The Lateness and Queerness of The Twyborn Affair White’s Farewell to the Novel E LIZABETH M C M AHON In the history of art, late works are catastrophes. 1 HIS ESSAY UNDERTAKES A REAPPRAISAL of The Twy- born Affair (1979), focusing on its status as the final novel by Patrick White. David Marr’s biography shows that White did not always consider The Twyborn Affair would be his last novel, and was in fact planning another while in the final stages of writing. 2 As we know, however, this other novel did not eventuate, and The Twyborn Affair re- mains for posterity as White’s theatricalized and over-determined farewell to the novel. This status is further underscored by the way his two subse- quent works announce generic departures from the novel: the work imme- diate following is his biography, Flaws in the Glass: A Self Portrait (1981); and his final work is a memoir, Memoirs of Many in One (1986). Moreover, the latter work is signed by the pseudonymous “Agnes Xeno- phon Demirjian Gray,” rather than Patrick White, who performs a removal from authorship to the role of editor. This staged departure from the 1 Edward Said, On Late Style: Music and Literature Against the Grain (New York: Pantheon, 2006): 12. 2 David Marr, Patrick White: A Life (London: Jonathan Cape, 1991): 589. T