The aim of this article is to identify some characteristics of the narrative by Vladimir Nabokov (his novel Ada or Ardor). The focus of the article is on lexical richness and metaphorical multilingualism occurring in the text by Nabokov as well as on different special and temporal subsystems developed by the author in the text. Nabokov's texts are viewed as anti-narrative practice with a use of necessary tools to develop a new kind of prosaic language by means of incorporating lexical proximity and general heterogeneity principles, iconic use of the language, etc.