Artist Roman Muradov's gallery
represents the major works of the great
Russian novelist on his 186th birthday
'Immortal lines' … Google doodle honours Leo
Tolstoy
Tags: Leo Tolstoy, Fiction , Fiction in translation,
Google doodle , Internet , more… Search engines
Alison Flood
Leo Tolstoy's 186th birthday is is being
marked with a Google doodle showing
the great author in cartoon form, deep in
contemplation as he writes one of his
masterpieces by candlelight.
Google, which has previously used its
doodles to honour a wealth of literary
figures from Elizabeth Barrett Browning
to Herman Melville, showed scenes from
various works by the Russian writer in a
slideshow this morning. Tolstoy was born
today in 1828, into an aristocratic family,
on the ancestral estate of Yasnaya
Polyana.
His novel of ill-starred love among the
higher echelons of Russian society, Anna
Karenina, is brought to life by Google
with an image of Anna and Vronsky as
they first meet, or as Tolstoy described it:
"In that brief look Vronsky had time to
notice the suppressed eagerness which
played over her face, and flitted between
the brilliant eyes and the faint smile that
curved her red lips".
His epic novel, War and Peace, is
illustrated with Pierre Bezukhov, looking
up at the great comet of 1812:
"He gazed joyfully, his eyes moist with
tears, at this bright comet which, having
travelled in its orbit with inconceivable
velocity through immeasurable space,
seemed suddenly – like an arrow piercing
the earth – to remain fixed in a chosen
spot, vigorously holding its tail erect,
shining and displaying its white light
amid countless other scintillating stars,"
wrote Tolstoy. "It seemed to Pierre that
this comet fully responded to what was
passing in his own softened and uplifted
soul, now blossoming into a new life."
'The almost full moon against the almost
starless night' … Vronsky meets Anna Karenina
Artist Roman Muradov has also picked
out scenes from The Death of Ivan Ilyich
for his Google doodle. In a piece written
for the search engine , the illustrator,
who has also recently designed and
illustrated the centennial edition of
James Joyce's Dubliners for Penguin
Classics, said the tribute to Tolstoy was a
"daunting task".
"No set of images can sum up a body of
work so astonishing in scope, complexity,
and vigour – its memorable scenes come
to life with seeming effortlessness, fully
realised in the immortal lines and
between them," he wrote. "Tolstoy's
lasting influence is a testament to the
power of his art, which will remain
relevant as long as the questions of life
and death occupy our minds, which is to
say – forever."
Muradov said that the imagery, from a
writer like Tolstoy, is "unique for every
reader", as the Russian writer's care with
words allows "the reader's imagination
to collaborate with the text instead of
passively taking it in".
"The language of cartooning, likewise, is
the language of reduction; it's less
descriptive than realistic artwork or film,
and is less likely to replace the reader's
vision. It seemed fitting to focus on
Tolstoy's central theme of dualism and to
highlight his stylistic nuances through
the rhythm of the sequences – the almost
full moon against the almost starless
night, the red of Anna's handbag, Ivan's
fatal curtains that stand between him
and the light of his spiritual awakening,"
wrote Muradov. "There's a myriad of
scenes I'd outlined and sketched in the
process, and I wish I could've included
some of the lesser-known episodes, like
Vronsky and Anna's encounter with the
Russian painter in Italy, whose portrait
of Anna is kept in the background of the
narrative for hundreds of pages until it's
seen again through Levin's eyes in one
most striking scenes of the book."
The artist said he hoped his doodle
would "inspire viewers to discover and
revisit these scenes in the way Tolstoy
intended: through reading and rereading
his timeless narratives".
Tolstoy died in 1910, aged 82.
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