Set in early eighteenth-century Scotland, Hogg’s masterpiece is a brilliant, and grimly humorous study of religious fanaticism and the power of evil. The first section of this two-part novel is the work of a putative editor. His narrative relates details of the Lord of Dalcastle’s private life, and suggests that his half-brother, a Calvinist fanatic by the name of Robert Wringhim who seems to have killed himself, may have been involved in the murder of Dalcastle’s son. The second part of the novel consists of Wringhim’s private memoir, disinterred from his grave. In this memoir, Wringhim tells a psychologically intricate tale about a sinister companion who has apparently led him to commit a series of shocking murders. However, there is a suggestion of the supernatural, and the extraordinary structure of the novel leaves the reader uncertain as to the identity, or even the existence, of the criminal.

This edition of The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner places the work within the context of Calvinism, Scottish political and constitutional history, and early psychological theories of "double consciousness." A wide-ranging introduction discusses the novel in relation to its setting as well as to the period in which it was composed.