SOURCE: Groves, David. “Other Prose Writings of James Hogg in Relation to A Justified Sinner.” Studies in Scottish Literature 20 (1985): 262-66.

In the following essay, Groves emphasizes the theme of Christian moderation in Hogg's writing, concluding that neither of the narrators in The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner entirely represent the author's own beliefs.

One controversy surrounding James Hogg's A Justified Sinner is the extent to which the antithetical attitudes of the two narrators reflect the attitude of the author himself. A review of other works in which Hogg develops the theme of duality against a similar theological background may help to clarify this position.

The Brownie of Bodsbeck, a novel published in 1818 (six years before A Justified Sinner), is set in 1685, when Royalist forces led by Claverhouse attempted to impose episcopacy in the Scottish lowlands. The protagonist, Walter Laidlaw, is a moderate who risks his...