The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner

Robert Wringhim, raised in a severe Calvinist household, comes to believe he is among the elect, saved for heaven no matter what he does on earth. A charming stranger named Gil-Martin feeds that conviction until Robert accepts that murdering the damned is holy work. James Hogg tells the story twice, first as a detached editor’s history and then in Robert’s own confession, leaving the reader to decide whether Gil-Martin is a flesh-and-blood man, the Devil, or a projection of a mind coming apart. Published in 1824, this Scottish gothic novel dissects religious fanaticism and psychological doubling with a strangeness that took nearly a century to be understood. Available free as a PDF and EPUB edition.