This is not a bad book, in the way that it would be hard to read. This book just flows along, and you're never too bored with it. The problem is that there is absolutely no reason not to feel sad when you have to stop reading it for whatever reason. The whole thing is just so lightweight, and not understandable for me, 150 years after it was written. The characters are all part of that great 19th century class of people, "can get by without doing any real work ever", and spend their time socializing with other people of the same class. They just seem so unreal in this day and age that I couldn't really connect with any of them.