Jane Austen perhaps one of the few modern writers who made me love the English language. I most impressed with her incredible ability and prose to point the absurd and the odd in the life around her characters and their world.
I would also mention that a good deal our contemporary readers have far too often ignored, or maybe choose to ignore the aspect of Austen's clear classical moral framework. For example, the traditional marriage as a union to achieve the good life, or the ability to control one's feeling and to exercise good manners. I think one ought to not reduce Austen's work to what many current live-adaptions are doing, to mere romance with a few smart conversational exchanges or a full-blown comedy.