[desertblues]

Nabokov describes Humbert as manipulating the people around him, but at the same time Nabokov himself manipulates the reader by his clever use of words. He seeks an educated, broad minded audience. For me, in a way, the two melt together. Perhaps this is what disturbs me in this book...the use of people in- and outside the book.

Hamlet53 mentions "In a way I am reminded of, from the excellent Friz Lang film “M,” the final plea by Hans Beckert (played by Peter Lorre) before the kangaroo court of criminals that means to sentence him to death for the murder of a number of young children"

But somehow I cannot see Humbert as any kind of a victim. I saw the film "M" some years ago, and I still remember my feelings of pity for Hans Beckert. One could feel his true despair of being the man he was; a killer of children.
Where as Humbert in fact kills the child Dolores as well, but the little remorse he shows sounds as false as his justifications. For me Humberts story would have won on strength if he had appealed to the hypocrisy of some his (male) readers. But then it would have been quite another book.