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I wasn't going to comment as I only got as far as Chapter 8 before giving up for now. But given some of my thoughts align with those already posted I will add them even if compromised by an incomplete read.
In part the reason was I found the book quite overwritten, contained too many long and sometimes ambiguous sentences, and other things I was uncomfortable with such as use of an adverb when the sense added by the adverb was redundant as was already clear from the preceding sentence or even earlier in the same sentence.
However, this to me added a darkness to the book which was appropriate, but given the comments on Jame's writing methodology this was likely not his intention. The only other book of his I have read is Portrait... but that a very long time ago and I cannot remember it in any detail in order to compare the style.
The main reason for giving up is I am away travelling at the moment for 3 or 4 weeks so with other things going on (and often no internet as relying on cellular) it required too much concentration to work through but I will return to it again when I get home as it is a book I would like to complete.
Regarding Lord Claude and any improper attraction to Maisie I did wonder the same but put it aside as maybe being unfair, and too complicated for me anyway, to compare with todays values or tendencies to be suspicious. As an example of such changes between the time of writing and the present the allowable age of marriage in Jame's USA was as low as 7 years old (depending on state, and if I recall correctly Maisie was 6 years old at the start of the book) and 12 years in England (it was that in England until well into the 20th Century).
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