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Indiana University Studies 



most brilliant success is the Fanatic, who, however, is rather 

 a man insane than a human being. Hogg did, however, excel 

 in the short character sketch. His bold outline pictures of 

 from a single paragraph to a few pages cannot be excelled. 

 In a few significant sentences he places before one the outline 

 of a person, so vivid and individual, that he could be recog- 

 nized in a crowd. Hogg's failure lies in the fact that, in gen- 

 eral, his characters remain sketches to the end. They do not 

 grow. He goes over and over the same outline; and at the 

 end of the tale one knows the dramatis personae little better 

 than he did at the end of the first chapter. 



A few words may be said concerning the more notable of 

 Hogg's works. Just why The Brownie of Bodsbeck should 

 challenge comparison with Old Mortality is not apparent to 

 the present writer. They are both tales of Covenanter per- 

 secution, and Claverhouse appears in each. Beyond this, how- 

 ever, there is no resemblance; in fact, in every other respect 

 the two books are different. Soon after the Brownie was 

 written Hogg called upon Scott; and the Shepherd relates in 

 his Autobiography how he found Scott with lowering brow 

 and in an ill-temper about the book. Several writers have 

 attributed Scott's ill-temper to the fact that Hogg had en- 

 croached too closely upon his, Scott's, especial field of histori- 

 cal fiction. Such a notion, however, is wholly erroneous. 

 Scott was a royalist in all his feelings and he drew the great 

 Graham as a stern and relentless warrior but as a thoro gen- 

 tleman. Hogg, on the other hand, portrays Clavers (he never 

 uses a more respectful term) as a despicable brute, utterly 

 without any trace of justice or humanity. It was for this 

 view of the man's character that Scott's brow lowered and 

 that he took the Shepherd to task. 



The differences between the books are manifold. The 

 Brownie is short in comparison with Old Mortality. It is not 

 a tale, rounded out with many interests, various groups of 

 characters, and an entertaining love story such as is found in 

 Old Mortality. The Brotvnie is more like a modern short 

 story, dealing with one group of peasant people, and almost 

 with a single situation. Claverhouse alone is drawn from a 

 different life and personally he is one of the minor characters. 

 The story deals with the effects of his one brutal appearance. 



This has been called the best story written about the 

 Covenanters, and is certainly the best known of Hogg's stories. 



