Brian Boyd has long ago pointed to Nabokov's brilliance and insight in having Humbert seductively place this passage just where it is near the end of his narrative. Nabokov ruthlessly exposes readers who are seduced by the rhetoric of a child-rapist and murderer. This does not mean that Humbert's fleeting insight had no validity, but it was fleeting, and he did not have the integrity to act on it.

 

Anthony Stadlen