James Hogg's most famous novel is an unforgettable tale of mystery, murder, religious fanaticism, folklore, horror, and fantasy. Strikingly modern in style and tone, the intricate structure and eerie atmosphere of The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner makes it a favourite text for classroom study. Elaine Petrie's Scotnote carefully exposes and explains the numerous layers of this classic novel, and is ideal for senior school pupils and students.

Hogg was a superb letter-writer, and this is the second volume of the first collected edition of his letters (to be completed in three volumes). Many of the letters have never been published before, or published only in part. They vividly reflect Hogg's varied social experience and shed new light on his own writings and those of his contemporaries. Among his famous correspondents were writers such as Scott, Byron, and Southey, antiquarians such as Robert Surtees, politicians such as Sir Robert Peel, and editors and publishers such as John Murray, William Blackwood, and Robert Chambers. This volume begins with Hogg's preparations for marriage and ends with his taking ship for London for his first and only visit to the literary metropolis. During the intervening years he publishes some of his greatest works. Fighting debt, promoting tourism, maintaining his extensive literary and social circle in Scotland and in London, and writing prolifically, the Hogg of these letters is a Scottish cultural powerhouse.

A full editorial apparatus includes biographical notes on his chief correspondents and an overview of this phase of his life.

Key Features:

* The first ever edition of Hogg's letters to be published

* Includes many letters never previously published

* Features Hogg's correspondence with figures such as Sir Walter Scott, Lord Byron and Sir Robert Peel

Hogg was a superb letter-writer, and this is the initial volume of the first collected edition of his letters (to be completed in three volumes). Many of the letters have never been published before, or published only in part. They vividly reflect Hogg's varied social experience and shed new light on his own writings and those of his contemporaries. Among his famous correspondents were writers such as Scott, Byron, and Southey, antiquarians such as Robert Surtees, politicians such as Sir Robert Peel, and editors and publishers such as John Murray, William Blackwood, and Robert Chambers. But there are also letters to shepherds, farmers, aristocrats, musicians, young ladies, and bluestockings. Hogg first appears in this volume in 1800 as a young shepherd with literary ambitions, and becomes the famous author of The Queen's Wake (1813) and a key supporter of the early Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1817). Among the final letters it contains are some tender if idiosyncratic love-letters to the Dumfriesshire girl he married in 1820 at the mature age of forty-nine.Hogg's entertaining and informative letters are supplemented by detailed annotation and a full editorial apparatus, including biographical notes on his chief correspondents and a concise overview of this phase of his life. This edition of Hogg's Letters has its roots in the late 1970s and 1980s, when the four founder members of the James Hogg Society (Gillian Hughes, Douglas Mack, Robin MacLachlan, and Elaine Petrie) began work on tracing and transcribing Hogg's surviving letters. The major tasks of completing this work and preparing a full-scale edition of Hogg's Letters were subsequently passed to Gillian Hughes, who is now bringing this important research project to fruition. Key Features: * The first ever edition of Hogg's letters to be published * Includes many letters never previously published * Features Hogg's correspondence with figures such as Sir Walter Scott, Lord Byron and Sir Robert Peel