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In response to RS Gwynn's comment, and some others: I've put some
thought recently into the question of why HH wrote his confession.
While he writes, we know that Dolly Schiller is alive (as he also
believes), dying Christmas day--about a month and a half after HH does.
Of course, while he writes, he does not think that she has an interest
in revealing his crime (it is not entirely clear that she views his
acts
as criminal, based on the Coalmont interview). He therefore wants the
confession kept secret, to be published only after Dolly's death.
So, why does he write it? Some possibilities:
1. He feels remorse, and the "local palliative of articulate art" is
his
best and only (but completely inadequate) available penance (there is a
fair amount of self-flagellation in the text, some of it concealed). He
hopes that some small "good" can be salvaged from something horrible,
even if it is no compensation.
2. He feels no remorse, but feels a drive to prove to himself that he
is
more than just the monster that he half-believes himself to be. He
knows that mimicking remorse is part of this process.
3. He can't stop exploiting Dolly, who, having escaped him physically,
is recaptured by him aesthetically (or just narratively). She has very
little voice in HH's text. He has total control over her enduring image
(and the necessity of her death means that she can't correct the
record:
he assures himself the last word).
There are other strong possibilities, but this is all I have time for
just now.
Stephen Blackwell