Virginia Woolf, ‘To the Lighthouse’ …
The geranium in the urn became startlingly visible and, displayed among its leaves, he could see, without wishing it, that old, that obvious distinction between the two classes of men; on the one hand the steady goers of superhuman strength who, plodding and persevering, repeat the whole alphabet in order, twenty-six letters in all, from start to finish; on the other the gifted, the inspired who, miraculously, lump all the letters together in one flash—the way of genius. He had not genius; he laid no claim to that: but he had, or might have had, the power to repeat every letter of the alphabet from A to Z accurately in order. Meanwhile, he stuck at Q. On, then, on to R.
— Penguin Classics 2019, p.40.
Detail
A painting’s background in Virginia Woolf’s 1927 novel To the Lighthouse, 2025
Watercolour, lead pencil and varnish on paper, acrylic on wood
102 x 82 x 4.6
By Gail Hastings
— Showing two of the urns at the bottom of the stairs outside the dining room.