"I was born an outcast in the world, in which I was destined to act so conspicuous a part. My mother was a burning and a shining light. But she was married to a man all over spotted with the leprosy of sin. She fled from his embraces the first night after their marriage. . . ." James Hogg wrote about the supernatural powerfully and convincingly, especially in his best-known novel, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, published in 1824; it has been called "the greatest of all Scottish novels."

Author Biography

James Hogg (1770 - 1835) was a Scottish poet, novelist and essayist who wrote in both Scots and English. As a young man he worked as a shepherd and farmhand and was largely self-educated through reading. He was a friend of many of the great writers of his day, including Sir Walter Scott, of whom he later wrote an unauthorized biography. He became widely known as the "Ettrick Shepherd," a nickname under which some of his works were published and the character name he was given in the widely read series Noctes Ambrosianae, published in Blackwood's Magazine. He is best known today for his novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. His other works include the long poem The Queen's Wake (1813), his collection of songs Jacobite Reliques (1819) and his two novels The Three Perils of Man (1822), and The Three Perils of Woman (1823).