In the third row, a student named Elias watched the professor's hand dance. The professor was currently explaining why the house in Madame Bovary was layered like a cake. To the professor, a novel wasn't a story; it was a structure of beautiful steel and glass, a "castle of cards" that somehow became permanent.
Suggested search string for advanced users: "Lectures on Literature" Nabokov filetype:pdf vladimir nabokov lectures on literature pdf
Nabokov is rude. In the PDF, you will find him calling Conrad "a writer of doggerel" and calling Faulkner "corncobby." Do not get angry. Understand that his cruelty is a rhetorical device to break your passive acceptance of literary reputation. He forces you to defend your own tastes. In the third row, a student named Elias