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Two covers of Nabokov’s Lolita

Nabokov’s novel Lolita has been translated many times. Each edition came with a different cover. The contrasts between the covers are enormous, and reveal a lot about the time and place of the specific publications. These differences are highlighted when asking the question how the covers relate or respond to the controversy that is sometimes associated with the story of Lolita.

Stories

  • Nabokov’s Lolita: visually translating controversy

    story by Frank van den Boom.

    The two instances of Nabokov’s Lolita exhibited show a clear contrast between the ways in which the cover relates to the controversy that sometimes surrounds the story. How and why did publishers translate the book from its original context to a specific visual representation, and what implications does this have for understanding the time and place of publication?

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