Pnin

Pnin (Russian pronunciation: [pnjin]) is Vladimir Nabokov's 13th novel and his fourth written in English; it was published in 1957. The success of Pnin in the United States would launch Nabokov's career into literary prominence. The book's eponymous protagonist, Timofey Pavlovich Pnin, is a Russian-born professor living in the United States. A refugee in his 50s from both post-Revolutionary Russia and what he calls the "Hitler war," Pnin is an assistant professor of Russian at fictional Waindell College, possibly modeled on Cornell University or Wellesley College, both being places where Nabokov himself taught.