Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Books do furnish a room: Objects of desire



It was the book that caused a scandal, with one reviewer calling it 'sheer, unrestrained pornography'. The book, Nabokov's Lolita; the publisher, George Weidenfeld. And who could resist a copy of Lolita with a pair of cherries cut into the cover? Weidenfeld & Nicolson hope you can't: to celebrate their 60th anniversary, they've issued some dashing looking books, Lolita included.

Pitched as a covetable, tactile collection, each book cover is designed with a "window" (also known as die-cut) on the front revealing a portion of specially commissioned endpapers, reflecting each novel's theme (hence cherries for Lolita). It's a nine-strong list that includes Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy, designed by Yehrin Tong, as well as J.G. Farrell's Siege of Krishnapur, with endpapers by Mikko Rantanen.

The set is limited, so you should get yours while our stocks last. The list in full:
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, designed by Louisa Scarlet Gray

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, designed by James Dawe

The World According to Garp by John Irving, designed by Karl Grandin

The Siege Of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell, designed by Mikko Rantanen

The Color Purple by Alice Walker, designed by Carl Kleiner

Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder, designed by Mikko Rantanen

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, designed by Yehrin Tong

The Reader by Bernard Schlink, designed by Ann Muir Marbling

The Shadow Of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, designed by Micah Lidberg



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