Google Doodle pays tribute to Mark Twain by depicting scenes from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Mark Twain celebrated in a Google Doodle
Google celebrates Mark Twain's 176th birthday today with its latest doodle, which depicts a famous scene from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
The full-width illustration greeting web users logging on to the search engine portrays an episode in the novel in which the protagonist is made to whitewash a fence. Resembling a drawing from a children's story book, the picture appears to show Tom and his friend Ben at various stages of the paintwork job, with the 'e' and half the 'l' of "Google" subjected to their brush.
Although the writer's 176th birthday may seem a somewhat arbitrary milestone to mark, he remains a towering figure in American literature whose works enjoy an enduring popularity today.
Born on 30 November 1835 in the town of Florida, Missouri, Twain penned Tom Sawyer in 1876 and its sequel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, in 1885. The two novels are his most famous works and count among America's best-loved tales.
The scene from Tom Sawyer chosen by Google to celebrate the anniversary of his creator's birth sees Tom painting the fence as punishment by Aunt Polly for dirtying his clothes in a fight with a boy from St Louis.
Twain is known and loved for his combination of rich humour and sharp social commentary on life along the Mississippi river during the pre-civil war period, and noted for his pioneering use of the vernacular. His treatment of slavery and racism has been the subject of much debate.
Other literary subjects who have received the Google doodle treatment include HG Wells, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Agatha Christie, Jorge Luis Borges and Stanislaw Lem.
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