The two halves taken together make up one of the most strikingly original novels in the English language. He tells of falling under the influence of a shape-shifting being thought variously to be his doppelgänger, the Devil, and the Czar of Russia. The second half of the book, presented as the "Private Memoirs and Confessions" of Robert, retells the same narrative but from the point of view of the zealous brother. This section of the tale, narrated by the aforementioned "editor", is gothic and strange, but nevertheless holds true to reality. Robert insists on following George around and tormenting him, until eventually George dies in mysterious circumstances. Even in its more-vulgar examples, however, Gothic fiction can symbolically address serious political and psychological issues. James Hogg’s The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824) is a subtle study of religious mania and split personality. The two don’t meet in childhood, but attend the same university. In English literature: The novel: from the Gothic novel to Austen and Scott. Two brothers grow up raised by different men: George becomes a nice, rounded young man untroubled by serious intellect, Robert grows into fiercely intelligent and fervently religious Calvinist. An early example of both crime writing and metafiction, Justified Sinner was sorely neglected for a century until the French writer André Gide got his hands on a copy and declared it a masterpiece.
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