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Canongate Classics #5
The Three Perils of Man
The Three Perils of Man is regarded as Hogg's most ambitious work of fiction. The book's extraordinary combination of the fantastic, the funny, the serious, and the historically realistic must be unique in literature. The adventures of its characters, told with the author's characteristically bold simplicity, are many, mad, and breathtakingly fast. Ranging from Galloway to Northumberland, the main focus of the book is to be found in the Scottish Borders.
Hogg knew and loved the Borders well, and the book is full of their oral tradition and local lore. In his attempt to synthesize this material with history, romance, and the high literary ideals of his time, Hogg's nearest modern parallels would be a combination of Tolkien and Iain Banks. Hogg's fusion of traditional folklore and innovative style was viewed as an anachronism by his contemporaries, and it is only now that his work is recognized as one of the most original and masterly in the Scottish canon.
Edited and introduced by Douglas Gifford.
Hogg knew and loved the Borders well, and the book is full of their oral tradition and local lore. In his attempt to synthesize this material with history, romance, and the high literary ideals of his time, Hogg's nearest modern parallels would be a combination of Tolkien and Iain Banks. Hogg's fusion of traditional folklore and innovative style was viewed as an anachronism by his contemporaries, and it is only now that his work is recognized as one of the most original and masterly in the Scottish canon.
Edited and introduced by Douglas Gifford.
556 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1822
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284 people want to read
About the author
James Hogg
883 books118 followersJames Hogg was a Scottish poet, novelist and essayist who wrote in Scots and English. As a young man he worked as a shepherd and farmhand, and was largely self-educated through reading. He was a friend of many of the great writers of his day, including Sir Walter Scott, of whom he later wrote an unauthorized biography. He became widely known as the "Ettrick Shepherd", a nickname under which some of his works were published, and the character name he was given in the widely read series 'Noctes Ambrosianae', published in Blackwood's Magazine. He is best known today for his novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. His other works include the long poem The Queen's Wake, his collection of songs Jacobite Reliques, and the novels The Three Perils of Man, The Three Perils of Woman, and The Brownie of Bodsbeck.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 10, 2013
This is a curious book and not a particularly easy one to read. I have to confess that I actually gave up on it at one point, after struggling through a passage of particularly dense and impenetrable (to me) Scottish dialect, and I only picked it up again when I found myself on a trip without anything else very inspiring to read.
I’m glad I persisted with it after that, though. It’s an interesting work from a literary-historical point of view—so much so that I’m half-resolved to read Ian Duncan’s Scott's Shadow: The Novel in Romantic Edinburgh to understand a little more of the context. It’s also intermittently enjoyable and sometimes quite striking. After finishing it, I could understand why it is seen as a minor classic (though I did feel Hogg could have done with an editor at points). It’s a surprising and distinctive and genial work—a byway in literary history, but quite a fun one to wander down, if you have enough time on your hands.
Part of the oddness of the work (which Hogg quite rightly termed a romance, rather than a novel) lies in its structure. It begins and ends by telling a historical, or semi-historical, tale, of a medieval siege conducted by the Scots against the English garrison of the border castle of Roxburgh. This comes with some absurd and satirically treated chivalric trappings; the leader of the English has been challenged to hold the castle by his lady love, while the leader of the Scots is fighting for the hand of a princess, etc., etc.
Thinly connected to this apparent main plot is a long central episode in which a motley band of lowland Scots lairdlings and their companions are imprisoned in the castle of the legendary wizard Michael Scot, and submitted to all kinds of devilry. A Thousand and One Nights-style subepisode within this episode has the party locked on a rooftop without food or water. Fearing that they may need to sacrifice one of their number to feed the others, they embark on a story-telling competition with the role of cannibalistic victim as the “prize” for the loser.
I lost patience at points during this story-within-a-story portion, but it must be said that the whole wizardry passage has a certain mad charm. My favourite moment was when an eccentric friar character, who speaks in a splendidly luxuriant mock-biblical idiom, turned out to be none other than the philosopher Roger Bacon. For a moment at that point, I felt that literally anything could happen—quite a nice feeling to have occasionally while reading a novel.
Hogg published this strange farrago in 1822, when Scott had already published several of his most famous novels (Waverley dates from 1814). It’s not difficult to see why the reception of The Three Perils was not wholly positive. It reads as very archaic compared with Scott (who sometimes reads as pretty archaic himself). Modern critics, from what I have gathered, try to resurrect Hogg’s romance as an anti-rationalist gesture and a statement of commitment to the ancient folkloric culture with which Hogg—who started life as a shepherd—had grown up.
