Pnin

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For the Russian poet, see Ivan Pnin.

Pnin is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov published in 1957.

[edit] Plot summary

The book follows a Russian-born professor named Timofey Pavlovich Pnin living in the United States. It was published in installments in The New Yorker in order to generate income while Nabokov was scouring the United States for a publisher willing to publish Lolita. On the surface, the resulting "novel" deals with the profound and nightmarish displacements of 20th Century history with supremely civilized humor and tolerance. Upon closer reading, Pnin reveals itself to be an early Nabokovian meditation on time, memory, and the complexities of narrative. The book's narrator, who bears many similarities to Nabokov—a landed-gentry Russian émigré past—gradually reveals himself as a less than disinterested observer. By the final chapter, he has completely taken over and becomes the central character. Pnin is only glimpsed fleeing the scene that the narrator has appropriated.

In several earlier scenes, Pnin called the veracity of the narrator into question, and oddly, for an almost uniformly benevolent character, seems to bear malice towards him. As presented by the narrator, those outbursts seem to be no more than evidence of Pnin's quirky nature. But the final words of the book open up delirious new possibilities; they are the spoken words of yet another Pnin "observer" and they disconcertingly leave the reader with an entirely different, and crueller version of perhaps Nabokov's conclusion to the events of Chapter One. We remember that the narrator, back in Chapter One, was disappointed by the prosaically benign conclusion of those events, claiming to hate happy endings. Now a new narrator seems to have provided him with a more satisfactorily unhappy conclusion to those events. But as we only have Nabokov's by-now highly suspect testimony to vouch for the words of the new narrator, we are left to wonder if the new happily-unhappy version was ever spoken, or if Nabokov is simply editing an earlier text of his own devise with which he has grown increasingly dissatisfied. The possibility presents itself that Pnin, vanished from the University without forwarding address and replaced by Nabokov, is no more than the novelist narrator's invention — a character for a novel. However, Pnin materializes out of the void into which he has disappeared—not in this text, but in Nabokov's later novel Pale Fire (1963).

[edit] Literary significance & criticism

Stylistically, to a fan of the author, Pnin is a joy to read. Nabokov revels in words without losing sight of the reader. For instance, chapter two is characterised by motifs of bells, while there are references to railways scattered throughout the text; Nabokov's dismissive views of psychotherapy can be recognised, as channeled through various characters, including the eponymous hero. However, the author always maintains a narrative thrust, which belies the novel's original publication as a serial, and prevents a lapse into dry intellectualism. The final product is a useful verification of Nabokov's claim that he writes his novels a section at a time, not always chronologically, and illustrates his view that a good reader reads accompanied with a dictionary and his very heart's reaction to the skill of the artist.

The Works of Vladimir Nabokov

Novels : Mary • King, Queen, Knave • The Defense • The Eye • Glory • Laughter in the Dark • Despair • Invitation to a Beheading • The Gift • The Enchanter • The Real Life of Sebastian Knight • Bend Sinister • Lolita • Pnin • Pale Fire • Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle • Transparent Things • Look at the Harlequins! • The Original of Laura Short Stories : The Wood-Sprite • Russian Spoken Here • Sounds • Wingstroke • Gods • A Matter of Chance • The Seaport • Revenge • Beneficence • Details of a Sunset • The Thunderstorm • La Veneziana • Bachmann • The Dragon • Christmas • A Letter That Never Reached Russia • The Fight • The Return of Chorb • A Guide to Berlin • A Nursery Tale • Terror • Razor • The Passenger • The Doorbell • An Affair of Honor • The Christmas Story • The Potato Elf • The Aurelian • A Dashing Fellow • A Bad Day • The Visit to the Museum • A Busy Man • Terra Incognita • The Reunion • Lips to Lips • Orache • Music • Perfection • The Admiralty Spire • The Leonardo • In Memory of L. I. Shigaev • The Circle • A Russian Beauty • Breaking the News • Torpid Smoke • Recruiting • A Slice of Life • Spring in Fialta • Cloud, Castle, Lake • Tyrants Destroyed • Lik • Vasiliy Shishkov • Ultima Thule • Solus Rex • Mademoiselle O • The Assistant Producer • "That in Aleppo Once..." • A Forgotten Poet • Time and Ebb • Conversation Piece, 1945 • Signs and Symbols • First Love • Scenes from the Life of a Double Monster • The Vane Sisters • Lance • Easter Rain Drama : Death • The Grandfather • The North Pole • The Tragedy of Mr. Morn • The Man from the USSR • The Event • The Waltz Invention Non-Fiction : Speak, Memory • Strong Opinions • Nikolai Gogol • Lectures on Literature • Lectures on Russian Literature • Lectures on Don Quixote • The Nabokov-Wilson letters • Selected Letters, 1940-1977 Miscellaneous : Poems and Problems • Lolita: A Screenplay • The Annotated Lolita • Carrousel