Pnin

“Pnin” (1957), the fourth English-language novel by Vladimir Nabokov, is dedicated to the life twists of one of the most defenseless and touching characters in 20th-century literature. A true Russian intellectual, a brilliant scholar, but an eccentric and unfortunate man, Timofey Pnin, who left Russia after the 1917 revolution, teaches Russian literature at an American university where he becomes an accidental victim of the intrigues and coldness of his colleagues. Will he manage this time to evade his cunning creator, who has prepared for him the fate of a sufferer, forced to endure the blows of destiny time and again? “Pnin” was published soon after the scandalous “Lolita” and, receiving enthusiastic responses from readers and critics, served as a kind of antithesis to the prevailing notion of Nabokov’s “immorality” and “lack of soul.” The present edition of the novel is accompanied by a preface, notes, and a final essay by the translator. The peculiarities of the translator’s spelling, punctuation, and transliteration have been preserved.