Image via Wikipedia

Arthur Conan Doyle

I suppose the language is what attracts me to re-reading certain authors, such as Arthur Conan Doyle whose most famous fictional character for me is Sherlock Holmes. The use of vocabulary challenges me to expand my comparably bland vocabulary. I don’t enjoy the films of Sherlock Holmes, only the written works. I enjoy the mind pictures of Sherlock Holme’s times and adventures.

Examples of Vocabulary by Arthur Conan Doyle:

The Adventure of the Engineer‘s Thumb

“The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.”
Munificent – lavish: very generous; “distributed gifts with a lavish hand”; “the critics were lavish in their praise”; “a munificent gift”; “his father gave him a half-dollar and his mother a quarter and he thought them munificent”; “prodigal praise”; “unsparing generosity”; “his unstinted devotion”; “called for unstinting aid to Britain”

“I never saw a more inexorable face in my life.”
Inexorable – grim: not to be placated or appeased or moved by entreaty; “grim determination”; “grim necessity”; “Russia’s final hour, it seemed, approached with inexorable certainty”; “relentless persecution”; “the stern demands of parenthood”

“The Beekeeper’s Apprentice” – happily I have stumbled into the writings of Laurie King. She has continued in the style of Doyle in her Mary Russell series. I find her stories entertaining and recommend them to admirers of Sherlock Holmes.