Nice to see Villette here, people often forget about it but it's one of my favorites.

I've read a few reviews in English mentioning the writing style being underwhelming. I read it several times in French and studied it in depth in class and the writing style in particular is one of my favorites. Very direct, and plain, but also delicate. Some pages feel more like poetry. I havent read it in English though, hard to say if the salt of it is lost in translation or not.