The Canary Trainer

The Canary Trainer (1993) is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche by Nicholas Meyer. Like The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, it was published as a "lost manuscript" of the late Dr. John H. Watson. This novel describes Holmes's adventures during the "Lost Years", when (according to the Sherlockian canon) he was traveling the world, trying to escape the minions of Professor Moriarty. The bulk of the novel is a first-person narrative, in which Holmes recounts a visit to Paris where he played the violin in the Opera Garnier and became entangled with a mysterious "phantom".

Literary influences

In the novel's afterword, Meyer acknowledges the two most obvious influences, Conan Doyle's vast Sherlockian opus and Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera, which Meyer terms an "absurdist masterpiece". Furthermore, the "facts" of the story shift about in a way reminiscent of Pynchon: Holmes openly states that he was traveling Europe to escape Moriarty's henchmen, yet small clues indicate that he may have been convalescing after his treatment by Sigmund Freud. One one level, The Canary Trainer is a detective story with doses of action-adventure, but Holmes's thoughts about building a new identity bring in a much more contemplative, almost philosophical element, much like the mystery-story parodies Vladimir Nabokov constructed (compare Lolita, Pale Fire or The Real Life of Sebastian Knight). Meyer nods at these more "literary" concepts, inserting a tongue-in-cheek footnote (supposedly by the "editor" who is publishing Watson's manuscript). The priceless Degas in which Irene Adler saw Holmes's portrait, says the footnote, was purchased by the Marquis de Tour et Tassis—a clear allusion to The Crying of Lot 49.

Related Topics:
Pynchon - Sigmund Freud - Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita - Pale Fire - The Real Life of Sebastian Knight - The Crying of Lot 49

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~