Just to calibrate your expectations, I don't think I have the same metrics for appreciating prose as most literary folks - I read fiction for the story(and, to a lesser extent, clever moments) much more than I do for the description. Dense clouds of jokes, references, and plot points are what I like to see. The Nabokov and McCarthy excerpts below I just find to be utterly boring.

With that being said, the first ones who come to mind as examples are actually television writers, not novel writers - Joss Whedon and Matt Groening(or the associated writing staffs, but to my understanding both of those guys set the tone for their shows). I'll jump on the Pratchett bandwagon as well - I find his endings underwhelming, but his style is magnificent. In the "archaic, but still cool" category, I'll nominate Shakespeare and Milton.