I’m glad I persisted with it after that, though. It’s an interesting work from a literary-historical point of view—so much so that I’m half-resolved to read Ian Duncan’s Scott's Shadow: The Novel in Romantic Edinburgh to understand a little more of the context. It’s also intermittently enjoyable and sometimes quite striking. After finishing it, I could understand why it is seen as a minor classic (though I did feel Hogg could have done with an editor at points). It’s a surprising and distinctive and genial work—a byway in literary history, but quite a fun one to wander down, if you have enough time on your hands.
Part of the oddness of the work (which Hogg quite rightly termed a romance, rather than a novel) lies in its structure. It begins and ends by telling a historical, or semi-historical, tale, of a medieval siege conducted by the Scots against the English garrison of the border castle of Roxburgh. This comes with some absurd and satirically treated chivalric trappings; the leader of the English has been challenged to hold the castle by his lady love, while the leader of the Scots is fighting for the hand of a princess, etc., etc.
Thinly connected to this apparent main plot is a long central episode in which a motley band of lowland Scots lairdlings and their companions are imprisoned in the castle of the legendary wizard Michael Scot, and submitted to all kinds of devilry. A Thousand and One Nights-style subepisode within this episode has the party locked on a rooftop without food or water. Fearing that they may need to sacrifice one of their number to feed the others, they embark on a story-telling competition with the role of cannibalistic victim as the “prize” for the loser.
I lost patience at points during this story-within-a-story portion, but it must be said that the whole wizardry passage has a certain mad charm. My favourite moment was when an eccentric friar character, who speaks in a splendidly luxuriant mock-biblical idiom, turned out to be none other than the philosopher Roger Bacon. For a moment at that point, I felt that literally anything could happen—quite a nice feeling to have occasionally while reading a novel.
Hogg published this strange farrago in 1822, when Scott had already published several of his most famous novels (Waverley dates from 1814). It’s not difficult to see why the reception of The Three Perils was not wholly positive. It reads as very archaic compared with Scott (who sometimes reads as pretty archaic himself). Modern critics, from what I have gathered, try to resurrect Hogg’s romance as an anti-rationalist gesture and a statement of commitment to the ancient folkloric culture with which Hogg—who started life as a shepherd—had grown up.
September 12, 2014
A strange animal, and perhaps only for those who want to explore the lesser-known lanes of 19thC Fantastic fiction. If it’s Gothic it’s a very Scottish sort; the Devil in person tramps about these pages, and Michael Scot, the famous wizard, tests himself against Roger Bacon, polymath (who also features in The Brazen Head, which is as peculiar a book).
He’s a cheeky writer who cobbles a story together from disparate elements and laughs at himself for his rambling plot. Any complaints you have are forestalled by the heckles of the listeners when they sit around telling Canterbury tales. I enjoy this sense of fun.
Strongest for me was the siege of a border castle, English versus Scots. They follow a daft chivalry but I believe they were self-consciously chivalric in this age. Alongside that he presents atrocities in quite a bold way for a novelist. I thought this whole early part at the siege a Shakespeare pastiche: from the two captains inside and out ratcheting up the atrocities and driving each other picturesquely mad – to the improbable plot of their ladyloves turning up at the event in male disguise. In short, I liked the mad scenes and that intensity of story at the siege. Unfortunately, when he returns to the siege after his half-book excursion into the witchcraft story, he wraps things up quickly and weakly, and happily.
There’s a lot of humour – hit or miss with me – a lot of Scottish dialect (but where it defies understanding he’s pulling your leg), and a sheer love of storytelling, with several short stories of different types inserted. An endearing book on the whole, unafraid to be silly; can be tiresome. Monty Python meets Titus Andronicus and the Malleus Maleficarum. There you go.
He’s a cheeky writer who cobbles a story together from disparate elements and laughs at himself for his rambling plot. Any complaints you have are forestalled by the heckles of the listeners when they sit around telling Canterbury tales. I enjoy this sense of fun.
Strongest for me was the siege of a border castle, English versus Scots. They follow a daft chivalry but I believe they were self-consciously chivalric in this age. Alongside that he presents atrocities in quite a bold way for a novelist. I thought this whole early part at the siege a Shakespeare pastiche: from the two captains inside and out ratcheting up the atrocities and driving each other picturesquely mad – to the improbable plot of their ladyloves turning up at the event in male disguise. In short, I liked the mad scenes and that intensity of story at the siege. Unfortunately, when he returns to the siege after his half-book excursion into the witchcraft story, he wraps things up quickly and weakly, and happily.
