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I encountered this novel in an intermediate composition class. The instructor of the course was apparently a Doctoral Candiate specializing in Narrative Form. To this day I have not forgiven her for making me read this incredibly ill-concieved book. While Hogg's shifting narrative may entertain those with a taste for narrative complexity, the resulting lack of clarity may prove this book to complete waste of time for anyone looking for a meaningful text.


As haunting and unusual as the events it describes   January 6, 2003
James Hogg's masterpiece, this strange and evocative study of the effects of Calvinist doctrine on the Scottish mind, has slowly edged its way into the canon in the last twenty years largely because it is first and foremost a rattling good read. Like all the great Scottish novelists from Walter Scott to Robert Louis Stevenson to Muriel Spark, Hogg was haunted by the dual promise of Edinburgh both as the refined cosmopolitan Renaissance home of Boswell as well as the fanatically religious city of John Knox. THE PRIVATE MEMOIRS is a response to that dual inheritance, and the novel is filled with doubles and dual structures: two brothers (born on two floors of the same house) vie for filial recognition; one brother duplicates himself when he is visited by a devil figure, Gil-Martin, in his exact semblance; and the story is told in two parts, and one of those is itself doubled. Although the Scots dialect in sections is a real chore to get through, the book is a marvelous frightening read nonetheless, and NYRB has wrapped it all up in a glorious cover featuring a famous Blake illustration. This isn't an easy ghost read, but it is tremendously repaying.


Analysis: A supernatural psychological thriller.   April 26, 2002
In recent times the genre of the psychological thriller has gained immense popularity. But it's a hardly a new art, as anyone familiar with Stevenson's famous Dr. Jekyll and Hyde will be aware. James Hogg's work does not enjoy the same legendary status as Stevenson's classic, but it is a worthy predecessor of its famous counterpart, anticipating it in many ways. In short it's very theological and psychological portrait of a man who is misled by the devil, evolving into a supernatural thriller. Published in 1824, it is widely regarded as the best work of the Scottish poet James Hogg (1770-1834).

It's a great script. The three-fold structure leaves open many questions about the interpretation of the novel, since the first and last part of the novel are supposed objective rational accounts of Wringhim's life by an unnamed editor, and yet the real truth of the murder mystery has to be elicited from Robert Wringhim's own irrational and subjective record of the same events (the middle section of the book). The structure of the narrative itself lends to the elusiveness of identifying the exact role of Gil-Martin as a doppelganger, an allegorical figure, a multiple personality, or an embodiment of Satan (this last being the most satisfying conclusion in my mind). In the end, it is still not clear who has really perpetuated the murders, and part of the brilliance of the novel is that it itself eludes a clear answer to the question "What happened?"

But it is not so much a murder mystery as it is a tale of the supernatural, and a deeply religious and psychological portrait of a madman. Some have regarded it as a satire on Calvinism, although it seems to me that shoe fits antinomianism rather better than Calvinism, because Calvinism maintains that assurance of election comes not through secret revelation, but through the fruits of election, which are a godly life. It could also be construed as a warning against intellectual arrogance, self-righteousness and hypocritical religious rationalism/fanaticism as embodied in Robert and his father. Certainly it is a deeply religious study in the deception of the evil one and the depravity of mankind, and chronicles a journey of human destruction.

But although one having a theological interest in these matters will gain greater enjoyment of the story, in the end it is just as much a psychological tale as it is a theological one. The occasional use of Scottish idiom by commoners in dialogue sometimes makes reading difficult, but on the whole this is a story accessible to anyone with an appreciation for a fine literary creation with a theological and psychological twist. It's a chilling classic that deserves more exposure than it has received.


The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner   April 16, 2002
This is one Excellent Book.


If you think you might want to read it, you should   January 8, 2002
I "accidentally" found this book while backpacking through Scotland and will freely admit that I bought it merely based on the book's title.

Of the many books I read during my time in Britain, this was by far my favorite, and I would recommend it to anyone either fascinated in with the occult or traveling in that region; this book, humorous in spots, also explores the depths of dementia and should exist in rank with Nietzsche and Dostoevsky etc.

Though this book is now considered a classic, at the time of its publication it was ill-received by the general public. Because of its unflattering depiction of pre-destination and perhaps Christian fundamentalism in general, many readers thought the work to be a side-affect of alcoholismon the part of the author. Nothing could be farther from the truth.