Complete and unabridged, with 52 full-page plates by George Inness, Odilon Redon and Mikhail Vrubel. A violinist sells his soul for the perfect instrument, and the fifth string — which he is warned never to touch — is strung with death. Sousa was the March King: leader of the Marine Band under five presidents, composer of The Stars and Stripes Forever, and the man who lobbied Congress about the threat of recorded music. This 1902 novella was his first work of fiction, and the concert scenes are written by someone who knew what a hall feels like. Fifty-two plates, from Caravaggio's lute players to Vermeer's music lessons, trace the same bargain of beauty and ruin that Sousa's violinist makes.