There’s a lot of humour – hit or miss with me – a lot of Scottish dialect (but where it defies understanding he’s pulling your leg), and a sheer love of storytelling, with several short stories of different types inserted. An endearing book on the whole, unafraid to be silly; can be tiresome. Monty Python meets Titus Andronicus and the Malleus Maleficarum. There you go.
May 29, 2021
A masterpiece : It begins as a classic border Romance about chivalry and then decends into a horror story about Necromancy before then becoming an anthology of macabre tales (think Chaucer) before ending as a chivilaric Romance again at the conclusion. The portion of the novel which covers the castle siege is my favorite part of the book. It is probably the best and most amusing story about knighthood I have ever read. A foolish young English knight embarks on I'll fated quest to take a Scottish castle on the border between both nations with the intention of holding on to it until Christmas. His motive is to impress and win the hand of a eligible, beautiful and wealthy heiress. A cruel hearted knight is sent by a jealous Scottish Princess to stop him succeeding. There is alot of gender swapping antics in this story. The rival ladies pose as men to scheme against each others plans and this makes for some very funny scenes between themselves and the dueling knights. The princess champion Lord Douglas is a awesome villian.Every scene he is in is brilliant. James Hogg was a gifted story teller and he had a talent for creating deeply flawed characters that really interested me as a reader. The subplot with the Necromancer Micheal Scot are also really well done being both atmospheric and creepy but it feels so loosely connected to the main story that it feels like a separate narrative completely. As interesting as the quest to the dark tower is I just wanted to go back to the main story as I was eager to find out how it concluded.The novel was written in 1822 and employs a traditional form of English and the now defunct old Scots language which can make certain passages of it quite difficult to follow for a modern reader at times. Those that persist through the complex narrative will be rewarded with a thrilling and dark Gothic tale as good as any of the greats such as Dracula, Frankenstien and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
July 4, 2015
I love this tale of "the three perils of man" which are ( as the title says: War, Women and Witchcraft); although it seems to me that the poor women are the ones who are in peril of man here rather than the other way around. The story concerns two high born women and the challenges they throw down to the men who would court them. Lady Jane Howard (the English princess) wants her suitor to hold a castle for her until Christmas and Princess Margaret wants her suitor to regain the Castle before Christmas. The first volume is very much concerned with this - the siege of the castle and the hunger inside the castle as the Scottish refuse to let provisions through for the English. In the second volume, the tables are turned as the Scots go to seek advice from the wizard Michael Scott and find themselves trapped in his castle with no food. Within a day or two (they don't seem to be able to last very long at all) they are considering eating each other and whoever tells the worst story will be the one consumed. Fortunately, it doesn't come to that and in the third volume it's back to the besieged castle for some more war. I loved the stories within the story - there are some great ones - in the second volume these all come back to food as the characters are starving and can think of nothing else. I also loved the story of the three princesses who rise from the dead and walk the streets as zombies - it must surely be a contender for the first ever zombie story? There's a lot of humour - the Friar's donkey is a great locus for the comedy and whenever the action slows, the donkey turns up to do something funny. There's also a subtle political message - consider Gibbie Jordan's capture by the Devil and then on his release him considering that there's a great deal in common between supping at the Royal Court and dining with the devil. I also loved the humanity in the Devil - at one point when he is in the form of a dog, the devil forgets himself and sidles up to a man for a cuddle. It's fantastic. I also really liked Gibbie Jordan's punishment by the Devil (being forced to cook and eat himself, numerous times in the guise of many different animals). All those chaps who subscribe to animal studies in Literature would love that. There's so much to study in this book as there is so much going on - although it can be slow-going in parts - definitely worth a look.
June 19, 2021
sprawling 19th century romance of the middle ages featuring plenty of guys getting unhorsed and having their heads cleft in twain. it's got chivalry, it's got near incomprehensible scots dialect, it's got a powerful wizard summoning the devil and it's got a section where a bunch of characters get trapped in a castle and have to tell stories just like the canterbury tales. really fun stuff
March 17, 2016
I think the consensus (of the characters) firmly states, that out of the three perils with which this book is amply supplied in detailed narration, Woman is the most troublesome and ensnaring. Fun read, nothing life-changing. Classic historical romance, extolling the lost art of chivalry! And the Devil, always a favorite character of mine, sadly makes a less than impressive appearance.
March 3, 2012
This is an incredible tale of fantasy, magic, humor, and witchcraft. Hoggs was years and years ahead of his time, and this is an oft-overlooked classic.
July 30, 2014
I have read peril one and two and loved them, still to read peril three. Love James Hogg though
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews