Point of View

In the opening chapters of the book, it is easy to assume that the story's narrator is the rather conventional and intentionally uninteresting third-person narrative. He does not seem to have any personal stake or involvement in the story. This interpretation is strengthened by the fact that the narrator seems to be, if not omniscient, at least knowledgeable about much more than an actual person would. For example, he has privileged perspective into Pnin's thoughts, what Pnin is doing while he is alone, what people are doing when Pnin is not around, and so on. There does not seem to be any plausible way to construe him as an actual character in the story, and, thus, one might conclude that when the narrator occasionally interjects his own opinions or reflections that it is just Nabokov, as author, who is speaking.

In the course of the book...