July 18, 2025, 10:14am
There have been a few great covers for Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. There have also been a lot of bad ones. It makes sense: it’s a difficult book to represent—which means that when it’s done right, there’s a special kind of magic in it.
So butterfly collectors and those that love them will be pleased to learn that beginning this summer, in advance of Lolita’s 70th anniversary on September 15th, Vintage is reissuing all of Nabokov’s books, complete with new covers designed by Lit Hub favorite Na Kim, who is the art director of The Paris Review and a Creative Director at FSG.
“Getting tasked with redesigning the Nabokov backlist is a dream project, albeit a daunting one,” Kim said in a statement.
I wanted to come up with a design that felt new and classic at the same time, while remaining cohesive across the board.
The designs aim to mimic the mysterious effortlessness in Nabokov’s writing that, to me, feels absolutely right yet defies analysis and dissection. I’ve always found there to be a playful aspect to the way Nabokov writes. It’s as though he’s inserted all this buoyancy, inside jokes, and little easter eggs for his own amusement, so I wanted to bring a lightness to the covers to aim at the quality in his writing.
She also sought to honor “Nabokov’s personal taste,” by delving into the archives to find the author’s own correspondence around the original designs for Lolita:
“What I did want to retain from the last redesigns is the tactile element, and using thick chunks of paint to sit on,” Nabokov explained.
I want pure colors, melting clouds, accurately drawn details, a sunburst above a receding road with the light reflected in furrows and ruts, after rain. And no girls. If we cannot find that kind of artistic and virile painting, let us settle for an immaculate white jacket (rough texture paper instead of the usual glossy kind), with LOLITA in bold black lettering.
The covers, while honoring Nabokov, are also very Kim, who is also a painter, and whose recent covers often experiment with thick hand-painted lines. It must also be said that we here at the blog factory officially approve of the choice of background color: Long live Lit Hub beige. Here are the first four redesigns in the series, which are now available wherever you buy books:
Vintage Books; cover design by Na Kim
Vintage Books; cover design by Na Kim
Vintage Books; cover design by Na Kim
Vintage Books; cover design by Na Kim
