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Lo Stradivari perduto (1895)

di John Meade Falkner

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Classic Literature. Fiction. Horror. Thriller. HTML:

Many people believe that houses and particular places can be haunted, but what about objects? J. Meade Falkner's classic 1895 novel The Lost Stradivarius posits that they can. In this haunting tale, the possessed possession happens to be a gorgeous musical instrument. Will the musician who discovers this ghost be able to help lay the troubled soul to rest?

.… (altro)
Aggiunto di recente damkkaufman, biblioteca privata, Mippy14, AlvaLewis, AlainCipit, edgarrisoul, FourLetterBooks, RaggedyMe, Hulko, bhelg33
Biblioteche di personaggi celebriWilliam Gaddis
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» Vedi le 8 citazioni

Nice little gothic confection about the doomed John Maltravers. The author doesn't insult us by having the principals stumble about and wonder what is going on for too long; they figure things out pretty quickly but all seem paralyzed to figure out how to help the almost totally listless Maltravers out of his downward slide.

Lots of snooty music references that only those familiar with music scoring will get.

( )
  Gumbywan | Jun 24, 2022 |
Not very creepy story about a haunted violin that is really a vampire (you gotta read it to see what I mean). The musician inevitably wastes away and dies instead of burning the damn thing and everyone about ends up wringing their hands instead of doing something about it. Gothic and Romantic at the same time, the plot, while perhaps novel for it's time, is limp and predictable today. At least it is short. ( )
  Gumbywan | Jun 24, 2022 |
A period short work about a violin that possesses the one who plays it. OK, but not really my cup of tea. ( )
  AliceAnna | Aug 13, 2014 |
Sir John Maltravers finds the titular violin in his rooms at college and proceeds to descend into obsession over the violin, complete with Gothic evocations of malevolent ghosts and swooning.

I found this on a list of books sold by the Folio Society and, sold by the words "lost" and "stradivarius" appearing the title, I decide to sample Folio's literary taste. I don't think I'll be ordering the fancy, hardcover copy of this book anytime soon.

The main character is accused of failing in morality, but all that's described in a reluctance to show up at church (which breaks the heart of his pious sister) and an obsessive devotion to his violin (which breaks the heart of his wife). That is a bit despicable, but the author, through the point of view of Sir John's sister (a thoroughly governess-from-"Turn of the Screw"-like character - in the interpretation that the governess there has imagined the gothic ghosts and causes the death of the little children herself), equates to selling his soul to the devil.

All of the women in the book are very unconvincing. The narrator is Sir John's sister, Miss Maltravers, but I was actually shocked to find that it was a woman narrating; the writing style seems very masculine. Also, she's portrayed to just adore her brother's new wife Constance. But surely Miss Maltravers depended on her brother a great deal and she would have to share him with Constance and Constance's mother and, eventually, with her nephews and nieces. And she would always be "Miss Maltravers" and not "Lady Maltravers" like her mother, because the title only passes to the male heir. Wouldn't the natural thing be for her to resent Constance a bit? Surely it wasn't easy for English ladies to see their brothers married off - I think Miss Bingley in Pride and Prejudice had the right idea.

Furthermore, both narrators of the book, Miss Maltravers in the first half and Sir John's friend in the second half, are too polite to divulge what terrible things the depraved people did to become depraved. There is Adrian Temple, the original owner of the Lost Stradivarius, who is categorically described as a "bad man", and no one will go into any detail as to how bad he was. It would seem that attending too many parties, being a little to chevalier around the ladies and spending a bit too much money on one's fantasy house is the worst that can be said of the "debauched" and "depraved" men of the Stradivarius.

Another time, I might have been able to read this as a simple ghost story surrounding a beautiful musical instrument, but now I just see an unsatisfying Victorian Nancy Drew story, only less feminist. ( )
  Kryseis | Aug 17, 2011 |
J. Meade Falkner is somewhat of a cult figure amongst a small group of Victorian fiction aficionados. Unfortunately, the Lost Stradivarius is not the best place to start in order to get a sense of why Falkner is so revered. The book isn't bad, per se, but it's absolutely typical for its genre, and somewhat run-of-the-mill.

The novella is a classic Victorian ghost story, detailing the obsession and gradual madness of a young student with the titular violin. There's not a lot more to it than that, and fans of the genre will be immediately familiar with this type of ghost story.

Sadly, the book rarely rises above average. Falkner's prose is fine, but his narrator is the protagonist's somewhat starchy and naive sister, so we never get the chance to enter the subjective horror on display, and end up frustratingly ignorant as to the most interesting aspects of the haunting. Her voice also grates after a while.

Other than a strong repulsion/fascination with catholicism, which is portrayed as little better than an orgiastic pagan cult at times, there's not much that stands out to this book beyond the general quality of the Hesperus edition, printed on high quality paper with good binding.

If you are interested in Victorian tales of obsession there are far better stories to be had in the various ghost anthologies floating about. In particular, Oliver Onions' The Beckoning Fair One basically accomplishes everything this tale sets out to, in a far more eerie and interesting fashion. ( )
  patrickgarson | Jan 26, 2011 |
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Classic Literature. Fiction. Horror. Thriller. HTML:

Many people believe that houses and particular places can be haunted, but what about objects? J. Meade Falkner's classic 1895 novel The Lost Stradivarius posits that they can. In this haunting tale, the possessed possession happens to be a gorgeous musical instrument. Will the musician who discovers this ghost be able to help lay the troubled soul to rest?

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