Conan Doylish

comparative more Conan Doylish · superlative most Conan Doylish · alternative Conan-Doylish

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

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

   1928, Godfrey Elton, Against the Sun, London: Constable & Co Ltd, page 52

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   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.

   1894 May 5, William Wallace, “New Novels”, in The Academy. A Weekly Review of Literature, Science, and Art., volume XLV, number 1148, London: Publishing Office: […], page 368, column 2

   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.

   1909 May, “A History of the Class of Nineteen Hundred and Nine”, in Pickout 1909: The Year Book of the Lowell Textile School, Lowell, Mass., page 33

   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.

   1917 April 24, “Spirit of England Is Brought to U.S. Lobbies and Lounges of Washington Hotels Appear Like Halls of London.”, in The Champaign Daily News, volume XXII, number 229, Champaign, Ill., page twelve, column 3

   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.

   1917 May, M. B. S., “Reviews: Misinforming a Nation. By W. H. Wright. […]”, in The Smith College Monthly, volume XXIV, number 7, pages 376–377

   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.”

   1925, The Literary Digest International Book Review, volume III, Funk & Wagnalls Company, page 553, column 1

   Synonyms: Conan Doylean