The Confessions received a mixed response from its ten reviewers, most of whom were aware that Hogg was the author of the anonymous work.[15] The Literary Gazette may stand as an average response: 'Mystical and extravagant … it is, nevertheless, curious and interesting; a work of irregular genius, such as we might have expected from Mr. Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, whose it is.'[16] Other reviewers tended to the positive or negative end of this spectrum. They tended to be confused by the double narrative structure and the theology, but The Examiner comprehended the latter and was in general enthusiastic: 'a surprising lack of probability, or even possibility, is accompanied with a portion of mental force and powerful delineation, which denote the conception and the hand of a master'.[17]
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