Dismissing Anthony Trollope's late novels as artistically flawed, Henry James's obituary captures the tone of earlier and subsequent criticism. Stripped of its evaluative tenor, however, James's discernment of a ‘stale’ quality and ‘dryness of texture’ in Trollope's novels from Phineas Redux onward touches on the essence of Trollope's late style. Two models can be discerned in thinking about late style: in the first the late work is understood as providing a serene conclusion to the artist's career, while in the second the late work is presented as a restless departure from earlier efforts. Sophocles and Shakespeare are often nominated as the masters of the resolution, Hölderlin and Beethoven of the withdrawal. James's imagery suggests that the late Trollope should be included in the fold of the latter: Theodor Adorno describes Beethoven's late compositions in similar terms, as ‘wrinkled, even fissured. They are apt to lack sweetness, fending off with prickly tartness those interested merely in sampling them’ (Adorno 2005: 123). In the case of Beethoven's Spätstil, this harsh quality is the result of the formal laws that his late works obey. Combining complex polyphonic structures with trite ornaments, their style is impersonal and artificial, rather than spontaneous and organic. The role of conventions is essential in creating this effect. Even where Beethoven's late works use a singular syntax, ‘conventional formulae and phraseology are inserted. They are full of decorative trills, cadences, and fiorituras’ (Adorno 2005: 124). Although the intellectual and artistic differences between Beethoven and Trollope make an extensive comparison fruitless, it is remarkable that the texture of Trollope's late works, too, is both heavily patterned and shot through with flourishes.