John Meade Falkner
Personal Information
Description
John Meade Falkner combined his successful business career in the munitions manufacturing industry with a keen leisure interest in antiquarian subjects. The significant literary works inspired by this fascination included several well researched county guides together with a small but outstanding body of fictional work. While Falkner's tales may vary in their subject matter they are all authentic in their historical detail and carefully developed atmosphere of mystery. The author's most famous novel is undoubtedly Moonfleet (1898), a classic smuggling adventure which has been much reprinted and adapted on several occasions for screen and radio. The Nebuly Coat (1903) contains several atmospheric scenes and may be considered one of the finest antiquarian mysteries. The Stradivarius (1895) represents Falkner's most important contribution to ghost fiction. An imaginative plot, a finely paced atmosphere of growing menace and a wealth of background detail combine to make this short novel one of the nineteenth century's classic tales of the macabre. -- from Shadows in the Attic: A Guide to British Supernatural Fiction 1820-1950, Neil Wilson (2000)
Books
Moonfleet
Moonfleet is a small village near the sea in the south of England, where village legend tells of the notorious Colonel John “Blackbeard” Mohune who is buried in a family crypt under the church. He is said to have stolen and hidden a diamond from King Charles I. His ghost is said to wander at night looking for the diamond, and the mysterious lights in the churchyard are attributed to his activities. One night a bad storm floods the village. While attending the Sunday service at church, John Trenchard—an orphan who lives with his aunt—hears strange sounds from the crypt below. Investigating, he soon finds himself in a smuggler’s hideout, where he discovers a locket in a coffin that holds a piece of paper inscribed with Bible verses. John soon finds himself swept up in a smuggling venture planned by Elzevir Block, the smugglers’ leader, and inadvertently finds out that the verses from Blackbeard’s locket contain a code that will reveal the location of the famous diamond. Moonfleet was hugely popular in its day and was even sometimes studied in schools. Adaptations to screen, radio, and theater continue today.
The nebuly coat and The lost Stradivarius
The novel tells of the experiences of a young architect, Arthur Westray, who is despatched to the sleepy Dorset town of Cullerne to oversee restoration work on the once splendid, but now sadly deteriorated, Cullerne Minster. The project would seem to offer little by way of excitement: Cullerne is quietly dying, and Westray fears that any restoration efforts are doomed through lack of finance. He soon finds himself, rather unwillingly, caught up in the current of Cullerne life, and hears rumours about a mystery surrounding the claim to the title of Lord Blandamer, whose family vault is sited in Cullerne Minster, and whose arms—the Nebuly Coat—adorn the Minster's great transept window. When the new Lord Blandamer arrives, promising to pay all the costs of the restoration, the inhabitants rejoice—all except Westray, who suspects that the new Lord is not what he seems, and the gone-to-seed organist, Sharnall, who seems close to sovling the mystery of the Blandamer inheritance.