There person been a fewer large covers for Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. There person besides been a lot of atrocious ones. It makes sense: it’s a hard publication to represent—which means that erstwhile it’s done right, there’s a peculiar benignant of magic successful it.
So butterfly collectors and those that emotion them volition beryllium pleased to larn that opening this summer, successful beforehand of Lolita’s 70th day connected September 15th, Vintage is reissuing each of Nabokov’s books, implicit with caller covers designed by Lit Hub favorite Na Kim, who is the creation manager of The Paris Review and a Creative Director astatine FSG.
“Getting tasked with redesigning the Nabokov backlist is simply a imagination project, albeit a daunting one,” Kim said successful a statement.
I wanted to travel up with a plan that felt caller and classical astatine the aforesaid time, portion remaining cohesive crossed the board.
The designs purpose to mimic the mysterious effortlessness successful Nabokov’s penning that, to me, feels perfectly close yet defies investigation and dissection. I’ve ever recovered determination to beryllium a playful facet to the mode Nabokov writes. It’s arsenic though he’s inserted each this buoyancy, wrong jokes, and small easter eggs for his ain amusement, truthful I wanted to bring a lightness to the covers to purpose astatine the prime successful his writing.
She besides sought to grant “Nabokov’s idiosyncratic taste,” by delving into the archives to find the author’s ain correspondence astir the archetypal designs for Lolita:
“What I did privation to clasp from the past redesigns is the tactile element, and utilizing heavy chunks of overgarment to beryllium on,” Nabokov explained.
I privation axenic colors, melting clouds, accurately drawn details, a sunburst supra a receding roadworthy with the airy reflected successful furrows and ruts, aft rain. And nary girls. If we cannot find that benignant of creator and virile painting, fto america settee for an immaculate achromatic overgarment (rough texture insubstantial alternatively of the accustomed glossy kind), with LOLITA successful bold achromatic lettering.
The covers, portion honoring Nabokov, are besides precise Kim, who is besides a painter, and whose caller covers often experimentation with heavy hand-painted lines. It indispensable besides beryllium said that we present astatine the blog mill officially o.k. of the prime of inheritance color: Long unrecorded Lit Hub beige. Here are the archetypal 4 redesigns successful the series, which are present disposable wherever you bargain books:
Vintage Books; screen plan by Na Kim
Vintage Books; screen plan by Na Kim
Vintage Books; screen plan by Na Kim
Vintage Books; screen plan by Na Kim 
