Meaning of Conan Doylish | Babel Free

Definitions

Resembling or characteristic of British writer and physician Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930), who created the character Sherlock Holmes.

Examples

“The impecunious position of the hero is cleverly sketched in the first pages; but the device that is resorted to by way of extricating him from it is deficient in true humour, even although it smacks of Conan Doylish ingenuity.”

“This proved satisfactory to us, but we cannot quite comprehend why Dr. Wood so strenuously objected to our frequently tying down his dip, so it would not run⟳ away; or hiding his book bag so as to give⟳ him some experience⟳ in using his latent Conan Doylish deduction.”

“After years of reading of Sherlock Holmes, it was rather expected to see⟳ a few Scotland Yard men with double-peaked plaid caps and curved pipe stems. The Scotland Yard men are here, but they are not at all “Conan Doylish.” Instead, they are dressed in correct⟳ frock coats and tall hats in strict contrast to the American secret service men, who appear⟳ like⟳ men just out of a business office or commercial house.”

“The sane dweller in the United States can hardly hope⟳ to succeed⟳ in the Conan Doylish task of looking at the Encyclopaedia Britannica as a British plot to deprive his mind⟳ of independence or to corrupt popular taste⟳ by some twenty expensive volumes, at their lightest, too heavy for his pocket.”

“Rose Macaulay, author of “Potterism,” “The Dangerous Age,” and “Orphan Island,” in an article in the London Nation and Athenæum, says: “The crude, stilted, Conan Doylish English of his detective stories goes far to bear⟳ out the common theory that Mr. Bramah has a literary dual personality.””

“Mind⟳, I don’t know⟳ or care a rap about spiritualism, though this may sound⟳ Conan Doylish.”

“Ah, well, I must hear⟳ mamma out, — / How, using methods Conan Doylish, / So many doctors have⟳ no doubt⟳ / It’s Syndrom-e of Alfred Fröhlich.”

“Much of the plot—Stevensonian and Conan Doylish—is derived and formular: the author herself spoke of “lamentable lacunae . . . due to technical ignorance.””

“This old-fashioned narrative method (more 1913 than 1936) is immensely seductive in a Conan Doylish sort⟳ of way — especially when Condor turns out to have⟳ such a tale to tell⟳.”

“Anthony Burgess’s Enderby triology is now a tetralogy, with a new volume “Composed to placate kind readers of The Clockwork Testament, or Enderby’s End⟳, who objected to my casually killing my hero.” But this is no basely motivated literary opportunism, no Conan Doylish grave-robbery to repossess an obvious winner.”

“Cheadle tapped Robinson’s last⟳ item with his pencil. ‘Spider webs?’ ‘A bit Conan Doylish, that one, sir.’ ‘Meaning you didn’t see⟳ any?’”

“In the more Conan Doylish of these studies, literature is regarded as if it were the scene of some recent large-scale crime, littered with clues—fingerprints, bloodstains, dropped wallets, spent bullets—all capable of undergoing forensic examination, and of supporting some Holmesian hunch which might ultimately lead⟳ to the apprehension of a culprit, the narration of a real-life story more absorbing than the fictional one which had lightly covered it.”

“Time for some pseudonyms. Can’t use⟳ X and Y – too Conan Doylish.”

“A wonderful setup of an opening chapter—Conan Doylish and yet quite stylish and Chabonesque in its own⟳ right.”

““[…] You were born, what, more than 20 years before me and in those days there would have⟳ been quite a few people who would have⟳ brewed their own⟳ real ale. As for the amount you drink⟳, it can’t be too much because you don’t have⟳ a beer belly. How is that for a little detective work⟳ of my own⟳?” “Well, your reasons are a little, may I say⟳, Conan Doylish. Sherlock Holmes may well have⟳ used the same reasoning but, unfortunately those twenty odd years you mentioned so cruelly may have⟳ had something to do with the fact that I can no longer tolerate the beer I so loved in my youth, which was of course… real ale![…]””

CEFR level