One of Hogg's longest and also one of his most original and daring works, presented here in a scholarly edition in light of the discovery of the original manuscript.

James Hogg, a Scottish writer, was the founder of the psychological novel. He perfectly understood the notions of dream and reality, the danger of the voyage in "Nancy Chilshom", the world of the illusions, the lure, madness and strangeness towards the reality of the tragedy, the kingdom of the fairies, death, the finality of art, the supernatural, the Devil and sorcery in Scotland, the Scotland-England couple: the female nation and the male devastator, the carnival of the masks and the reality of his Masonic initiation at the end of his life.

Responding to the resurgence of interest in the Scottish working-class writer James Hogg, Sharon Alker and Holly Faith Nelson offer the first edited collection devoted to an examination of the critical implications of his writings and their position in the Edinburgh and London literary marketplaces. Writing during a particularly complex time in Scottish literary history, Hogg, a working shepherd for much of his life, is seen to challenge many of the aesthetic conventions adopted by his contemporaries and to anticipate many of the concerns voiced in discussions of literature in recent years. While the essays privilege Hogg's primary texts and read them closely in their immediate cultural context, the volume's contributors also introduce relevant research on oral culture, nationalism, transnationalism, intertextuality, class, colonialism, empire, psychology, and aesthetics where they serve to illuminate Hogg's literary ingenuity as a working-class writer in Romantic Scotland.

A unique introduction, guide and reference work for students and readers of Scottish literature from the pre-medieval period.