What is the author's style in The Wings of the Dove by Henry James?

For the contemporary reader, the language of this work may prove to be a bit difficult. While certainly not the Middle English of Beowulf nor the poetry of Shakespeare's plays, James nevertheless uses the very formal English of the Victorian Age in England. Descriptions of thoughts and behaviors of the characters may, indeed, be difficult to interpret correctly with only a cursory reading, although direct conversations is a bit easier to immediately comprehend. The young reader may, indeed, need to read portions more than once in order to achieve complete understanding of meaning, but the language and vocabulary is both credible and correct for the setting and therefore an accurate depiction of the language of the upper class in England during this time.