Peter D. Garside, Cardiff University.
"Hunter's introduction is well-informed in terms both of the novel's intellectual context and current critical approaches..."


SIMON KÖVESI, University of Dundee
"Hunter's edition of Hogg's Confessions is simply the best paperback edition currently available."


Duncan Wu, St. Catherine's College, Oxford University.
"Adrian Hunter's thorough introduction and detailed annotations make this an essential edition for all students of Hogg's great novel."


Peter D. Garside, Cardiff University.
"Especially valuable are the volume's appendices, with their well-chosen selections from earlier and contemporary writings..."


Book Description
Set in early eighteenth-century Scotland, Hogg’s masterpiece is a brilliant, and grimly humorous study of religious fanaticism and the power of evil. The first section of this two-part novel is the work of a putative editor. His narrative relates details of the Lord of Dalcastle’s private life, and suggests that his half-brother, a Calvinist fanatic by the name of Robert Wringhim who seems to have killed himself, may have been involved in the murder of Dalcastle’s son. The second part of the novel consists of Wringhim’s private memoir, disinterred from his grave. In this memoir, Wringhim tells a psychologically intricate tale about a sinister companion who has apparently led him to commit a series of shocking murders. However, there is a suggestion of the supernatural, and the extraordinary structure of the novel leaves the reader uncertain as to the identity, or even the existence, of the criminal. This edition of The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner places the work within the context of Calvinism, Scottish political and constitutional history, and early psychological theories of "double consciousness." A wide-ranging introduction discusses the novel in relation to its setting as well as to the period in which it was composed.


From the Publisher
The Broadview Literary Texts series is an effort to represent the ever-changing canon of literature in English by bringing together texts long regarded as classics with valuable, lesser-known literature. Newly type-set and produced on high-quality paper in trade paperback format, the Broadview Literary Texts series is a delight to handle as well as to read. Each volume includes a full introduction, chronology, bibliography, and explanatory notes along with a variety of documents from the period, giving readers a rich sense of the world from which the work emerged.

FROM THE PUBLISHER