Charles Auchester

The novel, which is notable for its positive portrayal of Jewish musicality, was praised by Benjamin Disraeli and was initially very popular, remaining in print for over seventy years.

[1] The book, which is set in England and Germany, describes Seraphael's artistic and moral influence on a body of gifted friends and students, as narrated by the eponymous Auchester.

Other thinly-veiled members of Seraphael's circle are his pupil 'Starwood Burney' (Sterndale Bennett), the singer 'Clara Benette' (Jenny Lind) and the composer 'Anastase' (Hector Berlioz).

At one point, a conversation between the character Aronach (based on Mendelssohn's teacher Carl Zelter), and Auchester runs: 'Of music ... doubt not that it is into a divine and immeasurable realm thou shalt at length be admitted; and bow contented that thou hast this in common with those above thee – the insatiable presentiment of futurity with which the Creator has chosen to endow the choicest of his gifts – the gift in its perfection granted ever to the choicest, the rarest of the race.'

[7] A more recent critic echoes Chorley in considering the book "naive throughout and at times ridiculously inept," but redeemed to some extent by the author's evident and genuine love for music.