John Meade Falkner 
The Lost Stradivarius 

A story of ghosts and the evil that can be in an object, in this case an extremely fine Stradivarius violin. After finding the violin in a hidden compartment in his college rooms, a wealthy young heir becomes increasingly secretive as well as obsessed by a particular piece of music, which seems to have the power to call up the ghost of the violin’s previous owner. Roaming from England to Italy, the story involves family love, lordly depravity, and the tragedy of obsession…