Justified Sinner - Hogg’s Modern Masterpiece at 200
July 12 2024 marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of James Hogg’s novel “The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner”. Hogg was known as The Ettrick Shepherd, though history remembers him as a great author and poet with “Justified Sinner” being universally acknowledged as his masterpiece. Published anonymously, it is a remarkably modern book for something 200 years old. The plot focuses on Robert Wringham (The Sinner of the title), whose belief in Calvinist doctrine, fed to him by his mother and stoked by the shadowy figure of Gil-Martin, enables him to sin, and even kill, safe in the knowledge that his extreme Presbyterian belief will lend him salvation. It is a simplistic world view familiar to us in the 21st century, where religious extremism still exists in many forms. The book is dark, grim and paints a picture of the tortured land Scotland was in the 17th century. What surprised me on reading it first however was how funny it was, Hogg has a great gift for satire and particularly in minor characters this does lead to some much needed light relief. The novel is primarily in English, but does include Scots, and you are left in no doubt whatsoever that this is a deeply Scottish novel.
The story is told in two parts, first the account of a pretty pompous (and anonymous) editor and then Wringham’s account himself, with the Editor returning from a postscript. I love this device, the subtle (and not so subtle) differences between the accounts pre dating Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Rashomon’ or Agatha Christie’s ‘Five Little Pigs’ by a century or more. We also have not one but two unreliable narrators, the book is presented as a found manuscript, it’s a puzzle mystery, psychological thriller and so much more. It is little wonder to me that the book was a flop on release, with less than 1,000 sales in its first year - James Hogg had written a dazzlingly modern book, which feels ahead of its time. Sections left me breathless the first time I read the book, with a bizarre and haunting chase on Arthur’s Seat in particular staying long in the memory. I had to confess to only coming to the book through Hogg’s connections with Innerleithen and The Borders, but I am so glad I did. I have since read it again (and listened to the excellent Naxos Audiobook, which cleverly also uses two narrators) and find that each time I am left suitably wrung out by Hogg’s astonishingly powerful book.
“Hogg’s enduring masterpiece is a triumph and deserves to be read, enjoyed and discussed by a new generation”
I strongly suspect that most people reading this blog will not have read this book - my recommendation to you is you must give it a go, it may be 200 years old, and at times a bit tricky, but please go with it in the knowledge that Hogg is a first class storyteller. His mother Margaret was a fine purveyor of Border Ballads (see my recent Walter Scott blog to learn more about her), and his grandfather Will O’Phaup claims to be the last man in The Borders to see the fairies. That’s the tradition Hogg comes from, with stories, and indeed different forms of storytelling, fuelling him.
An exhibition celebrating the 200th anniversary of the novel , and year long programme of events, is currently running at Sir Walter Scott’s Courtoom in Selkirk - click here for more information
Edinburgh International Book Festival presents a series of events this August to celebrate the bicentenary - click here for more information
