Chapter Three Summary

Pnin, at least up until now, has been a constant mover. He finds something deficient in every new place he lives, mainly related to noise (he is desperate for a quiet spot) and usually stays no longer than a semester. Thus, it is peculiar that he has managed to stay for an entire year with Clementses and shows no desire or intention of leaving. One day, Pnin finds the house completely to himself, Joan and Laurence have both gone to visit their daughter, Isabel, in the anonymous "Western state" that she now calls home. As he leaves the house to go to university, he recalls that he has received a request from the library to bring back an obscure book he checked out, "The Soviet Gold Fund of Literature Volume 18." Evidently, another patron is interested in reading it, the cause of...