Set in Oxford and Naples during the 1840s, The Lost Stradivarius is a tale of demonic possession and of the terrible price paid by "those who would exalt art at the expense of everything else." Though long recognized as a classic and gripping story of the occult, it is also a work which touches the "decadent" years of the nineteenth century at sensitive points--the psychical, the moral, and the aesthetic. This is the only annotated edition available and it contains extensive notes about the Aesthetic Movement, neoplatonism, and musical instruments.