It basically launched a genre. Anything that does that, even if you personally hate it, can't be considered bad by any objective measure.
Literature may have grown since then, (I couldn't get through it as a teenager, and I read encyclopedias in elementary school) but just because something is good doesn't mean everybody has to like it.
For example, I can't stand Tori Amos's music, even though I can tell she has real talent. It's just not to my taste. It doesn't make her bad, it just means it doesn't appeal to me. But my opinion isn't objective reality, it's my opinion.