The Mundane
Nabokov is a frequent user of metaphorical imagery, capable of trekking from the mundane to the outlandish and then off to the obscure. Here is an example of rather ordinary usage that, nevertheless, gets the job done:
“An oppressive fatigue girdled his shoulders. Sleep descended like a soft fog.”
He’s a Magic Man
More often than not, the metaphorical imagery ranges between the simple and the obscure. At these times, however, it may still be a job to work it out:
“It is hard to be happy when one's husband is a mirage, a peripatetic legerdemain of a man, a deception of all five senses.”
Darkness
Even as great and talented a literary author as Nabokov is not immune to the 20th century writer’s obsession with darkness as perhaps the single controlling metaphor of modern life, though it must be admitted he does handle it with more style:
“The noonday sky, now freed of its leafy veils, hung oppressively over us with its blinding darkness yes, its blinding darkness, for there is no other way to describe it.”
Once a Husband Kissed This Worm
One of the most unpleasant examples of Nabokov’s talent with a metaphorical image is found in his odd story, “Revenge” Put it this way: this quote may be the least disturbing thing about the story, which has a very Kafkaesque vibe going on:
“Her body was a thin, endless worm, which was disentangling itself and crawling, slithering out through the crack under the door while, on the bed, there remained a naked, white, still humid skeleton.”
Description of Setting
One of Nabokov’s greatest talents, reveal again and again in his stories, is creating a mood and atmosphere of a place. His metaphors tend to be poetic, yet absolutely accessible and succeed in putting the reader right into the place:
“That day the apple trees were in bloom…the mountains on the far side of Lake Leman were all veiled in silky mist, like the opaque sheets of rice paper that cover etchings in expensive books.”
