The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1824

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

The Editor’s Narrative, Part 1

Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Sinner, Part 1

Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Sinner, Part 2

The Editor’s Narrative, Part 2

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The Editor’s Narrative, Part 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses

The Editor’s Narrative, Part 2 Summary

The editor resumes the narrative of the novel, reflecting on Robert’s memoirs. These memories could have been intended as a warning to others against the “dreadful danger of self-righteousness” (178). As part of this discussion, the editor presents a letter from 1823. The letter is signed James Hogg (author of The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner). In the letter, Hogg writes about the discovery of “the grave of a suicide” (179). Stones near the grave indicate that the body inside belonged to a suicide victim who resembles Robert’s description. According to records, the grave belonged to a largely anonymous cowherd whose body was found hanging in a strange way. Local rumors associated the cowherd with devil worship, as the rope seemed too brittle and the arrangement of the hanging too complex to be the work of just one man. A century after death, the cowherd’s body was dug up. Still, the flesh and clothes had not rotted; the body remained “quite soft and fleshy” (181). Hogg included a scrap of fabric—supposedly taken from the grave—with the letter as proof of this.

Seeking more information about the story, the editor visits Hogg and talks to locals about the history of the cowherd. Hogg seems unwilling to discuss the matter, so the editor tracks down the graves. Again, the body is dug up. This time, however, the uncovered flesh and clothing have rotted. When a different part of the grave is dug up—a part that was not previously exhumed—the editor sees that the flesh and clothing are still intact. The editor takes strips of clothing as evidence, then finds the “printed pamphlet” (187) protectively placed inside a chamois leather casing in the corpse’s pocket. The pamphlet, the locals suggest, may have caused the seemingly magical preservation of the man’s flesh and clothing. The editor reads the pamphlet, Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, and chooses to include the entire memoir in his book, even though he believes the events described therein could not have happened. The editor believes that the author of Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner must have been a fool, a wretch, and a “religious maniac” (189) who died by suicide to escape some terrible tormentor.

The Editor’s Narrative, Part 2 Analysis

After the dramatic end to Robert’s confessions, the resumption of the editor’s narrative is a marked disruption in style and tone. Rather than try to explain or dispute Robert’s account, the editor details the processes by which Robert’s memoirs reached the public. By reverting to a discussion of technique and provenance, the editor is essentially admitting to having no idea about what truly happened to Robert. This sentiment is reinforced in the closing lines of the novel, in which the editor calls on the audience to make up their own minds about the truth of Robert’s story. Importantly, these dueling narratives play on the idea of duality in the novel. Throughout, many characters, actions, and ideas are Doubled. Robert and his brother are each raised by one half of a broken marriage, for example, and they are raised on the competing sides of the dichotomy of contemporary Scottish religious politics. The truth must be extracted from the disputed space in the middle of the two stories. Robert’s feverish confession and the editor’s measured investigation provide the audience with two version of the story, a thesis and an antithesis. The audience, the editor suggests, should reach their own synthesized version of events because defining the objective reality of the past is, the editor admits, impossible.

The resumption of the editor’s narrative also introduces one of the novels stranger flourishes. The editor presents a letter, supposedly written by a character named James Hogg. 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 written by an actual man named James Hogg, who subtly pokes fun at his own reputation by having his character, the editor, cast doubt on the trustworthiness of this James Hogg. The editor’s mention of James Hogg’s letter is an example of metafiction, an ironic play on the audience’s knowledge that the book itself was written by James Hogg. In a novel with competing narrators, both of which have reasons why they should be doubted, even the writer of the book itself cannot be trusted, the editor suggests. Hogg plays on his own identity, appearing as a character in his own narrative and—importantly—appearing as someone who might not have the purest of intentions. Robert’s confession, the editor’s narrative, and Hogg’s entire novel exist on the same spectrum of unreliability. Ironically, for a novel about a man who is utterly sure of his own righteousness, nothing in the book can be entirely trusted, not even the author himself.