Лолита - история девушки с обложки

The authors tried to present an objective independent view of the cover of Nabokov's famous work. From their point of view, the current visual representation of "Lolita", firmly entrenched in popular culture, has little to do with the content of the novel, the main character of which is more of a sexually abused teenage girl than a seductive nymphet.

Nabokov himself, as you know, was sharply against the depiction of girls on the covers of Lolita. In his opinion, the best cover for a novel would be a romantic landscape in pure light colors, with a road running away into the distance and clouds through which rays of light break through. Nevertheless, the writer understood that the image of a nymphet helped sales, so he treated such covers condescendingly, perceiving them as a necessary evil.

One of the compilers of the album, Yuri Leving, has been collecting Russian editions of Lolita for 20 years. According to him, some covers were so grotesque that it was impossible to pass by. Gradually, as the collection filled up, some trends could already be traced in the cover designs.

The idea to make an album, which would present the views of different artists and designers on the design of the famous Nabokov novel, came to the mind of a friend of Yuri , American John Bertram, a great admirer of Russian art. They announced a competition for the best cover design for "Lolita" with prizes for the winners. As a result, Leving and Bertram had about two hundred works at their disposal, of which 80 were selected for the album. In addition, the publication includes an analysis of the 50-year history of the novel and its visual representations.