Life metaphors of the great authors. Here's a Q&A from an old BBC interview with Vladimir Nabokov:

[Q] Tolstoy said, so they say, that life was a "tartine de merde" which one was obliged to eat slowly. Do you agree?

[A] I've never heard that story. The old boy was sometimes rather disgusting, wasn't he? My own life is fresh bread with country butter and Alpine honey.