Chapter Seven Summary

The narrator explains his connection with Pnin. He is about the same age as Pnin and lived, evidently, in the same town, or at least a nearby town. His first meeting was occasioned by an unfortunate fleck of coal getting stuck in his eye when he was eleven years old. His parents took him to an opthamologist, Dr. Pnin, Timofey's Pnin's father. After the coal was removed, he recalls meeting Timofey for the first time, an exuberant young boy who apparently was quite skilled in algebra. The next time he saw him was in a school play, in which, he recalls, Pnin gave a rather stirring performance. When the Bolshevik Revolution broke out both wound up fleeing but met again in Europe. The narrator there become quite familiar with Pnin's lover and future wife, Liza. Liza was actually quite in love...