Nabokov's Lolita

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.

As listed yesterday, there is this gallery showcasing over 150 book and media covers from 33 countries and 54 years of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita.

It’s certainly not a book that’s been universally well-served by designers. There are some covers that want to suggest Humbert Humbert’s lascivious gaze but, to avoid straying into the same morally reprehensible territory as Humbert himself, they do so with an image of a full-grown woman rather than a pre-pubescent girl. Others just have illustrations of fairly inept nymphets (there are some real grotesques in there). And there’s also some good design (as you’d hope in a collection of slightly more than 150 images). ~ Alan Trotter / greaterthanorequalto

It certainly is. Just search through the book covers for the girls.  How many of them portrait the look of a 12-year-old, pre-pubescent Lolita ?  The too-old Lolitas mostly.

Disappointed, as so few of the covers attempt to capture any of the richness of the novel, and many of them are merely absurd, or banal or a laughable combination of both, the blogger of Venus febriculosa thus organized a Lolita book cover contest, offering $350 for the best cover design.  This challenging contest had ended last month and here are some intriguing results.

Suzene Ang of Singapore

”It takes a second before you see what is going on. It’s abstract enough to keep it metaphorical, yet literal enough to imply a sense of story. I love the tease of having the type run up the leg. Elegant, with a sense of humor.” ~ John Gall

Aleksander Bak

”The lone unmoored pink scrunchy manages to be a potent symbol: surrounded by black, it’s s a memento mori representing Humbert’s loss of Lolita and the tragedy of the novel in general. Inevitably, of course, it’s also a stand in for an orifice (you decide whose and which one). The tension between the base and the sublime is wonderful and the composition is wonderful. ” ~ venusfebriculosa

Egor Krasnoperov

”First of course, there is the lollipop theme, present in all its banality, but rendered here beautifully and naively; then the circle that censors Lolita’s crotch, and, finally, the hypnotic vortex into which Humbert has fallen and which, quite literally, centers on Lolita’s sexuality. Pretty wonderful for such a minimal image. ” ~ venusfebriculosa

McCalla

Lyuba Haleva of Bulgaria

Lucie Lebaz of the UK

I'm with John Gall, who picked his own top choices. Aleksander Bak and Suzene Ang’s Covers are brilliant. I also like Egor Krasnoperov's cleverly and "naughtily" rendered crotch-like lollipop.

You can find all the 155 entries here.