An important unbowdlerised edition of Hogg’s great work, the first uncensored edition to appear since the notoriously rare first edition published in 1824.
Hogg’s works were heavily bowdlerized during the nineteenth century, offering a ‘bland and lifeless version of Hogg’s writings. It was in this version that he was read by the Victorians, and unsurprisingly he came to be regarded as a minor figure, of no great importance or interest’ (ODNB). This important unbowdlerised version of the text predates the modern revival of interest in Hogg’s writings.
The story is presented as a ‘found document’, dug up from the grave of the protagonist Robert Wringhim. The story’s most supernatural element is the ‘demonic doppelganger’ who shadows Robert. The boundaries between the two characters blur as the story progresses, suggesting that the doppelganger is perhaps a reflection of Robert’s ‘darker side’. The book stands as an interesting early use of this gothic trope written just over sixty years before Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous representation of the theme of ‘man’s double being’.
Heavy spotting and offsetting to endpapers with some scattered foxing continuing to outer leaves, contents otherwise generally clean, cloth only slightly marked, minor shelf wear to extremities, spine toned, notwithstanding a really excellent copy.
