Pnin's History
1971; Duke University Press; Volume: 4; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/1345117
ISSN1945-8509
Autores Tópico(s)Russian Literature and Bakhtin Studies
ResumoPnin, one of Vladimir Nabokov's most approachable novels, may be read enjoyably on an elementary level for its human interest-those quotation marks, and that sneer, belong to Nabokov himself. Consequently, some critics have praised Pnin out of all proportion, and Nabokov's best critics have tended to over-react and slight this delightful novel. A book that can be enjoyed by simple people is not necessarily a simple book, and Pnin is as complicated as a pet snake. Timofey Pnin, a pathetically comic Russian emigre, teaches his native language at Waindell College, somewhere in New England. His ineffectual English makes him the butt of countless jokes; amid this alien corn Pnin wanders with apparent cheer, but cannot always avoid hearing the mockery of his numerous mimics on campus. Far from a cliche clown, Pnin is inescapably comic because he is a penguin out of water, a man who had the world pulled out from under him. Among fellow Russian emigres a highly intelligent, articulate, polite, scholarly student of the social sciences, among Americans he appears an incoherent fool, unschooled in the simplest of the mores of unpredictable America. As a whole, Pnin's life may be tragic, but in its visible fragments it is either comic or pathetic. Nabokov thoroughly exploits these dual possibilities, continually shifting his focus and our allegiance. While the views of Pnin are ambivalent, they are rarely ambiguous; the distinction is between Pnin fooled and Pnin hurt. In the first chapter we witness Pnin's comic misadventures with American trains, busses, and women's clubs, as well as his pathetic heart attack. The second chapter includes his hilarious encounters with a washing machine and a heart-breaking visit from his cruel, thoughtless, exploitative ex-wife. The quiet third chapter records his comic battles with the college library as well as the loss of his pleasant room and his failure to recognize his own birthday. The fourth chapter begins a rising movement in Pnin's fortunes: he meets his ex-wife's son Victor to their mutual delight. The comedy of this chapter involves Pnin's-or America's-confusion between football and soccer, the vagaries of Jack London's literary reputation, and Victor's height; a comic fall gives Pnin a later, pathetic backache. The fifth chapter, Pnin with fellow emigres, shows him at his best: the comedy involves not just Pnin lost in the Catskills, but also Pnin marvellously talented at croquet; the pathos is Pnin's remembrance of a childhood sweetheart who died in a Nazi concentration camp. The sixth chapter begins a corresponding falling movement. The comedy is again on Pnin's side, the triumph of his little party. The emotion catches us rather off-guard, for just as Pnin is feeling most at home in his new house and in
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