In the Footsteps of a Justified Sinner: Exploring James Hogg's Scotland

FREE Event

This is a live, in-person event.

Location: The Edinburgh Bookshop, 176 Bruntsfield Pl

To celebrate the bicentenary of James Hogg's Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, we are hosting a special event in the bookshop on exploring Hogg's portrayal of Scotland with local experts, Alasdair and Peter Thanisch.

Alasdair and Peter will talk about the locations referred to in the novel (with the action reaching our very own Bruntsfield Links), as well as the way the book has been viewed by the literati in the last 200 years, and why the book is still relevant today.

BONUS FOR ATTENDEES

Attendees will be able to have free access to the newly updated version of Alasdair and Peter's travel guide, written to accompany the novel!

The talk will also include some words of advice for anyone planning to do something similar for their favourite novel.

About James Hogg's book

It is Scotland in the early eighteenth century. Fear and superstition grip the land. Robert Wringhim, a boy of strict Calvinist upbringing, is corrupted by a shadowy figure who calls himself Gil-Martin.

Under his influence Robert commits a series of murders which he regards as 'justified' by God under the tenets of his faith. Hogg's masterpiece is a brilliant portrayal of the power of evil and how the language of religion can be distorted to serve fanaticism. Superbly crafted and deftly executed, it resists any easy explanation of events: is this stranger a figment of Robert's imagination, or the devil himself?

A note from our speakers:

Hogg's novel polarises readers. Robert is so obnoxious that, for many readers, he's a turn-off. To make matters worse, Hogg confronts us with a clutch of apparently contradictory unreliable narrators. To its admirers, however, this two hundred year old novel seems "both older – as uncanny as folklore – and newer, an example of pre-modernist post-modernism".

Hogg was at least quite precise about geography, and that was what prompted us to write a travel guide to accompany the Justified Sinner - as he commits each of the seven deadly sins in turn and then treks across Scotland, trying to shake off his uncanny friend, Gil-Martin. As we do this, we hope to win over the Robert-haters by positioning him in Scottish church history and, with Halloween approaching, we shall position Gil-Martin in Scottish folklore.

About our speakers

Alasdair and Peter Thanisch have published papers on Justified Sinner in the journal, James Hogg and His World, and have contributed several posts to the James Hogg blog (https://jameshoggblog.blogspot.com). They have also given presentations on the novel at conferences in Germany, Canada and Scotland.