The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (James Hogg)

Set in Scotland in the early 1700s, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner features a man who has taken Calvinist doctrine to the extreme, with horrific consequences.  Calvinist teachings hold that a man is justified based not on man's works, but entirely on God's grace.  In the story, the main character takes that one step too far, and draws an erroneous conclusion: since our justification in Christ is complete, nothing we do can be thought of as wrong.  The man is then visited by a mysterious stranger (rather obviously Satan), who builds on this idea and puts him on the path of becoming a murderer "in the name of God."  He kills several people, to include his own brother.  His (unknowingly) Satanic dealings eventually destroy his life, and he ends up passing away shortly after some of his worst crimes.  He keeps a journal about his experiences, which is found on his corpse about a century later.

The author of Confessions learns this story and reconstructs it based on the journal.  He tells it in a novel way- first, he presents a reconstruction of the events; then, he presents the journal in its original form; finally, he tells the reader how he came by the journal in the first place.  As the introduction says, "The whole book is, in a sense, written backwards."

How was it?  Overall, I thought it was great.  I see elements in here similar to Crime and Punishment- this idea that maybe you can commit crimes for good reasons (though that never seems to work out for good, in either story).  I also saw a general gothic fiction undertone to the novel- the psychological terror of Satan's manipulations (and how the man twisted it to fit it into God's purposes, or what he thought were God's purposes) is top-notch.  Good stuff overall- an appropriate cautionary tale.

Though it was good, at times, it was a hard read for several reasons:
1) A knowledge of the history of the time period is certainly necessary for full understanding; the version I read includes many footnotes to aid comprehension.
2) Knowledge of Calvinist doctrine is also required; again, footnotes assist, but first-hand knowledge is better.
3) It's very hard to read when the author reproduces a conversation in "proper Scottish"- it may as well be another language (and, indeed, some of the footnotes 'translate' into something we understand).

Overall, I recommend this.  I'll end with a quote from the novel, that I feel perfectly captures the point:
"Religion is a sublime and glorious thing, the bonds of society on earth, and the connector of humanity with the Divine nature; but there is nothing so dangerous to man as the wresting of any of its principles, or forcing them beyond their due bounds: this is of all others the readiest way to destruction.  Neither is there anything so easily done.  There is not an error into which a man can fall which he may not press Scripture into his service as proof of the probity of . . ."

Rating: A-