I actually find it hard to pin point why I like these writers, honestly. I guess the main reasons are that they could make their writings meaningful as well as entertaining at the same time. Elloquent, yet very passionate about what they wrote about. When I read those folks, I don''t feel like I, as a reader, am being cheated in any way possible. Lots of things from other periods I read seem to be dumbed down a little bit so the entertainment factor can slip through a little bit more. Or they try too hard to be intellectual, making them truly boring to read.

With british writers(I''d say from the early 1800s-early 1900s), I feel that you get everything writing has to offer. Yes, this is all a rather broad definition of the period, but it was a feeling that seemed to go through the heart of each of their writing styles. I really feel that they set an unreachable standard in terms of literary achievement.

The big ones that struck me off the top of my head were, as you mentioned Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw(gotta love those crazy socialists) and my other two favorites Robert Burns and Lord Byron. I know I''m forgetting a great deal more(for instance Robert Louis Stevenson who, although I''ve never read any of his stuff, wrote the original story from which my favorite comedy film, The Wrong Box, was based), but I sorta needed to keep it brief. I gotta be in my philosophy class in 5 minutes...