Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0012977, Wed, 26 Jul 2006 09:19:31 +0100

Subject
a cover for Lolita and her lost sweater...
Date
Body

Jerry Katsell wrote to C. Kunin: "The depiction of Lolita from Spoken Arts doesn't deserve partiality,yours or anyone else's. Lolita there is all super flat-chested,big-footed pre-teen goofiness without budding sensuality and devoid of any knowingness, which Lo certainly had, especially after her camp experiences hinted at in her letter to "Dear Mummy and Hummy": "... I lost my new sweater in the woods. ...."

In my opinion a cover should not compete with the work inside and there's no need for an aluring Lolita image. The clean light depiction by the Spoken Arts ( with just enough malice in the ice-cream cone ) had a fifties savor and was a visual relief from the more barroque covers with every space filled with "visual contents".

There's always a surprise in VN. I confess that I had never until now realized Lo's confession about "a lost sweater" if Jerry Katsell had not brought it up...
Jansy

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