The Lost Stradivarius

The Lost Stradivarius

Cover of the first edition
Author	J. Meade Falkner
Sprache	Englisch
Genre	Horror novel
Publisher	William Blackwood
Publication date	1895
Publication place	Vereinigtes Königreich
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	296 pp

The Lost Stradivarius (1895), by J. Meade Falkner, is a short novel of ghosts and the evil that can be invested in an object, in this case an extremely fine Stradivarius violin. After finding the violin of the title in a hidden compartment in his college rooms, the protagonist, a wealthy young heir, becomes increasingly secretive as well as obsessed by a particular piece of music, which seems to have the power to call up the ghost of its previous owner. Roaming from England to Italy, the story involves family love, lordly depravity, and the tragedy of obsession, all conveyed in a "high" serious tone not uncommon in late Victorian literature. Preceding M.R. James's ghost stories by several years, it has been called the novel James might have written, had he written novels.

In August 2008, a Joanna David reading of the novel was broadcast on BBC Radio 7.

References

• Bleiler, Everett (1948). The Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Chicago: Shasta Publishers. p. 112.

External links

• The Lost Stradivarius at Project Gutenberg
• The Lost Stradivarius public domain audiobook at LibriVox
• "Review: The Lost Stradivarius, by J Meade Falkner". Vulpes Libris Blog. 2014-01-10.
• Brandstatter, Tasha (2012-05-20). "Review: The Lost Stradivarius by John Meade Falkner". The Project Gutenberg Project.
• Mackintosh, Paul St James (2015-04-11). "Book review: The Lost Stradivarius, by John Meade Falkner". TeleRead.Com.
• Tallis, F. R. (2013-07-13). "Book of a lifetime: The Lost Stradivarius, By J Meade Falkner". The Independent.