If you found this story amusing, but are a little bit daunted by the loquacity or infamy of his novels, I'd strongly recommend trying Nabokov's Lectures in Literature, which expands on lectures given at Cornell, and give you a wonderful introduction to his world, and introduces the writers he considered canon. I always remember this passage from the end of the book, addressing his students, because of the outrageous metaphor:
Now the course comes to a close. The work with this group has been a particularly pleasant association between the fountain of my voice and a garden of ears – some open, others closed, many very receptive, a few merely ornamental, but all of them human and divine.
I did like the way the story paid a sneaky homage to Nabokov (as lenazegher mentions below, or soon to be above), in capturing the dry humour and sly wit which pervade his writing. A lovely little epitaph for a charming writer.
Now the course comes to a close. The work with this group has been a particularly pleasant association between the fountain of my voice and a garden of ears – some open, others closed, many very receptive, a few merely ornamental, but all of them human and divine.
I did like the way the story paid a sneaky homage to Nabokov (as lenazegher mentions below, or soon to be above), in capturing the dry humour and sly wit which pervade his writing. A lovely little epitaph for a charming writer.