade - studies on sexual allusions between the protagonist and the devil are amusing and should be dabbled into - in its use of reason to legitimize otherwise deplorable executions of conscience; this narrative strikes a balance between two accounts of the same fratricide and ensuing murders, where we are left dizzy and confused and thrown into a state of mind persecuted by truth and the mind's ability to obviate the most simple excesses as they are practiced and divined. At times we question the existence of the double, and on other occasions we are in awe of his personality and presence. The second account is of greater psychological depth and makes one confide with the mind of a murderer propelled by his faith. However we cannot but continue to query our sensibility imputing greed and a rationalizing tendency at play. The author's ambiguity make for rewarding continued readings for this is indeed a psychological analysis of exceptional powers.
Beautiful and unbelievable, wonderful and frightening. A pleasure to read and a wonder to study.
Of related study is Anthony Burgess' Enderby Trilogy, where the novel and Hogg are assimilated; the execution of the novel is very much in tune with the madness of James Hogg's Confessions of a Justified Sinner.
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 begins instilling in young Robert the conviction that those who are predestined to eternal life cannot sin, and that the reprobate are to be despised: "To the wicked all things are wicked; but to the just, all things are just and right ... How delightful to think that a justified person can do no wrong."(p9)The first third of the book purports to be an unnamed editor's narrative, recounting the conflict between the two brothers, and the eventual murder of George under dubious and mysterious circumstances.
The mystery is uncovered in the remainder of the book, which contains the alleged first-hand account of young Robert's memoirs and confessions.(Warning: plot spoilers ahead) Here Hogg excels in painting a dark and supernatural portrait of the mind of Robert, as he is overcome by demonic powers.His father's teaching becomes the breeding ground for his twisted theology.Initially Robert is fearful of unchangeable rejection by God: "I lived in a hopeless and deplorable state of mind; for I said to myself, `If my name is not written in the book of life from all eternity, it is in vain for me to presume that either vows or prayers of mine, or those of all mankind combined, can ever procure its insertion now.'" (p69)Finally Robert's father claims to have received secret revelation giving assurance of election: "he embraced me, and welcomed me into the community of the just upon earth." The assurance of acceptance by God is understood by Robert to mean "that I was now a justified person, adopted among the number of God's children - my name written in the Lamb's book of life, and that no by-past transgression, nor any future act of my own, or of other men, could be instrumental in altering the decree." (p79)
From this point Robert's memoirs become "a relation of great and terrible actions, done in the might, and by the commission of heaven." (p.79) Under the tutelage of his father, Robert's mind is already open to religious bigotry: "Seeing that God had from all eternity decided the fate of every individual that was to be born of woman, how was it in man to endeavour to save those whom their Maker had, by an unchangeable decree, doomed to destruction." (p.85)His antinomian thinking is nurtured and encouraged by a mysterious nameless companion who enters Robert's life, and becomes his mentor and friend, and encourages Robert's notion that as one of the righteous his divinely-appointed mission and task is to destroy the wicked with the sword.The things that Robert's companion "strove most to inculcate on my mind were the infallibility of the elect, and the preordination of all things that come to pass."(p87).
Although Robert perceives his companion to be a great prince with many subjects, possibly even the Czar of Russia, it gradually becomes clear that it is in fact an incarnation of the Prince of Darkness, Satan, disguised as an angel of light.(A common interpretation that it is purely psychological figment of Robert's imagination, possibly even a multiple personality, is impossible because several individuals in the novel witness him as a physical presence alongside Robert, so clearly he exists outside Robert's mind.)Robert initially seems to question the fact that Gil-Martin - the name the mysterious stranger eventually gives himself - has the unearthly ability to take appearances of others, and that he refuses to pray (p88).His corrupting influence over Robert's mind increases, until Robert finds that he is unable to account for large amounts of time, and where he is accused of doing things about which he knows nothing.Slowly he becomes cognitive of the fact that Gil-Martin not only can present himself as another person (even Robert himself), but at times controls Robert totally by entering him.Robert first suggests that he has "two souls, which take possession of my bodily frame by turns" (p132) but Gil-Martin eventually presents the truth: "I am wedded to you so closely that I feel as if I were the same person.Our essences are one, our bodies and spirits being united ... and, wherever you are, there must my presence be with you."(p158).Not only does Gil-Martin incite Robert to murderous acts against others, but eventually even against his own life, certain that his divine fate is unchangeable, "for he has me fully convinced that no act of mine can mar the eternal counsel, or in the smallest degree alter or extenuate one event which was decreed before the foundations of the world were laid." (p164).Ironically, in his post-script remarks recounting the discovery of Robert's grave 100 years later, the unnamed editor (the book was originally published anonymously, and Hogg himself appears as one of the characters) suggests a different fate for Robert, since by the act of suicide he had "committed that act for which, according to the tenets he embraced, there was no remission, and which consigned his memory and his name to everlasting detestation."(p175).
-GODLY GADFLY (April 2002)
NB: for my analysis of this book, see my review (dated April 26, 2002) of ISBN#1590170253.
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 in spite of man's evil doing? Whether one is predestined or 'chooses good or evil' makes no difference in the end-what matters is who saves you from your own mortal destiny which is death. This story fails to show any unique theological and/or psychological perspective. I was dissatisfied with the author's far-fetched and anti-logical presentation of a doctrine he clearly did not understand.
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