La musique et le mal : possession diabolique dans Trilby (1894) de George du Maurier et The Lost Stradivarius (1895) de John Falkner Meade

These two fin-de-siècle fantastic novels present music (opera-singing in Trilby and violin-playing in The Lost Stradivarius) as a supernatural agent enabling the singer or player to get access to a superhuman status and transcendental dimension. However, the function of music in these books is utter...

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Main Author: Françoise Dupeyron-Lafay
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée 2004-04-01
Series:Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/cve/16451
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author Françoise Dupeyron-Lafay
author_facet Françoise Dupeyron-Lafay
author_sort Françoise Dupeyron-Lafay
collection DOAJ
description These two fin-de-siècle fantastic novels present music (opera-singing in Trilby and violin-playing in The Lost Stradivarius) as a supernatural agent enabling the singer or player to get access to a superhuman status and transcendental dimension. However, the function of music in these books is utterly negative : it is of foreign origin — this reflects some Anglo-saxon xenophobic prejudices ; Svengali is an East European Jew in Trilby and Falkner Meade makes southern Italy instrumental in his plot — which certainly accounts for its being evil. In the two books, the protagonists are possessed and enslaved by music which, like a vampire, exhausts them and drains them empty, dissolves their identity and robs them of their willpower. The diabolic possession at work is also, more or less explicitly, of an erotic nature — in both cases, a male character holds a victim in bondage through music — but the inevitable outcome is death.
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publisher Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée
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series Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
spelling doaj-art-f6825849cc384c479a1c3b9548a68a3f2025-08-20T04:02:09ZengPresses Universitaires de la MéditerranéeCahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens0220-56102271-61492004-04-015910.4000/147tgLa musique et le mal : possession diabolique dans Trilby (1894) de George du Maurier et The Lost Stradivarius (1895) de John Falkner MeadeFrançoise Dupeyron-LafayThese two fin-de-siècle fantastic novels present music (opera-singing in Trilby and violin-playing in The Lost Stradivarius) as a supernatural agent enabling the singer or player to get access to a superhuman status and transcendental dimension. However, the function of music in these books is utterly negative : it is of foreign origin — this reflects some Anglo-saxon xenophobic prejudices ; Svengali is an East European Jew in Trilby and Falkner Meade makes southern Italy instrumental in his plot — which certainly accounts for its being evil. In the two books, the protagonists are possessed and enslaved by music which, like a vampire, exhausts them and drains them empty, dissolves their identity and robs them of their willpower. The diabolic possession at work is also, more or less explicitly, of an erotic nature — in both cases, a male character holds a victim in bondage through music — but the inevitable outcome is death.https://journals.openedition.org/cve/16451
spellingShingle Françoise Dupeyron-Lafay
La musique et le mal : possession diabolique dans Trilby (1894) de George du Maurier et The Lost Stradivarius (1895) de John Falkner Meade
Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
title La musique et le mal : possession diabolique dans Trilby (1894) de George du Maurier et The Lost Stradivarius (1895) de John Falkner Meade
title_full La musique et le mal : possession diabolique dans Trilby (1894) de George du Maurier et The Lost Stradivarius (1895) de John Falkner Meade
title_fullStr La musique et le mal : possession diabolique dans Trilby (1894) de George du Maurier et The Lost Stradivarius (1895) de John Falkner Meade
title_full_unstemmed La musique et le mal : possession diabolique dans Trilby (1894) de George du Maurier et The Lost Stradivarius (1895) de John Falkner Meade
title_short La musique et le mal : possession diabolique dans Trilby (1894) de George du Maurier et The Lost Stradivarius (1895) de John Falkner Meade
title_sort la musique et le mal possession diabolique dans trilby 1894 de george du maurier et the lost stradivarius 1895 de john falkner meade
url https://journals.openedition.org/cve/16451
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