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A collection of three chilling classic novels, the Scottish Gothic bundle make ideal reading for long wintry nights . . .
The Private Memoirs & Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg
Set in Scotland at the beginning of the 18th century, the anti-hero Robert Wringhim, commits a series of murders under the influence of a mysterious stranger who may or may not be the devil. The novel is divided into three parts: a factual summary by the editor, Wringhim’s confession, and the subsequent discovery of Wringhim’s body and the shocking confessions buried with him. Hogg presents a powerful picture of evil in this controversial masterpiece of Scottish fiction. The novel offers no easy or definitive answers and the reader will be left to wonder whether Robert Wringhim was indeed visited by the devil or if he imagined the whole thing.
The City of Dreadful Night by James Thomson
Written as a long poem, Thomson’s dark and sombre work captures the pessimism and ultimately the horror of the city as a place of alienation, loneliness and despair. Its surrealism was well ahead of its time. Parallels can be drawn with T. S Eliot’s The Wasteland and Lanark by Alasdair Gray. The work is dark, but Thomson’s vivid imagery and writing offer glimpses of beauty through bleakness.
A Beleaguered City by Margaret Oliphant
Set in the Bourgogne region of France, this darkly powerful Gothic fantasy recounts the events that unfold when a city is besieged by the returning dead. The citizens are driven outside their walls when the dead invade their city, reminding the people of the importance of spirituality and faith over material things. A Beleaguered City
is seen as significant in the histories of both science fiction and fantasy writing, as it employs techniques of speculative fiction to examine issues that had traditionally been in the realm of religion.