We are told that Humbert Humbert, our narrator, is writing this memoir from prison, looking back on his early childhood (e.g., Parisian upbringing, anecdote with Annabel) and later adult experiences (e.g., failed marriage with Valeria, brief marriage with Lotte, road trip with Dolores, encounter with Quilty); it is this employment of recollection that adds to Humbert's unreliability as a narrator; the work has a healthy dosing of diegesis (explaining many events in summarative fashion, hurrying the flow of the narrative along, though still wholly involving the reader in what feels like an excruciatingly long journey). The novel explores the complex reader-narrator relationship through H.H.'s seductive, erudite eloquence. The tone and texture of the work shift based on the reader's critical acumen (will he succumb to Humbert's charm and consequently view the narrative as a beautiful love story, or will he refuse H.H.'s verbal carresses, causing him to view as anything but light-hearte); the novel's humor lies in its parody and caricature of the narrator
