The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner: (The Stirling / South Carolina Research Edition of the Collected Works of James Hogg)

In the 1920s, the eminent French novelist and critic Andre Gide was given a copy of James Hogg's neglected masterpiece, "The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner" (a824), and went on to record how he had read "this astounding book with a stupefaction and admiration that increased at every page". Many readers have subsequently shared Gide's enthusiasm, and the text is novel widely recognized as one of the outstanding British novels of the Romantic era. This edition aims to increase our understanding of undetected references. It also throws light on the remarkable story of the novel's genesis, while providing the first full and accessible charting of its diverse cultural, theological, geographical and historical contexts.

About the Author :
James Hogg was a Scottish poet, novelist and essayist who wrote in both Scots and English. He is best known for his novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. Ian Campbell is Professor of Scottish and Victorian Literature at the University of Edinburgh and editor of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's The Speak of the Mearns and Spartacus. Peter Garside was educated at Cambridge and Harvard Universities and taught English Literature for more than thirty years at Cardiff University, where he became Professor of English and Director of the Centre for Editorial and Intertextual Research. Subsequently he was appointed Professor of Bibliography and Textual Studies at the University of Edinburgh, where he is now a Professorial Fellow. He was one of the general editors of the bibliographical survey The English Novel 1770-1829 (2000) and has since co-edited the critical collection English and British Fiction 1750-1820 (2015). More recent work includes editions of Walter Scott’s Shorter Poems (2020) and J. G. Lockhart’s Peter’s Letters to His Kinsfolk (2 volumes, 2022).

Review :
This is the most reliable text we have, and until the manuscript is found it is the best text we shall ever have … Peter Garside's annotation is magnificent: it is full, it helps the reader, and it illuminates the text …This truly is a great novel, and at last we have an edition worthy of it. This is the most reliable text we have, and until the manuscript is found it is the best text we shall ever have… Peter Garside's annotation is magnificent: it is full, it helps the reader, and it illuminates the text…This truly is a great novel, and at last we have an edition worthy of it.