Music and Neo-Victorian Gothic Tropes: The Glass Armonica in A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin

Abstract

This contribution analyses the role of music in A Slight Trick of the Mind (2005) by Mitch Cullin, highlighting the way in which the novel contradicts itself in its effort to reject Holmesian stereotypes. Indeed, although the common beliefs inspired by John Watson's authorship are disavowed in order to provide a more realistic portrait of the man behind the legend, the Victorian past keeps haunting Holmes through an old case concerning a glass armonica. Since a parallel can be drawn between the instrument and Holmes's iconic violin, it is argued that the sub-narrative ends up functioning as a neo-Victorian mise en abyme, where those gothic elements potentially related to Holmes's musicianship in the original texts appear to be projected onto the glass armonica and female characters, drawing attention to the gendered codes of music's discourse in neo-Victorian narratives. Indeed, while the violin may serve in the canon as a male signifier, albeit a controversial one, the glass armonica carries feminine connotations that shed new light on the many possible re-presentations of Sherlock Holmes's favourite instrument.