About half of the book is really quite good. The other half is meandering and annoying. These halves are dissipated across the text so one moment you'll be reading a very insightful and thought-provoking scene and the next you'll be hit with opaque, dragging characterisation. C.B's weakness is really her characters, as she relies so heavily on broad phrenological descriptions and telling rather than showing. Since a lot of the novel focuses on its characters, this can make for very flat reading. However, she does a good job with the development of the key themes. The plot is either richly gothic or absurd, depending on how much you are willing to tolerate. I got some good from Villette, and it has affected me a lot in some ways, but I am glad I read it for uni because I would not choose to read this book over others of equivalent length.