The Lost Stradivarius - by J Meade Falkner (1858-1932)
If the Devil Learnt to Play Violin
J.Meade Falkner is probably best known for the novel Moonfleet (1898), set a century or so before, amongst the smugglers of the Dorset coast. Moonfleet was filmed in 1955 and has since been regularly televised. His occult novel The Lost Stradivarius (1895) has now been republished as part of 'British Library Tales of the Weird' , edited with an introduction by Mike Ashley (2025). J.Meade Falkner wrote some five novels and two books of poems. Also a travellers guide to Oxfordshire, and local histories of Oxford and Berkshire. SOCIETY WEBSITE Mr Ashley also includes the fact that J.Meade Falkner became a private tutor to the son of Sir Andrew Noble. Towards the end of the 19th century J.Meade Falkner became a secretary of the armaments company Armstrong Whitworth , and company chairman in 1915, becoming very active in this field during World War 1. INTRODUCTION
A concerned aunt writes an account of her deceased brother's downfall in the 1840's for his son who never really knew him. Elements of Sensation novel are featured. Gothic country house, a villa in Naples which leads on to a Pagan site, family shame on an account of a depraved ancestor. There are also hints of M R James, with naive students at a University colleges sensing ghostly presences in their rooms, and finding a Stradivarius violin from 1704 in a hidden crevice, and a spooky portrait of the earlier haunting which reveals it's identity during the peak of a thunderstorm.
But more significantly,there is a strange interplay between beauty and horror :The idea of the musician transforming into a magician through the sheer force of their performance. Playing complex music which is so magnificent that some supernatural agency must have constructed it. The life of dissolute composer Paginini is drawn on. This novel needed to evoke some Italian scenes as a device to defy British reserve and to construct a world which is very 'other' to the 1890's. It is almost as if a Grand Tour of an 18th century aristocratic proceeds on a downward spiral and breaks into the life of a 19th century gentleman.
The motif of a 'possessed' violin appeared in Richard Marsh's short story The Violin , published in the collection The Seen and The Unseen (1900). And who can forget the Charlie Daniel Band's The Devil Went Down to Georgia hit from 1979 - in which the Devil gets defeated by Johnny a local fiddle player in a violin playing competition. Mr Ashley also references Offenbach's opera The Tales of Hoffman (1881), and a short story The Ensouled Violin from the 'Theophist' magazine run by Madam Blavatsky as possible influences. INTRODUCTION
A splendid read. Not writing any more as don't want to give too much away.
The Lost Stradivarius by J.Meade Falkner, With an Introduction by Mike Ashley is published by British Library Publishing 2025.
Also available on Amazon UK in kindle format.
British Library Shop Link to the book
Fantastic Fiction author webpage for Mike Ashley.
J. Meade Falkner Society (Includes Bibliography)
The Lost Stradivarius Reviews from the J. Meade Falkner Society.
The Devil's violinist Paganini Youtube ; not sure where this clip is from but seems relevant.
Other blogs from this writer
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