The Lost Stradivarius is a gothic ghost story written by J. Meade Falkner. It’s a late Victorian novel, published in 1895. Like M. R. James, who came after him, Falkner was an academic and an antiquarian. I don’t know whether James was influenced by Falkner’s novels or whether their similarities are just a coincidence produced by similar education and personalities, but their writing styles are remarkably alike. Both authors write smooth, clean prose with a very subtle hand. Both authors focus on proper, educated gentlemen spooked by a brush with the mystical and mysterious, and prefer subtle chills to horrific thrills. But James knows to stop at the right place, leaving us with a sense of vast mysteries we’ve just barely glimpsed, while Falkner goes on and on until all the mystery is gone.
The story was so promising at the start. Sir John Maltravers and his friend Mr. Gaskell bond over music and find an Italian piece called the Areopagita that’s especially exciting, but every time they play they have the haunting feeling that someone is listening. Sir John is especially affected by this, and while playing alone one evening actually sees a ghost in his room. This leads him to discover a beautiful Stradivarius hidden away in a secret cupboard, and from that moment he begins to change. Is he literally haunted or merely becoming obsessed with the man who used to own the violin? Is this all coincidence or something more sinister?
The tension builds slowly and subtly for the first two thirds of the book. Sir John grows more obsessed and begins to waste away while his family grows more worried, while more hints of an intriguing mystery are shown us. Until this point, the story is narrated by Sir John’s sister, but the last third is narrated by Mr. Gaskell, who explains away all this delicious mystery in the most boring terms imaginable. Not to spoil a Victorian novel, but it turns out Sir John is haunted by neoplatonism.
Yup. The violin’s original owner dabbled in late Roman philosophy and mysticism and became horribly corrupted by Italian culture. Sir John found this owner’s secret diary and was also tempted by late Roman philosophy and Italian culture. Turns out the “Areopagita Suite” was a nerdy Victorian clue referring to a neoplatonist mystic. We should have known all along it was the neoplatonists!
I’m guessing you’re not terrified of neoplatonists. You might, in fact, be wondering what a neoplatonist even is? Roman philosophy does not strike fear into the modern heart. I’m not even sure it struck fear into the late Victorian heart. I’m pretty sure we’re supposed to be appalled by Sir John choosing something over the Church of England, and suspicious of his new interest in alchemy and mysticism. It’s probably the devil’s work.
At the very end, Mr. Gaskell speculates that because of all this awful neoplatonism Sir John might have tried out a forbidden mystical ceremony he couldn’t handle. This was an intriguing angle, but it was too little too late. So disappointing.
One haunted star for the smooth writing and nicely built beginning. Fine for hardcore Victorian nerds and people who hate late Roman philosophers, probably not worth it for the rest of us.
Oddly Cultured 
Leave a comment