Michael Kurrier’s Reviews > The Lost Stradivarius > Status Update

He held out his hand frankly, and his voice trembled a little as he spoke--partly perhaps from real emotion, but more probably from the feeling of reluctance which I have noticed men always exhibit to discovering any sentiment deeper than those usually deemed conventional in correct society.

I'm reading this for my Halloween treat this year ~ a book where the author shifts the setting from the quiet, claustrophobic rooms of Oxford to the decaying, shadow-drenched atmosphere of Italy, complete with haunted histories and a past that refuses to stay buried. It deals with late-19th-century anxieties regarding the fine line between aesthetic beauty and moral corruption.