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The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
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The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, (Full title, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner: Written by Himself: With a detail of curious traditionary facts and other evidence by the editor) is a novel that was written by the Scottish author James Hogg and published anonymously (although his reputation was well established) in 1824.
Considered by turns part-gothic novel, part-psychological mystery, part-curio, part-metafiction, part-satire, part-case study of totalitarian thought, it can also be thought of as an early example of modern crime fiction in which the story is told, for the most part, from the point of view of its criminal anti-hero. The action of the novel is located in a historically definable Scotland with scientifically observed settings, and simultaneously infers a pseudo-Christian world of angels, devils, and demonic possession.
After its publication, the novel suffered from a period of critical neglect, especially in the nineteenth century, but since the latter part of the twentieth century has won greater critical interest and attention, perhaps most especially as a study of religious fanaticism through its deeply critical portrait of the Calvinist concept of predestination. It is written in Scottish English, with sections of Scots that appear mainly in dialogue.
Justified Sinner at its simplest contains the memoir of a young man, Robert Wringhim (or Wringham), who encounters a shape-shifting figure only ever identified as "Gil-Martin". This urbanely mephistophelian visitation — an early instance of the doppelganger in fiction — appears after Robert is declared by his "adopted" father to be one of the elect, and therefore a "soul" predestined to attain salvation. Although this invests Wringhim with a sense of infallible moral justification, he is at the same time tortured with self-doubt. Ostensibly co-erced by Gil-Martin (who the reader clearly sees exploiting these two mental states) Wringhim is led to commit a long series of offences, including multiple murders.
Wringhim's own account of the dark counsel of his visiting angel forces questions regarding how self-aware he may in fact be. But the novel's dilemmas are not merely psychological; as the narrative progresses, the material relation between Wringhim and Gil-Martin, and between Gil-Martin and the historical events of the story itself, become increasingly problematised.
Considered by turns part-gothic novel, part-psychological mystery, part-curio, part-metafiction, part-satire, part-case study of totalitarian thought, it can also be thought of as an early example of modern crime fiction in which the story is told, for the most part, from the point of view of its criminal anti-hero. The action of the novel is located in a historically definable Scotland with scientifically observed settings, and simultaneously infers a pseudo-Christian world of angels, devils, and demonic possession.
After its publication, the novel suffered from a period of critical neglect, especially in the nineteenth century, but since the latter part of the twentieth century has won greater critical interest and attention, perhaps most especially as a study of religious fanaticism through its deeply critical portrait of the Calvinist concept of predestination. It is written in Scottish English, with sections of Scots that appear mainly in dialogue.
Justified Sinner at its simplest contains the memoir of a young man, Robert Wringhim (or Wringham), who encounters a shape-shifting figure only ever identified as "Gil-Martin". This urbanely mephistophelian visitation — an early instance of the doppelganger in fiction — appears after Robert is declared by his "adopted" father to be one of the elect, and therefore a "soul" predestined to attain salvation. Although this invests Wringhim with a sense of infallible moral justification, he is at the same time tortured with self-doubt. Ostensibly co-erced by Gil-Martin (who the reader clearly sees exploiting these two mental states) Wringhim is led to commit a long series of offences, including multiple murders.
Wringhim's own account of the dark counsel of his visiting angel forces questions regarding how self-aware he may in fact be. But the novel's dilemmas are not merely psychological; as the narrative progresses, the material relation between Wringhim and Gil-Martin, and between Gil-Martin and the historical events of the story itself, become increasingly problematised.
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