who's got the sharpest tongue..?

[lorii]

so this is my first post in this supposed literary haven and quite simply the question i set forth is which novelists should i be reading in order to get a taste of fine dry wit and scintillating sarcasm?

and oh, forgive moi if the question is of a repetitive nature, i'll willingly accept any wrist slapping that may arise as a consequence of this post..not that i'm a masochist or anything, well not that i know of..

[Morten]

Evelyn Waugh, perhaps most of all. I particularly recommed The Loved One for some seriously sharp satire.

Martin Amis makes me laugh aloud - read Money.

Nabokov's Lolita has wonderful moments of relentless satire.

[Sir Bartholomew]

Jane Austen. Yes, forgive me, sock me, insult me, but I'm diagnosed with Austeniousis which would probably last for two months.

[Ryduce]

Johnathan Swift.

[stlukesguild]

I would not forget Oscar Wilde and Ambrose Bierce.

[lorii]

twain also worthy of noting?

[Il Penseroso]

Hunter Thompson, early (and late)Twain, Jonathan Swift, and some Vonnegut

[APEist]

Defintely Wilde. He is the master of wit. Honorable mentions: Swift, Vonnegut, Bierce, Voltaire, some Twain.

[SirRaustusBear]

I have to ay Sinclair Lewis. Elmer Gantry is the best satire I've ever read (though Cat's Cradle a very close second).

[Kafka's Crow]

It has to be Samuel Beckett, bleakest humor, blackest satire. Another Irishman, Jonathan Swift, is already mentioned. I loved Swift once upon a time, absolutely vicious and merciless wit. Joyce's play on words is also hilarious, "Shem was a sham and a low sham..." that Shem, the Penman episode in Finnegans Wake always puts me in awe of the amazing powers of this wordsmith. Beckett is the god of dark humor: "But let us leave these morbid matters and get on with that of my demise, in two or three days if I remember rightly. Then it will be over with the Murphys, Merciers, Molloys, Morans and Malones, unless it goes on beyond the grave." (Malone Dies) I find it hilarious how Beckett's own characters from different books suddenly jump in the affray. You just think, 'where the hell did this one come from? I finished reading about him only recently!' Beckett is inexplicably hilarious.

[HotKarl]

For pure wit? Shakespearian comedies and Alexander Pope.

[Kafka's Crow]

For pure wit? Shakespearian comedies and Alexander Pope.

Oh yes, don't forget Pope or Dr Johnson and even Jon Donne. Donne is wit incarnate.

[PeterL]

Eithe Twain or Swift, but sometimes the wit is not obvious.

[Etienne]

Rabelais or Voltaire.

[JBI]

Shakespeare. Then Voltaire, then Pope. Dante has the most creative though.

[amalia1985]

Oscar Wilde, particularly visible in "The Picture Of Dorian Gray", Kurt Vonnegut in his "Slaughterhouse 5", Shakespeare, and I would dare to say, Balzac.

[Jane's Nemesis]

Oscar Wilde and Jane Austen. Also Henry Fielding...Tom Jones is hilarious!

[billhicks]

i would also check out will self hes a pretty sarcastic guy!

[nebish]

The original post asked for novelists (poets and dramatists mentioned, such as Dante, Shakespeare, Donne,etc are all second-best anyway to Byron). Alongside Joyce, I'd place William Burroughs and Thomas Pynchon.

[Behemoth]

Ovid, i'm finding, is very witty - check out the Amores.

[chasestalling]

I do.

[mortalterror]

For Swift read A Modest Proposal. He solves Ireland's food shortage problem along with it's over population problem at the same time. Then read Pope's Dunciad. Twain's The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg is pretty biting as well. Oscar Wilde is king of the wits, but I don't know if he's ever drawn blood. Juvenal is one of the earliest satirists, and I've heard it said that he has never been surpassed "in writing on the human heart with acid." Bierce is excellent, but you'll need The Devil's Dictionary to get the full effect.

[islandclimber]

Wilde
Voltaire
Beckett

[Eric Cioe]

Ed Abbey.