Not questioning Austen as number 1.
For the rest, I'd put forward Graham Greene, and @mike rightly mentions PG Wodehouse. I'd also add #SamuelRogers, for his little Table-talk volume alone (I don't really know his other works).
My main nomination however is Samuel #Pepys, providing we make allowances for the fact that writing a diary entry late at night when drunk will lead to occasional stylistic lapses. His lapses are beautiful. Sam does post on Mastodon, @samuelpepys.
"Instead of writing because he had something to say, he began life with a determination to write a Book of some kind or other."
John Horne Tooke (1736-1812) on Edward Gibbon (1737-1794), quoted in Samuel Rogers, Tabletalk & Recollections.
"If a man has a single fact or observation to communicate, he writes a book on the whole subject of which that is a part. Hence the multiplicity of books."
John Horne Tooke (1736-1812), according to Samuel Rogers in Tabletalk & Recollections.
Thank goodness nowadays we have Mastodon and the Fedi!
[The young John Mastodon once was guest at one of Samuel Rogers's dinners, where Rogers quoted Horne Tooke's apercu. Thus the idea of #MicroBlogging was borne.]
"Mr Pitt conceives his sentences before he utters them. Mr Fox throws himself into the middle of his, and leaves it to God Almighty to get him out again."
Richard Porson (1759 to 1808), quoted by Samuel Rogers in Tabletalk and Recollections.
Well put. I know a few such Pitts, and many such Foxes. And I have been Pitt and Fox myself.
#SamuelRogers #RichardPorson #speaking #speech #lecture #style
Richard Porson (1759 - 1808) offers wisdom on Fediverse etiquette. Samuel Rogers in his Tabletalks and Recollections (1859) quotes this:
"Had I a carriage, and did I see a well-dressed person on the road, I would always invite him in, and learn of him what I could."
Clearly:
- "carriage" = "my Fedi account";
- "well-dressed person" = "a pleasant Fedi participant";
- "invite him in" = "boost their posts and follow their account".
#SamuelRogers #RichardPorson #MastodonCulture
#FediEtiquette
The executioner and the painter:
"Two artists have contributed not a little to the popularity of Charles the First, Vandyke and the Headsman."
Henry Grattan (1746-1820) on Charles I., according to Samuel Rogers, Table-Talk and Recollections.
#SamuelRogers #HenryGrattan #CharlesI #AnthonyVanDyck #execution
[Link is to a painting by van Dyck, a formal portrait showing King Charles I on horseback.]
"Dined with him at the Ton, Billingsgate. At dinner time he was missed; and was found at a fishmonger's, learning the history of pickled salmon."
Samuel Rogers, Tabletalk & Recollections, Edmund Burke chapter.
Clearly, Burke was a Mastodonian before Mastodon.
"[Burke] in argument puts out his whole strength, but is ready to listen, and full of inquiry."
Samuel Rogers, Tabletalk and Recollections.
"Dull Prosers are preferable to dull Jokers. The first require only patience; but the last harass the spirits and check their spontaneous actions."
Samuel Rogers (1763 -1855), Tabletalk and Recollections, Edmund Burke chapter.
Let us not harrass the spirits. Let us freely enjoy their spontaneous actions. Let's be "Prosers".
Lord Chesterfield remarked of two persons dancing a minuet that "they looked as if they were hired to do it, and were doubtful of being paid."
Samuel Rodgers, Table-talk & Recollections
the roamer