The Lost Stradivarius

The most dangerous instrument is the one that calls to you. Oxford, 1840. John Maltravers is a gifted violinist with a bright future ahead of him, until a strange melody entangles him with something impossible. In the depths of his college rooms, where ancient stones hold centuries of secrets, he discovers a hidden Stradivarius of extraordinary beauty, and the ghost who will never let it go. As Maltravers plays the peculiar air that awakens the spirit, he feels an unseen presence drawing closer with each note. The violin consumes him. His friendships wither. He withdraws from the world, possessed by an obsession that twists slowly into something darker. Falkner weaves a haunting meditation on art and its capacity for destruction, on how the perfect thing can become a perfect prison. Published in 1895, this is gothic horror at its most elegant and most chilling, a tale for anyone who has ever felt the dangerous pull of beauty they cannot resist.