Irony & Understatement
Apophasis
Claiming you won't mention something while mentioning it: 'I won't dwell on his record.' The denial performs innocence while the content lands anyway.
"I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him."
Don't confuse it with Irony. Paralipsis and praeteritio are near-synonyms; irony is the wider genus of saying-other-than-meaning.
In the Reader — 4 excerpts
In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to call to mind, there lived not long since one of those gentlemen that keep a lance in the lance-rack, an old buckler, a lean hack, and a greyhound for coursing.
You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and
The horror! The horror!
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.
Travels with
Devices that share a passage with apophasis most often — company reveals character.
The rest of the family
Irony Hyperbole Litotes Meiosis / Understatement Bathos Euphemism Periphrasis