A Wicked Voice
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A Wicked Voice by Vernon Lee is a short story about a 19th-century Scandinavian composer named Magnus who, haunted by the ghost of an 18th-century Italian singer named Zaffirino, loses his passion for decadent music and instead comes to realize his true love of classical music.
"A Wicked Voice" is fueled by Lee's love for classical music (18th century Italian opera specifically), her disdain for decadent music (Wagner especially), and her troubled yet obsessive relationship with the past (which assumes the character of a ghost in Zaffirino).[1]
The short story explores themes such as sexuality and eroticism, ghosts of the past, aestheticism, and "art for sanity's sake."