Galya Diment explores the complicated and fascinating relationship between Vladimir Nabokov and his Cornell colleague Marc Szeftel who, in the estimate of many, served as the prototype for the gentle protagonist of the novel Pnin. She offers astute comments on Nabokov's fictional process in creating Timofey Pnin and addresses hotly debated questions and long-standing riddles in Pnin and its history.

Pniniad - the epic of Pnin - begins with Szeftel's early life in Russia and ends with his years in Seattle at the University of Washington, turning pivotally upon the time when Szeftel's and Nabokov's lives intersected at Cornell. Nabokov apparently was both amused by and admiring of the innocence of his historian friend.

Szeftel's feelings toward Nabokov were also mixed, ranging from intense disappointment over rebuffed attempts to collaborate with Nabokov on a scholarly study (of a medieval Russian epic) or to write about his work (Lolita), to persistent envy of Nabokov's success and an increasing wistfulness over his own sense of failure.

A generous selection of relevant archival materials includes Szeftel's autobiographical writings, his talks and published essays relating to Nabokov, and his correspondence with Nabokov and Roman Jakobson.