How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #4
It soon transpired that Timofey was a veritable encyclopedia of Russian shrugs and shakes, had tabulated them, and could add something to Laurence' s files on the philosophical interpretation of pictorial and non-pictorial, national and environmental gestures. It was very pleasant to see the two men discuss a legend or a religion, Timofey blossoming out in amphoric motion, Laurence chopping away with one hand. (2.4.4)
Is it surprising that once Pnin relies on nonverbal communication, he is able to build a relationship? It's not that language is out of the picture, but looks like there are some other ways to make a connection. Honestly, we assumed that Lawrence (the male half of the Clements) hated him, but we guess Pnin's Russian shrugs won him over.
Quote #5
It was, she told him as they drove up Park Street, a school in the English tradition. No, she did not want to eat anything, she had had a big lunch at Albany. It was a "very fancy" school—she said this in English—the boys played a kind of indoor tennis with their hands, between walls, and there would be in his form a — (she produced with false nonchalance a well-known American name which meant nothing to Pnin because it was not that of a poet or a president). (2.6.4)
The "she" in this quote is Liza Wind. She's visiting Pnin to ask him for money, and uses some of her fancy English while she's doing it. What does it tell you about Liza that she has a better grip on English than Pnin even though they arrived in America at the exact same time? Why do you think Pnin doesn't know anything about American people who are not poets or presidents? And why would she make such a thing of showing off when Pnin's clearly not about to get the gist?
Quote #6
…Plila I pela, pela I plila….She floated and she sang, she sang and floated…Of course! Ophelia's death! Hamlet! In good old Andrey Kroneberg' s Russian translation, 1844—the joy of Pnin's youth, and of his father's and grandfather's young days! And here, as in the Kostromskoy passage, there is, we recollect, also a willow and also wreaths. But where to check properly? Alas, "Gamlet" Vil'yama Shekspira had not been acquired by Mr. Todd, was not represented in Waindell College Library, and whenever you were reduced to look up something in the English version, you never found this or that beautiful, noble, sonorous line that you remembered all your life from Kroneberg' s text in Vengerov's splendid edition. Sad! (3.6.33)
Isn't it a little funny that Pnin so loves this specific Russian translation of what could be considered one of the greatest plays in English literature—but only when it's in Russian? You would imagine that Pnin would be excited to explore their original text, but he speaks as if the Russian is actually the original instead of the English. And we're so pulled in with the Russian words he drops in this passage that we're at least curious to hear what it's like.