“I didn’t like it. The good characters are inane, sickly, and sweet things, and the bad ones are so clever and interesting that it is vexing to see their downfall.”
What an interesting comment. Villains usually are more interesting. Not likable, perhaps, but Interesting.
Of course, while there may be “good” characters, we’re not necessarily even meant to sympathize with them: the author’s own subtitle is, after all, “a novel without a hero.”