Chapter 26 Summary

Chapter 26 begins with an excerpt from Ash's The Garden of Proserpina. This part of Ash's poem speaks of the garden as a place where all poets come. Roland returns to his flat and finds out from a neighbor that their landlady had a stroke and was taken to Queen Mary's Hospital. Roland enters his dark flat and goes through the pile of mail that has accumulated. He reads replies from job applications first and is surprised to find three letters of acceptance. Roland realizes that it takes others to recognize one's own existence and value.

Roland thinks about how his life has changed since he discovered Ash's letters. He reads The Golden Apples again and hears Ash's voice in the words. Roland laughs out loud when he realizes that Ash started him on this quest. He starts to connect the words on a...