Dated Writing Styles

Edna Ferber dated?


On a blog last week, someone said they were not able to read older books (a century or so older) because of the dated writing style in many of them. Some writers seem able to write books that don't suffer from that as much as others. I guess the best way to avoid becoming dated is not to rely too much on current slang, current politics, current technology, etc. This is hard to do because we are often not aware of what is strictly current and embedded in a specific time and consequently will date the book eventually.

What writers from the early 20th century and earlier hold up especially well? Now here is a case where descriptions are probably more timeless than dialog. Nothing nails down a time more than dialog.