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Loading... Confessions of a Justified Sinner (Everyman's Library Classics & Contemporary Classics) (original 1824; edition 1992)by James Hogg
Work InformationThe Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg (1824)
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Not sure I got much from this. Repeating the story from two perspectives and the epilogue which seems to lampshade the idea that the author was going out of their way to be confusing in terms of plot, character and theme left me none the wiser. Read it because Ian Rankin stated his "The Black Book" owed something to this work but I'm afraid I didn't see it. Despite the pretend double-bluff contained within I'm going to go with the critique of Calvinism interpretation. It probably dates me that what I first thought a few chapters in wasn't Jekyll and Hyde but Fight Club. As for the name Gil Martin, it occurs to me that it's phonetically close to God Almighty which would makes sense seeing as he's created by the protagonist and to him that's what he appears to be. Beyond being ahead of its time it's not that exceptional but I really enjoyed it - I liked the multiple angles (both in the context of narration and interpretation). no reviews | add a review
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Classic Literature.
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HTML: In James Hogg 1824 novel Confessions of a Justified Sinner, a young man named Robert Wringhim, or sometimes Wringham, encounters a shape-shifting devil. Robert is told that he is one of a small group of people predestined for salvation, and this doppelganger demon convinces him to commit murder and other crimes. Part Gothic novel, part case study in psychology, this is a probing quest into a world of angels and demons, predestiny and fanaticism. .No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.7Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Early 19th century 1800-37LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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It's a good read, but the problem is that it doesn't really go further than what you'd get from the blurb. Especially once you get to the memoir itself, you've already read "the plot" so to speak and the first person perspective is just him saying "I am part of the elect, wow this is so great" and
A strange thing is that the narrative forces you to accept the reality of the supernatural events depicted in the main.
None of these fit in obvious ways with the behaviour of Gil-Martin in the rest of the book and the meaning is lost on me. Gil-Martin in the murders of the pastor and Robert's brother is obviously ensuring that Robert takes 100% of the responsibility (although Gil-Martin also appears to have murdered a judge by himself?) Yet on the memory lapses and the murders he's strangely vague. It feels like a lot more sinning went on and yet we're not only not privy to it but even the Devil doesn't goad him about it. I feel there was stuff going on in the ending that just passed me by
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