"Mrs Croft, though neither tall nor fat, had a squareness, uprightness, and vigour of form, which gave importance to her person. She had bright dark eyes, good teeth, and altogether an agreeable face; though her reddened and weather-beaten complexion, the consequence of her having been almost as much at sea as her husband, made her seem to have lived some years longer in the world than her real eight and thirty. Her manners were open, easy, and decided, like one who had no distrust of herself, and no doubts of what to do; without any approach to coarseness, however, or any want of good humour."

I've been collecting these --- descriptions of people in fiction --- trying to figure out some of the unwritten rules governing what makes a good one. I love the two above. Austen, who never gets credit for her visceral realism, is never more vivid than in the above from Persuasion. And Snoop Dogg, writing with David E. Talbert in Love Don't Live Here No More, says so much about the narrator, and the clones, in what he chooses to describe.

Some preliminary conclusions: they have to be short, but not dismissively so.  A paragraph -- long enough to show respectful attention, but short enough not to be obsessive. They have to be carefully calibrated to show discernment -- not so over-the-top as to imply being easily taken, or so cool as to be flat.

Post your favorite?