 In his apprentice years, culminating with the masterwork "The Portrait of a Lady", his style was simple and direct (by the standards of Victorian magazine writing) and he experimented widely with forms and methods, generally narrating from a conventionally omniscient point of view.Plots generally concern romance, except for the three big novels of social commentary that conclude this period.In the second period, as noted above, he abandoned the serialized novel and from 1890 to about 1897, he wrote short stories and plays.