I generally prefer novels with lots of dialogue, but not all writers do this well. Many either write boring dialogue, or dialogue in which every character sounds the same. Any recommendations? The following contain my favourite examples:
Oscar Wilde: Dorian Gray (sublime – as an odious, pretentious teen I wanted to live in Wilde's England and speak like Lord Henry)
Aldous Huxley: Chrome Yellow
Aldous Huxley: Those Barren Leaves
Aldous Huxley: Point Counter Point (Huxley is great at dialogue)
Thomas Hardy: Return of the Native (mainly for Eustacia Vye – I love the way she speaks)
Evelyn Waugh: Brideshead Revisited (mainly the bits with the aesthete Anthony Blanche)
P. G. Wodehouse: The Jeeves and Wooster novels (the dialogue between Bertie and Jeeves is pure bliss, especially when read by Stephen Fry)