John Bertram asked people to design covers for Nabokov's Lolita. He was disappointed with covers that focused on Lolita the sexualized girl instead of the themes from the novel.

Nabokov’s work is masterful in its clarity and overflows with powerful and finely-wrought imagery and yet so few of the covers attempt to capture any of this richness, and many of them are merely absurd, or banal or a laughable combination of both.

He launched the contest and chose the winner in Oct. 2009, although he notes it was a bad decision on his part to select only one winner.

In judging the submissions I tended to avoid lingerie, lollipops, roses, hearts, lipstick prints, butterflies, heart shaped sunglasses, and overtly sexual poses (as well as the unexpected recurring themes of swings and Rorschach blots) which by now have been indelibly linked to the cultural concept “Lolita” if not the novel itself. It’s important to keep in mind that the novel may be considered a love story, but it’s not Lolita who is in love.

The first prize goes to Lyuba Haleva of Bulgaria (the yellow cover with wings).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnzarow/sets/72157622389801039/

http://venusfebriculosa.com/?p=261 (Bertram's blog where he discusses the winning entry)

While it's too late to make an entry for "Lolita", Bertram is hosting contests for various other classics (Umberto Eco's "In the Name of the Rose" is ending next week). Imagine if all good books had covers designed by artists who truly appreciated and understood the work!